Climate Communications and Human Psychology (Video)

We must acknowledge that facts alone are insufficient to augur widespread climate action. The Trump administration's disdain for facts highlight the importance of a science-based understanding of climate change. However, the Trump administration is not the biggest impediment to climate action. They are merely taking advantage of human psychology.

Narratives bassed exclusively on facts make people feel both afraid and guilty. Rather than motivating us to act fear causes apathy, avoidance and passivity.  We need messaging that is both clear and concise. We also need narratives that reflect the propensities of the human psyche.

Marketing Sustainability and the Science of Storytelling

Marketing sustainability is about telling a good story and creating an emotional experience. While it may seem like an art there is a lot of science behind good storytelling. The advantages good sustainability focused storytelling benefit both the brand and the bottom line. The goal is to invoke drama that incites emotion. Well crafted branding can arouse the kinds of emotions that call for action and encourages customers to make buying decisions. This is what all marketers try to do but it is especially important when it comes to sustainability.  The buy in that is encouraged here goes beyond taking a product to the cash, it even goes beyond the forging of a loyal bond between a product and a consumer. Sustainability focused storytelling pushes us beyond our own experience and gives us potency to act on a global problem.

The Science of Storytelling: Making Facts Matter in a Post-Factual World

A new narrative is needed to counter prevailing ignorance and augur collective behavior change. However, we will never be able to get a handle on climate change, environmental degradation and a host of other problems with facts alone. Now more than ever we need science, but it is up to the storytellers to bring it to life.

As evidenced at the ballot box, Americans and others around the world are woefully misinformed about science. There is an unwarranted deep seated mistrust of scientists. People once revered scientists and politicians once depended on science to make policy decisions. However, those days are receding and we are facing what amounts to the darkest period in modern history.

Event - Let's Talk Climate: Messages to Motivate Americans (Webinar)

This webinar will take place on Friday, November 20th, 2015. It will address research on communicating climate change and a followup discussion. This webinar will review the research findings on the most effective language to use when talking about climate change. It will focus on the messages that most effectively motivate Americans and how these messages can be used for greatest success across a broad diversity of American audiences.

Event - 31st Social Research Conference: Climate Change Demands We Change. Why Aren’t We?

The Conference "Climate Change Demands We Change. Why Aren’t We?" will take place on Friday, April 24 - 25, 2014 at 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center (note new address) 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, New York, NY. There is no issue more urgent than climate change, yet government, corporations, and the public are reluctant to change. This Center for Public Scholarship conference will examine the psychological factors, money and politics, and infrastructures that impede change as well as the difficult choices that must be made to foster urban resilience in the face of climate change.

Sustainability Communications Positively Impact Reputation and Performance

Effective communications are of particular importance to companies focused on sustainability. When done right effective sustainability communications are able to engender the perception of sincerity which can positively impact both a company's performance and its reputation.

A 2012 Hill+Knowlton Strategies Survey found that the public's trust in companies was declining as their access to information was increasing. However, more recent research suggests that the declining levels of trust can be addressed through honest communications focused on a company's sustainability efforts.

According to a 2013 online survey by Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Americans are more likely to trust and respect those businesses that effectively communicate their sustainability efforts and projects.

Video - Changing the Narrative to Change the World

This video from SustainableMan offers an eloquent essay from Charles Eisenstein, author of The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics. Eisenstein proposes that to change our world, we need to change the story: “The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation.” How do we change the world? Change the story. The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation." ~ Once the story our world is built on reflects the reality of interconnection, we will be on a true path towards sustainability. The speaker is Charles Eisenstein (author of 'The Ascent of Humanity' and 'Sacred Economics').

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