What Works and What Doesn't When Talking About Climate Change?

You're concerned about climate change. Check. You want to talk about climate change. Check. You've identified your audience(s) or conversation partner(s). Check. Now what?

What to say and how to say it are extremely important choices to make and understand before launching into a discussion of this, or any other issue. Fortunately, a lot of research has been done about which messages will reach, resonate with and influence others, including specific groups of people (Americans, Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, boat owners, etc.)

One very useful set of communication resources is the Climate Chat website and free newsletter, which boil down the latest social science research and lay it out in everyday language to make it easy to be an effective climate change conversationalist. These tools explain best practices, such as:

• Structure: Tell a story, make it personal, about real people, who are being hurt by climate change now, and then tell about solutions. Humans respond best to stories, which help them imagine and understand climate change in a more visceral way than a simple recitation of statistics. When people believe they have experienced climate change firsthand, they are more likely to believe that it is happening and more likely to care about the threat

• Words: Certain words resonate better than others. For example, people who care about Advancement respond better with works like Promote, Advance, Attain and Nurture, while for others who care more about Preservation, it would be more effective to use words like Protect, Preserve, Defend and Maintain. You can speak to both kinds of people, for example, by discussing how we can advance green energy to preserve our health and safety.

• Images: The best images show how climate change hurts real people where they live. When people see climate change as a local issue, they are more likely to describe it as personal issue. Effective images demonstrate the consequences of doing nothing and depict both the problem and the solution.

Thank you, Climate Chat, for bringing these research conclusions together and packaging them in a format that is easy to understand and use.