He shares a touching story of when in a mentorship journey with an indigenous person and that he was tasked with acquiring a feather from a wild bird, and when the opportunity came; he was unable to pluck the feather as after watching the birds for days he felt connected to them and did not want to harm the bird, even though providing the feather promised him great personal gain (Young, 2020).
Stories are a powerful tool to reimagine and reassociate how you view the world. Saying “just because you can take something from nature doesn’t mean you should” doesn’t provide an emotional rationale, or relatable narrative . However, contextualizing this thought through the story of trying to pluck a bird’s feather makes me feel more emotionally connected to the idea as I can imagine myself acting similarly in that situation, and ultimately gives the idea more sovereignty in my mind and the ability to translate the idea to other examples of resource extraction.
Similarly, Kimmerer relays the importance of gratitude towards the Earth and that we cannot continue to take from nature without giving back.
“For much of humans’ time on the planet, before the great delusion, we lived in cultures that understood the covenant of reciprocity—that for the Earth to stay in balance, for the gifts to continue to flow, we must give back in equal measure for what we are given.” (Kimmerer, 2014)
Sitting on my third floor apartment balcony, in a downtown urban space on a crisp fall morning I took in my surroundings and pondered how I could have a grounding experience to connect to nature. I then quickly realized that this is not the thing you can facilitate out of thin air, and how absurd and counterproductive that thought was to what I was trying to achieve in the sit spot. Nothing “happened” in my half hour outside, I tried to not make a mental list of chores and tasks to start on as I looked at a bike with a flat tire, flowers to deadhead and a patio table I was going to sand and paint in May. Construction and traffic seemed to drown out any other sounds I might be privy to experience. Not a bird or insect in sight. But as the sun crept out I started to tune into my potted vegetables and flowers that were slightly swaying in the breeze. Mid october in Edmonton gets cold and all the plants are at the end of their welcome. I’m surprised they have made it this far, with a long heat wave, followed by poor air quality and smoke, not to mention a very erratic watering schedule from myself.
I’m thinking about this sense of delusion, and how if we are in a state of perpetual dissociation and disconnection. Young (2020), in his Ted Talk says ““our awareness can grow bigger than our disturbance,” this hit me as a climate solution with so much possibility. How with a change of framing, we might be able to shift our view on the natural world, and find it easier to connect with the living environment more than the built environment. It makes me wonder that with more willingness to learn, or indigenous guidance, could it become easier to facilitate a meaningful connection with the things we use and maybe consider the bigger picture of how our actions affect the natural world before we do them?
Repairing emotional isolation by reawakening deep nature connection | Jon Young | TEDxGrandPark. (2020, April 23). YouTube. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWSvUp0CYk&t=476s
Kimmerer, R. W. (2014). Returning the gift. Returning the Gift, 7(2), 18–24. https://www.humansandnature.org/returning-the-gift-article-177.php
Frost, O. [Oli Frost Refrosts The Planet]. (2021, September 19). The Pirate Emergency (Sea Shanty) | International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2021 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XGC2-d9Gg
UK based sattirest Oli Frost, who is likely most well known for playing hip hop tracks on the recorder in front of Simon Cowell on Britains Got Talent also has an interest in sustainability. On his Youtube channel ‘Oli Frost Refrosts the Planet’ he has a number of videos discussing recycling, environmental activists, and other subject matter not obviously related to the climate change sphere. On September 19th, 2021 Oli Frost released an openly accessible Youtube video and shared it on his social media for “International Talk like a Pirate day”. The video titled “The Pirate Emergency (Sea Shanty) | International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2021” he performs a song to expose aspects of climate change on the ocean (Frost, 2021). In the apparently trivial music video with just over 1000 views weeks after publication, Oli Frost equates the climate emergency in relation to pirates. In the 1 minute and 48 second video he references sea level rise, single use plastics, overfishing, politics and well known climate activist Greta Thunberg.
One aspect of Oli Frost’s video that interested me was the reference to climate change communication in his song lyrics ”just write a jaunty sea shanty, to make your point seem less preachy”, and that messaging should have a positive spin (Frost, 2021). Many climate change related videos that I have seen have a seemingly doomsday, or fearful approach. He shares a song which describes pirates being excited by sea level rise to expand their territory, to then being influenced and educated by a climate activist, and finally following a more sustainable approach involving conservation (Frost, 2021). The song and music video is produced as user generated content for online audiences- particularly his instagram and youtube following, which in terms of online influencers is not very large. On the creators YouTube platform he has less than 500 subscribers, and a total of 126,000 views on his content. However, younger audiences on YouTube seem to prefer amateur produced videos such as this one (Allgaier, 2019). music video itself has a low budget, home video feel, with the use of props such as a measuring tape to indicate sea level rise, or Oli Frost wearing a costume pirate hat. As an instagram follower of Oli Frost, I first saw this video on my home feed. The video being shared on social media makes it very accessible, easy to share and for users to engage with. As Oli Frost doesn’t have many followers, it would be likely that all comments or questions regarding the content would reach him. As he shares lots of content online in an open way, I would venture that he creates videos like this one in hopes that it would spread virally to gain fame and spread awareness.
Techniques/Approaches discussed in Climate change communication literature
How did the content/creator use this technique? Was it effective?
What could be improved?
Positive, motivating and clear actions provided in communication to encourage engagement and action (Moser, 2016)
The music video has a silly but albeit positive toneOli Frost uses a well known “third party”, pirates, to effectively translate and communicate oceanic climate impacts
There is no call to action or recommendations to viewers, however this may be intentional
Suggesting a few easy options for people to consider doing or a call to action, however this may be deliberate
User generated content (infotainment) vs professionally designed communication (Davis et al., 2020)
This video falls under an infotainment style narrative
Would likely have a higher likeability from viewers, along with higher recall of information however due to the style of video and low view count the perceived believability, especially by those with academic backgrounds would likely be lower.
However, as the video does not provide specific statistics or figures, the engaging and humorous style of infotainment content may be viewed positively as there is little scientific matter to argue against
Increasing viewership may increase perceived legitimacy of the video
Labelling or framing the video as regarding climate change more closely could expose it to more people
Dispelling misinformation, or misinterpretation of information regarding climate change. Not creating victims/heros. (Lewandowsky, 2021)
The video’s messaging conveys an understanding of why climate change is affecting the ocean, rather than how. In a few lyrics he goes from plastic straws, to fishing nets to alluding to overconsumption that occurs in a capitalist system
Oli Frost relays that the “fishermen [who are littering fishing nets and contributing to the great atlantic garbage patch] are the victims of an economic system.”
Viewers not familiar with plastic pollution in the ocean may not understand the references, providing corresponding notes/more visuals or references may could provide more information to viewers
The video has no call to action, or recommendations for viewers who may be interested in taking part in environmental stewardship. The video itself at first glance looks like it has more to do with goofy pirates than anything, so if someone was looking for information on climate change they may not click on it. However in the description, Oli Frost does share that the music video touches on how climate change will affect pirates. Using pirates on “talk like a pirate day” is an interesting approach as maybe youtube users engaging in other pirate related content may come across this video, and become engaged in a climate conversation. Utilizing pirates, rather than another demographic or specific groups is in itself interesting as pirates may be able to bridge socioeconomic or cultural divides as using a funny or unrealistic medium to engage with content may make it feel less directed and more comical in nature. However, according to Ettinger et al., (2021) an extremely optimistic or pessimistic tone is rather insignificant in encouraging viewers to pursue climate change action following viewing a video. The satirical nature of the music video makes use of clever language in a few short verses to translate an abundance of climate science. For example, the chorus states “it’s a pirate emergency” repeatedly, instead of the more common phrase of declaring a climate emergency, which sounds much more ominous.
Rather than explaining ocean acidification, the greenhouse effect, and so forth- the narrator frames the song around people and how behaviours and ideals can shift in light of the changing environment. As seen in the Viable Cities project in Sweden, providing relatable narratives and content helps people to relate to and understand how climate change will affect them personally (O’Sullivan, 2019). I think that finding a format for climate communication that excites or entertains people, such as this video is an important aspect for educating and engaging folks in climate action. We have seen that purely scientific pieces do not elicit a strong understanding, while user generated content on social media may have an abundance of traffic but less accurate or pressing environmental messaging. Seeing creative approaches, targeted at online audiences that can provide a laugh and a memorable piece of information such as Oli Frost’s interpretation may have potential in online climate communication, if not only an icebreaker.
References
Allgaier, J. (2019). Science and Environmental Communication on YouTube: Strategically Distorted Communications in Online Videos on Climate Change and Climate Engineering. Frontiers in Communication, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00036
Davis, L. S., León, B., Bourk, M. J., & Finkler, W. (2020). Transformation of the media landscape: Infotainment versus expository narrations for communicating science in online videos. Public Understanding of Science, 29(7), 688–701. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662520945136
Ettinger, J., Walton, P., Painter, J., & DiBlasi, T. (2021). Climate of hope or doom and gloom? Testing the climate change hope vs. fear communications debate through online videos. Climatic Change, 164(1–2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-02975-8
Frost, O. [Oli Frost Refrost’s The Planet]. (2021, September 19). The Pirate Emergency (Sea Shanty) | International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2021 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XGC2-d9Gg
Moser, S. C. (2016). Reflections on climate change communication research and practice in the second decade of the 21st century: what more is there to say? WIREs Climate Change, 7(3), 345–369. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.403
O’Sullivan, F. (2019, November 11). To Survive Climate Change, We’ll Need a Better Story. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-11/meet-sweden-s-chief-storyteller-for-climate-change