I go back to my house for a second sweater before heading down to my sit spot – the weather is colder than I was expecting. When I arrive, fall seems to have been stripped from the trees in a hurry. Two weeks ago the leaves were just starting to turn, but we got a few bright reds, lots of yellows and browns and now many of the leaves have already fallen. It’s okay – I cozy up inside my sweater and settle in to enjoy the wintering activities of the little waterside world around me.
My neighbour’s heavy equipment rules the soundscape today – he’s preparing for winter with home improvement projects before the snow comes (is he using sustainable materials and/or retrofitting for better energy efficiency, I wonder?). Once again, the critters are absent from my sit spot. I wonder if it’s because they aren’t used to me yet, or maybe they’re just too busy preparing for the cold season ahead to be foraging the river’s edge today. One (I believe invasive, just like me) ladybug sits motionless on a wet rock – I think his or her short life might have already departed.
As I cozy up in my sweater and gaze across to the village on the opposite shore, I think warmly of the coming hygge season ahead. I am so grateful for my vibrant, lively, spunky little rural community of activists, artists, farmers and eccentrics. Across the river, I see the local pub where I know my cousins-in-law and their friends will be converging many a night in the coming months. I hope to join them for a few beers and to have some inspiring conversations in the pub’s warm dark glow. We’ll also surely go cross-country skiing: last time we went together, I recall, I had some inspiring conversations with a high-school teacher friend from the community about climate change advocacy and sustainability – both of us being mutually inspired by each other’s important work and dreams. Maybe I’ll also get a chance to sit with a friend who I don’t see often enough in the busyness of the warmer months; we’ll cozy up on her warm living room couch, drinking tea and working on our crafty projects that slowly progress over the winter months. I think about all the climate change and social justice projects that I’ve been contributing to with my local advocacy group too – the beginnings of a food sovereignty, community resilience-building and permaculture-based community garden that I’m co-launching with another volunteer at a local park, the Town Hall on Green New Deal resolutions that our group is hosting just before winter, and the many other advocacy initiatives we’re involved in. Winter will be a time to take stock, regenerate, re-vision and rally forces behind those many initiatives. I hope the extra time indoors and contemplative nature of the cold season will find us more prepared and stronger come springtime. While some of these projects will be lending crucial support to larger provincial, national and international initiatives, I hope that our local projects will lead to our membership expanding and to a strengthening of our community’s social fabric that will help us to weather the storms ahead. This winter is forecasted to be a very snowy one too – I’m confident that my neighbours and I will rally together no matter the obstacle and dig ourselves out of any situation. Each season has its advantages, each challenge has its silver lining; we will all have the opportunity to grow and move through adversity together.
Academic citations and connections: While Connor et al.’s research findings pointed towards gain-framed messages on the themes of competence, communality and development being less propagated in the long-term on social media than loss-framed messages on the topics of nature and health (2016, p. 469), I chose to frame my post using a gain-framed format on the topics of communality and competence. I found Connor et al.’s discussion compelling, when they explained that although less conventional messages initially have a stronger impact on the reader, they are less likely to be passed on beyond the first share because of societal normative pressures and also because it can be challenging to find the words to express less conventional messaging (2016, p. 471-472). As well, in their closing statement they suggested that climate change communicators could play an important role by normalizing those less conventional messages, bringing them into the mainstream and ultimately making them more shareable (Connor, 2016, p. 473). For those reasons, I am inspired as a climate change communicator to share those messages more often, in an effort to diversify the pool of positive and effective messaging being shared in social media. In this writing, I also attempted to follow the five storytelling traits proposed by Downs (2014) and Green et al. (2018) as cited by Bayer and Hettinger: my purpose was to respond to the prompt and instructions provided for this assignment by sharing a personal experience with detailed descriptions inspired by my five senses (2019, p. 5). I hope that my experiences of winter life in this part of the world, the positives of that season for me and some of the other personal experiences that I shared are relatable to some of my readers (Bayer & Hettinger, 2019, p. 5). My concluding question, after reading Bayer and Hettinger’s work is: how might I engage my community in a conversation on some of the topics I shared in my post (2019)?
(Tiny Ecology post 2)
References
Bayer, S., & Hettinger, A. (2019). Storytelling: A natural tool to weave the threads of science and community together. Bulletin of the ecological society of America, 100(2), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.1542
Connor, P.; Harris, E.; Guy, S.; Fernando, J.; Shank, D.; Kurz, T.; Bain, P.; Kashima, Y. (2016). Interpersonal communication about climate change: How messages change when communicated through simulated online social networks. Climatic Change 136(3-4), 463–476. doi: 10.1007/s10584-016-1643-z
On my third visit to my sit spot, the river is finally calming down, settling into a peaceful stillness that balances her ever-flowing energy.
The shoreline is re-emerging, I smell algae drying out on the driftwood, enjoy the pattern of vibrant fall leaves nestled and protected in a natural cavity, bathed in sunlight, hear the waves gently lapping and feel the whispering breeze on my cheeks.
My first two visits, I felt a pressure to ‘see’ the creatures of this space – I know the community of creatures up around my house well, but I wanted to meet this community, find out who they are and find out more about them. This time, realizing that I wasn’t truly relaxing into this space or this process, I let go of that goal and expectation to ‘see something’ and instead surrendered to what the land has to share with me, what is calling me in this place. I closed my eyes and listened to the wind, the lapping waves, felt the breeze on my cheeks, heard the rapids in the distance and submitted to the land’s wisdom.
I feel at one with the sparkling warm sun. The wind, river, sun, breeze and the land – the plants, rocks and driftwood – feel like elders with a quiet wisdom. The animals and insects feel like friends, sharing this space with me.
Above all, it’s the wind that brings me back to my center – the sound and the feel of it unravels me and reconnects me with myself and the land.
In the spiritual tradition I was raised with, I was never taught who I was connecting to or with (as an international multi-faith organization, it was open to each practitioner’s interpretation). But for me, it always felt like a connection to all things, to everything on the planet and in the cosmos. A combined energy or collective wisdom, greater than, interconnected with all, eternal.
Growing up in a society and culture that, to quote Bartlett, Marshall and Marshall, has spent “decades of diligent efforts … scrub(bing) spirituality and religion out of ways of knowing” (2012, p. 332), coming into this program and course with its strong grounding in indigenous ways of knowing that are inextricably intertwined with spirituality, and being asked to share from my own background and place of knowing, has been an interesting challenge. I’ve trained myself over decades to avoid this subject and to talk about my experiences without referencing spirituality. But with this sit spot and a call to engage with place and nature, as well as to speak with my authentic voice, it’s impossible not to share about my spiritual connection and experiences. Iseke shares the Elders’ perspective that there is “resistance to spiritual practices and distancing from these practices” and that our “out-of-balance lives are due to our lack of relationships to environment, community, and spiritual practices” (p. 572). While I understand their words were likely intended for indigenous peoples as they also called attention to the devastating influences of religion on indigenous communities, these words ring very true to my own life as well. I agree with the Elders that our lack of community, spirituality and relationship with the environment is a very deep cause of sorrow, loneliness, disconnect and sickness on all levels – emotional, physical, mental – in my settler society. Spiritual connection, which for me is a connection to nature and the world around me, is an endless source of inspiration, wisdom and fulfillment for me. It fills me up and makes me feel thankful at every moment. As Kimmerer says, “naming and appreciation of the gifts that surround us creates a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of ‘enoughness’” (2014, p. 20) and Young describes the benefits this connection-building experience with the world around us as bringing us more: “love, aliveness, presence, vision(), empathy, focus, vitality and happiness” (2020).
Kimmerer crucially asks of us “What is our gift?” (2014, p. 23) How can we enjoy the wonderful benefits of the Earth while also giving her back gifts of our own, living in the abundance of reciprocity? So what is my gift? To this space that I am beyond lucky to call home, that I am in reverence of, one of the gifts that I am compelled to pass on is the wisdom of Kimmerer and Young, the words of the Elders who shared in Iseke’s research and the many other gifts of learning that I’ve received in this program so far. Connor et al describe messaging focused on environmental degradation and negative health effects for humans as being the more conventionally accepted messages at the moment, while other messages, including positively-framed ones, are less normalized and therefore less ‘shareable’ on social media (2016). As concluded by Connor et al., there is a need for climate leaders and communicators to normalize these less conventional messages so that they can be adopted by the mainstream (p. 473). The questions that remain for me are how to make a change in this space – at a time when spirituality is often the focus of horrific news, skepticism and rejection, I am challenged by the idea of how to share my own authentic experiences as well as elevating Kimmerer’s calls to gratitude, to paying attention and to the spirituality in all things. These messages are so important to share and to tell, to invite others into these practices that are so healing and transformative. To quote Kimmerer once again: “While we race around asking how we might change technology or tax structures, the change that might save us goes unspoken: what we need to change is ourselves” (2014, p. 22).
(Tiny Ecology post 1)
References
Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Science 2, 331-340. DOI:10.1007/s13412-012-0086-8
Iseke, J. (2013). Indigenous storytelling as research. International review of qualitative research 6(4), 559-577. DOI:10.1525/irqr.2013.6.4.559
The purpose of this article is to analyze a published communications piece, assessing its effectiveness against my chosen set of evidence-based techniques for effective climate change communications. The subject for my analysis is a free, publicly available news article from the Science section of CBC’s website entitled ‘How many climate disasters will today’s children face? Scientists release estimate’ (Reuters, 2021). This news article shares highlights from a recent report comparing the number of climate change-related extreme weather events for children born last year as compared to children born in 1960.
As Canada’s national public broadcaster with a digital reach of 18.2 million visitors in 2019-2020, the CBC aims to “be varied and comprehensive, providing a balance of information, enlightenment and entertainment for men, women and children of all ages, interests and tastes” (CBC/Radio-Canada, 1994). As a Crown corporation, the CBC attempts to be trustworthy and unbiased (Fenlon, 2021) and to offer a wide spectrum of opinions and perspectives representative of Canada’s multilingual, multicultural as well as politically and geographically diverse population (CBC/Radio-Canada, 2020; CBC/Radio-Canada, 1994). Although I found no information about audience focus for their online News/Science section specifically, as the data from a US-based survey suggests, newspapers including online versions have an adult readership of varying ages (Conaghan, 2017). As well, although CBC broadcasts youth programming, they have specific products and services dedicated to younger audiences (CBC/Radio-Canada, 2020). For these reasons, I would infer that this particular article was aimed at a large, dispersed Canadian adult audience of all ages with varied political leanings, worldviews and opinions. Due to the specific focus on children, I would argue that this article might also be geared particularly towards parents, adults young enough to identify with the decades being researched and other adults concerned with children’s welfare (e.g. teachers).
Techniques for Effective Climate Change Communications Aimed at a Large, Diverse, Dispersed Adult Audience
1. Use a Trusted Source
Using a trusted source is a recommended technique to overcome information overload (Hodson, 2019, p.3). Hodson asserts that trusted influencers, defined by “the influence of the person or organization delivering the message” are an important aspect of successful climate change communication (2019, p.4). He explains that these sources can help audiences to overcome information overload by (helping) people to filter the wealth of information they are exposed to on a daily basis” (2019, p.4). In their tips for general audiences as related to message framing, Dupar, McNamara & Pacha recommend using authoritative, trusted sources for message content (2019, p. 17).
2. Provide options for audiences to participate and lend support
Providing options for audiences to participate and lend support is a technique used to address the critical climate communication challenge of “transitioning (audiences) from awareness and concern to action” (Moser, 2016, p. 345). Moser explains that while providing information to increase awareness and explain the climate science is still needed, this approach must always be accompanied by efforts aimed at “enabling and empowering action”, by providing options for participating and lending support that audiences can choose from (2016, p. 351).
3. Focus on the positives and share hopeful solutions
Focusing on the positives and sharing hopeful solutions is an evidence-based technique that can help to counter the key climate change communications challenges of overwhelm and hopelessness (Moser, 2016, p. 345) as well as empower audiences and inspire them to take action. Hodson (2019) recommends empowering audiences by “avoiding fear-based appeals (and) focusing on the positives” as well as fostering concern and hope” (p. 5). In their communication framing tips for general audiences, Dupar, McNamara & Pacha suggest: “Show the power of positive solutions. People don’t want just bad news, they want inspiration!” (2019, p. 17).
4. Use storytelling and narrative formats
Storytelling is a fundamental and powerful tool for indigenous communities; among its many applications it is used to inform, motivate, as well as inspire empathy and solutions (COP23fj, 2018). For example, the Talanoa Dialogue is a storytelling approach centered around three powerful and transformative questions: “Where are we now? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?” (COP23fj, 2018). Hodson also cites narrative formats as an important technique for increasing audience engagement (2019, p.2). Moser’s research indicates that storytelling and narrative approaches are becoming increasingly prioritized in climate change communication (2016, p. 350). Among Dupar, McNamara and Pacha’s framing tips for general audiences, they propose finding “the ‘human interest’ stories… people’s own words about their own experiences – that tell how climate change has negative impacts and undermines development progress. By reporting the stories of affected people … you give your audience something they can relate to” (2019, p. 17).
What follows is my analysis and assessment of the article in relation to the above-listed techniques.
Use a Trusted Source
Hodson identifies ‘information overload and message fatigue’ as important challenges in climate change communication (2019, p. 3) and I think that in this regard, the CBC is in an advantageous position to reach audiences effectively. Since audiences often turn to more traditional information sources when experiencing information overload (Hodson, 2019, p. 3), the CBC’s longstanding position as our national public broadcaster with rigorous standards for transparency, trustworthiness and neutrality (Fenlon, 2021) puts it in a unique position in terms of audience trust. Moser’s stance on traditional news sources is more nuanced, describing the shift from their clear position as ‘leading influencers’ towards audiences perceiving them as increasingly politicized and polarized echo chambers (2016, p. 350-351). That said, I think that the CBC’s aforementioned standards around neutrality help it to maintain relative credibility in today’s tenuous and divided media landscape.
Another strength of this article is that it was based on information from a report by Save the Children. Since NGOs are among the trusted sources that audiences rely on (Schäfer, 2012 as cited in Hodson, 2019, p. 6), I infer that by sharing information from an aid agency such as Save the Children, the article does well in fostering its audience’s trust.
2. Provide options for audiences to participate and lend support
As stated by Moser: “It is now widely recognized that actions and practical support must be a central part of all climate communication, not necessarily in a prescriptive fashion, but options should be discussed and audiences must see and feel empowered to choose viable options” (2016, p. 351). The article presented data from the Report and testimonies from children and youth who had experienced climate-related disasters, but failed to provide any concrete suggestions for ways audiences could act or lend support to the crisis being presented. I think it would have been more successful in its attempts to engage and inspire audiences had there been a balance of content to elicit not only concern but also hope and empowerment, with options for ways the audience could lend support.
The article ends with one indirect call to action, with some interviewees from the Report encouraging other youth to “pressure governments to change” and an interviewee sharing that she “really want(s) to see world leaders take action” (Reuters, 2021) – perhaps in connection to the article’s earlier reference of the upcoming COP26 talks. However, since the article is geared towards an adult audience, it would have been more effective if a linkage could have been made with concrete steps that parents and other adults could take to rally behind the youth’s demands. For example, the article could have ended with some links to forums and organizations collecting public input leading up to COP26.
3. Focus on the positives and share hopeful solutions
Another area where I argue that this article falls short is in its exclusive focus on fear-based messaging. The article focuses almost exclusively on alarming future projections and heart-wrenching testimonies from children who have experienced climate-related disasters and fear for their futures. I imagine that the intention behind this approach was to elicit the audience’s concern and, considering the urgency of the crisis and the levels of engagement needed from every level of society, one would hope that its aim was also to inspire action. Although it is necessary to share the facts and elicit concern among audiences, research has shown that overwhelm and hopelessness are critical challenges and so sharing positive messages and hopeful solutions can be a powerful technique to mitigate those emotions (Moser, 2016, p. 245). For these reasons, I consider this article to have failed in terms of audience engagement, by focusing exclusively on alarming facts and tragic testimonies without any counterbalancing of hopeful or solutions-oriented messaging. Parents, younger adults as well as any other readers with personal ties to children would understandably be deeply affected by the sobering and alarming facts shared in this article and had it followed that information up with some optimism and solutions, it could have been an inspiring opportunity for audiences to shift their perspective and/or take action.
4. Use storytelling and narrative formats
“Narrative develops from both data and emotions, which is significantly more effective in engaging a listener than data alone (Dahlstrom 2014, cited by Bayer & Hettinger, 2019). Additionally, sharing stories connects us to one another. When we convey both information and our personal experiences through storytelling, our listeners begin to connect what they hear to their own lives” (Downs 2014, cited by Bayer & Hettinger, 2019).
Storytelling could have been a very effective technique for the subject matter of this article, since children’s welfare is a topic that is easy for many adults to engage with and relate to. The article did include emotional testimonies and direct quotes from children who were victims of climate-related disasters, and I consider this to be moving in the right direction in terms of using storytelling as a means to engage audiences. That being said, the quotes were too short to really hear the children’s stories and I argue that the article would have been more engaging if it had shared a more complete picture of their experiences.
On the basis of defending human rights, encouraging Canadians to think globally and to amplify the voices and realities of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, I appreciated that this article focused on stories from other parts of the world. That being said, research points to the power of local stories to help individuals understand and respond to climate change (Krauß & Bremer, 2020). A more effective approach might have been to share the testimonies of children who have experienced climate-related disasters overseas, but to then relate those stories to children in Canada by providing statistics on the likelihood of our children experiencing similar disasters in the future. I think this approach might have helped audiences to empathize with the testimonies and to visualize the children in their lives going through similar experiences.
In addition to a few images of children experiencing climate-related disasters overseas and an image of young climate activists, the article also includes a video report on the global student climate strikes, including some interviews with youth from the US (CBC, 2019). Apart from the short testimonies from Canadian youth at the beginning of the report, this video seemed completely unrelated to the content of the written article. It was dated from two years ago so had no connection to current events or the Report from Save the Children; instead, the video focused on public reactions to Greta Thunberg and the 2019 Global Climate Strikes as well as a discussion and commentary on teens’ mastery of social media communications. I found the focus condescending – I think it would have been more appropriate to spotlight the youth’s demands rather than congratulating them on their social media prowess. Perhaps more significantly, it was a missed opportunity to provide a video of something more relevant to the Save the Children Report, COP26 and/or the recent IPCC findings. This could have also been an opportunity to use a storytelling approach by sharing a more in-depth story from one of the article’s interviewees, and/or to tap into audiences’ shared values by interviewing parents in Canada and hearing how this information makes them feel about their children’s futures.
In conclusion, based on my analysis and in terms of the list of techniques I chose to assess it against, this article was largely unsuccessful in engaging its target audience in a meaningful and impactful way. As a trusted source in a time of information overload that caters to a wide audience with many concerned parents, young adults and others either personally or indirectly set to experience the projections that were shared in the report, I think the CBC missed an exceptional opportunity. The very relatable, important and emotional subject matter of this article could have connected climate change in a meaningful way with Canadians’ lives, engaged with their emotions and values, and inspired action. Had there been a better balance of alarming data and emotional testimonies with some hopeful or solutions-oriented messaging, had the testimonies been expanded into more complete stories and linkages made with local realities, and/or had the article provided concrete suggestions for ways audiences could take action, it could have both enlightened and inspired CBC’s readers in keeping with their mandate. More importantly, it could have done a better job of moving its audience in the direction we so desperately need to be headed in.
Hodson, J. (2019). An ecological model of climate marketing: A conceptual framework for understanding climate science related attitude and behavior change. Cogent Social Sciences 5(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1625101
Krauß, W. & Bremer, S. (2020). The role of place-based narratives of change in climate risk governance. Climate Risk Management 28, 100221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2020.100221
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 May/June, 345-369. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.403
