Five tips to talk effectively about climate change

Climate change is a touchy subject for many people. So, how can you talk about it without fear? I've got you covered with five tips that make discussing climate change easier and more effective. Go ahead and bookmark this page for your next dialogues!

1. Use (few) data

People know already that climate change is happening, and they are worried. Therefore, the challenge is action, not awareness. If you come across those few people who are not aware of climate change yet or who deny it, share with them few key data. Caldo’s ABC of climate change is enough to get a good overview.

2. Focus on today

Creating urgency is the real challenge but don’t focus on this doom and gloom picture of giant glaciers melting and forests burning. Drama is powerful in many situations, but not for climate change: people would believe they cannot influence such a big thing. Instead, show what is already happening. 19 of the warmest years have occurred since 2000. Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall are increasing in frequency due to climate change. These events lead to loss of lives and livelihoods, and social and political turmoil. This is happening now. What else could create urgency?

3. Personalize projections

Put projections into a context - if possible, for the country of the people you are talking to. Climate projections are often based on average values, especially headline statements about increases in global temperatures. This hides a huge amount of global variability in impacts. To raise urgency for people and convince them to act, show how these projections will affect them. For example, if we don’t stop the current emissions trend:

In Europe, heatwaves of the kind that occurred in 2003, killing more than 50,000 people, will become increasingly likely.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a much higher risk of droughts will lead to insufficient access to drinking and irrigation water, and reduced agricultural productivity.
In India and Pakistan, the deadly heatwaves experienced in 2015 may occur annually.

4. Refer to other climate change folks

In all communications, the messenger is as important as the message. Mentioning other climate change experts, especially when you are talking to an unexperienced audience, is a powerful trigger. To be on the safe side, I like to namedrop climate scientists across the world, who say climate change is the biggest risk facing them. If you want to take a bit more risk, consider mentioning the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, which acknowledge the reality of anthropogenic climate change.

5. Suggest meaningful actions

Finally, recommend to your audience what they can meaningfully do. The important word here is meaningfully: focus on what makes a real difference and not only a fractional one. The plastic cup you use once per week when you go (if you go) to the office, will not save the planet. And if you focus on what is fractional, the risks is either diminishing the issue (“if an avoided plastic cup can solve it, then it can’t be that serious”) or diminishing the individual (“if that’s all I can do, I’m not going to do anything”). Our personal carbon footprints are mainly constituted by travel and home energy use. So, talk to your audience about this and suggest how can they drive action in their communities (e.g. family, colleagues, friends). If you want to be more sophisticated, consider changing your pension to a sustainable fund. This will have a huge impact over time.

Last, become a climate change evangelist yourself. My goal is to speak at least with one person about climate change every day. In the end, one conversation at a time is how we’re going to move from awareness to action. Will you try, too?