Maybe a theme song?
Getting beyond "preaching to the converted"
Communication has been a big part of my career: first in the world of rehabilitation, then in my work as a writer/editor, and now in my role as a yoga teacher. And it has always been a struggle. Human beings have far more in common than most of us care to admit. We’re geared towards pleasure and averse to pain. We value stories more than facts or scientific evidence. We’re tribal in our relationships. We have a built-in confirmation bias: we believe the things we already believed in and ignore any evidence to the contrary. And we fall prey to marketing and advertisers precisely because they know how to push the buttons of desire and fear. Nothing I’ve said here will come as a surprise to anyone.
But as an environmentalist, it’s a pickle. I think I’m probably typical of most environmentally concerned people. I’m a volunteer, juggling paid work, unpaid work (cooking, cleaning, caring for family members) and just doing a little here and there whenever I can. Contrast that to the multi-million dollar misinformation campaigns by highly paid professionals at the behest of the oil and gas giants. And although there are many amazing organizations producing wonderful content, it’s really hard to get that information out to a wider audience on a shoestring budget.
Not only that, but when I do try to have conversations about environmental issues with friends or relatives, the response I often get is: “I don’t want to know,” “It’s too stressful to even think about,” or “that’s not true. I read on Facebook it’s a hoax, and David Suzuki is a child molester.”
So how on earth do we motivate people to make changes when we can’t get our messages read except by those who are already environmentally aware? Better minds than mine have been puzzling over this for a long time, and all I really have are questions and hunches, but sometimes questions are more fruitful than answers.
I sometimes wonder if we are disadvantaged by our commitment to be facts-based, measured in tone, and earnest. As I’ve watched populism grow and thrive, it seems to be based on absolutely the opposite principles: emotional appeals, slogans, tribalism, blaming others, fear-mongering and so on. All things I deeply disagree with—but they’re effective. I find it infuriating that people make up their minds about who to vote for without having even a basic understanding of platforms, policies, or the complexity of the issues, but my ideas about having to pass a basic “current events” test before voting have not been well received.
I’m a big fan of Terry O’Reilly’s show, Under the Influence, which is about how marketing works. And I wish that the environmental movement could afford to hire the likes of Terry O’Reilly. Because sometimes the right campaign, at the right time, for very minimal amounts of money can really turn things around. I feel like there’s something we’re missing…is it bumper stickers? T-shirts? The right spokes-person? Ryan Reynolds? (He did do some voice work for David Suzuki, maybe we need him front and centre, as Deadpool, calling out the oil lobby?).
One thing I think we could do better is to share and amplify posts and writing dedicated to environmental causes. So much excellent work is being generated that is only being seen by very small audiences. I’m averse to social media (no doubt part of the problem) but I do try to share good articles with my students and friends. Many of the member groups within SCGC are producing high quality blogs and posts. We just don’t always have the hours available to search them out and repost them.
Creativity and originality can often make inroads even against difficult odds. If you’ve come across any great campaigns, slogans or videos I’d love to hear about them. I think we have to dream up something original. We don’t need more scientific evidence. We need influencers, artists, mascots, stand-up comics, climate-change-themed board games, “this is disinformation” stickers, secret handshakes, theme songs…I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that somebody out there does know. We just need to find those people.
And finally, as an aside (the benefit of blogging is that there is no editor to prevent you from changing tack when it’s inadvisable), here are a list of newsletters and online publications that I think are worthy of following and amplifying. Obviously, these are only resources I know about, I’m sure there are many more. I hope that you’ll consider checking a couple of them out and sharing them with people you know. And please consider subscribing to The Whale. We’d love to grow this into a community of readers and contributors where good conversations can happen.
The David Suzuki Foundation Newsletter
CBC’s “What on Earth?” Newsletter
Environmental Defense Newsletter
Heated (American)
Bill McKibben The Crucial Years (American)
Weekly News Digest - “The Blowhole”
Here’s a thoughtful article on the problem with “techno-optimism.”
And another on how Canada’s progress on emissions lags behind Germany and the UK
Join us on May 7 for our hour long conversation with Catherine McKenna. 7-8 PM either at Grace United Church in Barrie or online. Tickets are $10.
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I agree so much with this Elaine. It makes me think about the tension between facts and truth. Obviously facts are extremely important and I think that this sort of work needs to always ground themselves in data. However, communications should also be about truth. As you allude to, there is truth in music and poetry and art. There is truth in storytelling, even when it's fiction.
I've often seen there to be an important relationship between these mediums and meaning-making. Facts without this sort of truth don't create meaning or understanding. They only speak to one part of our human selves but fail to connect with a deeper part of who we are. It's why a story of one child suffering will always have more of an impact than a statistic of thousands. Of course marketing has abused this and maybe this is why people are so skeptical, but I agree with you that this movement needs to speak more truth; not just facts.
Great article!