Vanessa WarheitCommunicating for the Climate6 Tips for Using Media to Foster Sustainability and Build a Climate Movement

#1: Understand where your audience is on their journey(And what it takes for them to get where you want them to go)

No one is born a climate activist - and the people you are trying to reach may be at any number of different places along a continuum -

Vanessa in 90s

Case Study: VanessaA Journey from Oblivious to Engaged

so Im going to share with you my story, and my journey from climate oblivion to climate action.Photo on the left - taken ten years ago, on the island of Saipan, making a doc for PBS about US colonies in the western Pacific. Noble - but no idea how much carbon I was burning flying back & forth to Guam repeatedly - no carbon offsets, nada.

My husband Nik: Cheap Scot? or Climate Mentor?

The person I credit with starting me on my journey is my husband, Nik. He didnt do a good job of it at first - Hes from Scotland, and hes notoriously thrifty - and I thought he was just being a cheap Scot telling me to turn down the heat and power down appliances.

But then I saw the film An Inconvenient Truth - and I began to realize that climate change was a serious problem. And I started to realize that my husband might have a point.A few years later, I was doing research for a film about supercomputing and climate science. And I started reading this book...

off the shelf at a friends houseNVIDIA - makes processors for supercomputingI was in contact with Mark, because we were planning on filming him, and so I sent him an email when I finished the book - asking him, how do you live with this knowledge? What can we do? And heres what he said:

Keep calm and carry on.

Keep calm and carry on. Its a British expression, from when the Brits were being bombed in World War II.So - I thought, OK, Im going to keep calm. But if Im going to carry on I need to DO something. What can I do? So I started looking for opportunities to make a difference. A year later, I applied to Al Gores North American Climate Leadership Corps training -

Climate Reality Training, July 2012

And I was accepted. At first I wasnt sure Id get in - I had no science background.How many of you have a science background? How many of you have no science background?For me, getting accepted in the Climate Reality Corps was reassuring - and working on the NVIDIA project, too, I realized I didnt need to have a science background to talk with scientists, to read abstracts, to understand the basic concepts. And more importantly - I might be better at communicating it than even they were.Heres another tip - my husband, bless his heart, made me feel personally criticized for my un-ecological vices - which is NOT a good way to get someone to change their behavior. Sometimes, its easier to change behavior - for positive reasons - than it is to change attitudes.

Date

Nik buys me a bike

For instance - my husband bought me a bike. Suddenly - I had a fun way to get around, an easy way to exercise, I looked cool - and oh yeah, I was helping the planet. And once I could see myself as someone who was part of the SOLUTION, that cognitive dissonance went away. A lot of people, when you confront them with climate reality, get very defensive because they see themselves as part of the problem - and no one wants to feel that way.

Organizing for America Climate RallyMay, 2013

10 years later - in downtown PA - right after the Mauna Loa CO2 readings topped 400ppm.

How did YOU get here?Divide into groups of 4 - you have 4 minutesShare at least one obstacle you experienced, and one thing/person/event that helped you to become more active in the climate movement

# 2: Understand the Power of a Good Story The Goodman Center - Andy Goodmanthegoodmancenter.com

U. Michigan Study: 127 students read an article about a woman on welfare in New York. Story described her as a typical Welfare Queen Then the students were given actual data about women on welfare in New York. They were reminded that the Welfare Queen story was not a typical case. Subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire that measured their attitudes about welfare mothers. Students remembered the STORY - not the factsStory v. Data

1980, Richard Nisbett and two fellow psychologists conducted a study to compare the effects of a single, vivid story with actual data, in forging peoples attitudes on a given topic. CLICKSubjects read an abridged version of an article originally published in The New Yorker - about a woman described as "a 43-year-old, obese migr from Puerto Rico who had an endless succession of common-law husbands [and] children at roughly 18-month intervals."Her apartment was a mess, her children ran wild (eventually running afoul of the law) and the family ate "high priced cuts of meat and [played] the numbers on the days immediately after the welfare check arrived." Of the 16 years this woman lived in New York City, 13 were spent on welfare. She was, in short,CLICK - what Ronald Reagan once labeled a "welfare queen."- CLICK (Barbie)The students were then given data that painted a very different picture. CLICKThey were told that the average length of time most women stay on welfare is actually 2 years, not 13, they actually have about 2 children on average, they often hold down two jobs at a time, etc.. They were also explicitly reminded that the woman in the story was not a typical case.CLICKHaving read the story and reviewed the data, the subjects were then asked to complete a questionnaire about welfare mothers. What do you think they found?CLICKThe informed subjects revealed overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards women on welfare. The story had stuck while the data had been discounted.

MORE:To ensure that these findings were not specific to the issue of welfare, the researchers ran a similar experiment with prison guards as the topic. The question at hand: are most guards decent and humane in their treatment of prisoners, or do they tend to be callous and inhumane? Once again, the students were heavily influenced by a single story (in this case, a videotaped interview with a guard), even when warned that the person they were seeing was atypical.For good causes, these results (as with those of Slovic, et al.) demand attention. Having evidence on your side is clearly not enough as long as human beings remain susceptible to sample bias. All the evidence in the world may go down in flames compared to a compelling story on the other side. As you gear up for the next showdown, sure, collect the evidence. But have a good story on hand as well to grab hearts and open minds for the numbers you have so diligently assembled.

HardwareSoftware

#3: A Picture Paints 1,000 Words

The Philippines was inundated - hospitals were forced to evacuate

Valenzuela City, PhilippinesJuly 31, 2012 2012 AP Photo/Aaron Favila

... and then again in August.... when this hospital emergency room flooded.

ID #794

DESCRIPTION: Photo of men pulling a patient on a wheelchair through a flooded emergency room in Valenzuela City, Philippines, July 2012

Pakistan received a record amount of rain - at an unprecedented rate.

2010 Reuters/Ho New

PakistanJuly 31, 2012

Humans are fundamentally VISUAL creatures.

One study showed that CLICK when information was presented orally, people remembered only about 10 percent of what they heard. CLICKThat figure jumped to CLICK 65 percent when pictures were added.

#4: Embrace Humor(and remember to include kids)

Case Study: Worse Than Poop!Who says carbon pollution cant be funny?

Im making a film with my son - aimed at kids - about CO2 pollution.

#5: Leverage Social Media(and build strategic alliances)

leverage it to get your story outleverage it to build strategic alliancesleverage it as a skill to get you a job on the other side

June, 2013Worse Than Poop! - Promo #1

Americans say they are about twice as likely to be convinced by their sons/daughters than they are their moms/dadsfor all segments except for the Dismissives, sons/daughters rank right behind significant others in terms of influence. And to be honest- my son is a perfect example. Since weve started making this movie, hes been pestering us, on a daily basis, about when were going to buy an EV - and were now very close to actually buying one. So its working!

#6: Provide a Positive Vision

A vision gives people hope, gives them motivation, gives them a roadmap.No matter how bad things are - dont leave them with despair.Show them how things can be BETTER - how we can leverage this crisis to improve justice, health, our economy.

September, 2013Worse Than Poop! - Promo #2

Thanks!vwarheit.blogspot.com