Defining a New Direction for Climate Change Action: Dispelling Prevailing Eco Myths

1
RETHINK the place/distribution of
climate change action by making the
communication outreach to fit the age of social
computing
Current Communication Outreach Strategy
Communication Outreach Strategy in the Age of
Social Computing
Info. Channels
T
actic
s
T
echnolog
y
TV/cable
Coupons
Personalization
Radio
Customer promos
Info. Channels
Search
Magazine

T
rade promos
Site merchandising

W
eb sit
e
Newspaper
Sales force
Customer database
Online ads
Outdoor

W
eb analytic
s
Email
Metrics
Direct mail
Brand monitoring
Blogs
Reach
Content syndication
Interactive TV
Frequency
Podcasting
Metrics
Mobile ads
Conversion rates
SOURCE Forrester Research
(2006)
2

I trust ___
Recommendations from friends/family
Consumer opinions posted online
Requested email updates
Ads in newspapers
Ads on TV
Ads on radio
Ads in magazines
Branded Web sites
Search engine ads
Web banner ads
Ads on mobile phones
0
20
40
60
80
100
SOURCE Forrester Research
(2006)
3

• Key Communication Social Computing
  Drivers
• Consumers trust in institutions is falling
• Only 42 of consumers say they even somewhat
  trust newspapers.
• Consumers are less brand loyal
• 52 of consumers say brand trumps price, down
  from 59 in 2000.
• Consumer-to-consumer activities are taking off
• C2C eCommerce, messaging, blogs, camera phones,
  video phones
• Consumers are customizing products and services
• 10-40 of customers develop or modify products.

SOURCE Forrester Research (2006)
4
Demographics of Social Computing
Users
5
REFRAME the Promotion of climate change action
by thinking more strategically about the
message and the intended target audience

• For communication to be effective, i.e., to
  facilitate a desired social change, it must
  accomplish two things
• sufficiently elevate and maintain the motivation
• to change a practice or policy
• (2) contribute to lowering barriers and
  resistance
• to doing so

SOURCE Moser (2006)
6
What makes climate communication
difficult and challenging?
Scientific uncertainties
Media reporting rules
Misinformation
Publics values, beliefs, attitudes and approach
to risk
SOURCE Plummer et al (2005)
7

• Steps to improve climate communication
  and public engagement
• Content
• Make global warming local, salient
• NO one meta-narrative that will fit all audience
  types match message
• content, framing, and audience values
• Lead with certainty, but never misrepresent
  uncertainty!
• Go beyond science/impacts and focus on solutions
• Audience
• Choose audiences carefully, strategically, and
  tailor communication
• accordingly
• Move from one-way information delivery to
  engaging dialogue
• Learn about mental models levels of
  understanding interests, values
• Strategy
• Reach out and focus on to those NOT yet engaged
• Begin visioning a future worth fighting for and
  identify measures of
• progress/success
  SOURCE Moser (2006)

8

• REDEFINE the Product of climate change
• action by embedding climate change in the
• context of a new social movement and in the
• language of social equity/justice learning
• from the civil rights movement in the
• 1950s/60s and anti-apartheid struggle of the
• 1970s-1990s
• Political opportunities Brown v. Board of
• Education the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Resource mobilization Student Non-Violent
• Coordinating Committee
• Framing Dr. Martin Luther Kings I Have a
• Dream! speech
• SOURCE adapted from Jon Isham (2006)

9

• Relevant news headlines Could the next
  grassroots revolution in America
• be over climate change? (The Economist,
  3/18/04) and How do we build
• a geo-green movement?(Thomas Friedman, NY
  Times, 3/27/05)
• Connect climate change action with youth/students
  and social activism
• (http//www.climatecampaign.org)
• When civil rights organizers went through the
  Deep South in register black
• voters in the early 1960s, they didnt ask for
  donations to send to national
• headquarters. They talked, listened, pulled
  together meetings and formulated
• plans for community action. In a society that
  needs active citizens, every
• person that national environmental groups ask for
  money is one more person
• who hasnt been asked to become active in a more
  meaningful way. Instead,
• they receive the contradictory message that the
  environment is in great
• danger, and the best way to avert this
  catastrophe is to write a 15 check and
• maybe change some light bulbs (Daily Grist,
  6/16/06)

10

• Broaden the political tent/governance of
  climate change action

Evangelical Climate Initiative (http//www.chrisit
iansandclimate.org), launched in February 2006 by
86 evangelical Christian leaders since "millions
of people could die in this century because of
climate change, most of them our poorest global
neighbors."
Apollo Alliance (2002)
Mayors Climate Protection
Regional climate

Agreement (2005)
change initiative (2004)

11

• Link conceptually environmental movement and
  social justice concerns
• Despite its salience today, environmental policy
  work and civil rights/
• social justice advocacy have not been traditional
  allies in the broader
• progressive social movement in the U.S.
• There are two important historical policy
  reasons for this disconnect
• Environmental movements narrow conception of the
  environment has isolated it from
• vital issues of everyday life such as workplace
  safety, healthy communities, and food
• security, that are often viewed separately as
  industrial, community, or agricultural
• concerns.
• Source Robert Gottlieb (2001) Environmentalism
  Unbound Exploring New Pathways for Change
• Cambridge, MA MIT Press
• Traditional environmental arguments have
  commonly constructed society and nature and
• urban versus wild/natural as hostile dichotomies.
  The merging of social justice and
• environmental interests therefore assumes that
  people are an integral part of what should be

12

• Climate justice (as defined by Environmental
  Justice and Climate Change
• Initiative, a California-based grassroots group)
  is a movement from the
• grassroots to realize solutions to our climate
  and energy problems that ensure
• the right of all people to live, work,play, and
  pray in safe, healthy, and clean
• environments. Global warming is fundamentally an
  issue of human rights and
• environmental justice that connects the local to
  the global.

13
Question1 Assuming there is some form of a
climate change-focused social movement in
existence, where would you say it currently lies?
In UK? EU? US? Globally?

• Stage 1 Normal times
• Stage 2 Prove the failure of official
  institutions
• Stage 3 Ripening conditions
• Stage 4 Take off
• Stage 5 Perception of failure
• Stage 6 Majority public opinion
• Stage 7 Success
• Stage 8 Continuing the struggle
• SOURCE Moyer Doing Democracy MAP Model for
  Organizing
• Social Movements (2001)

14

• Question2 How or can society
• generally and business specifically
• cope with and respond to non-
• linear abrupt environmental
• changes?
• We tend to see environmental and
• other important societal concerns in
• a linear fashion, that is problem is
• seen as a straight-line fashion with
• incremental, predictable changes
• But, many if not virtually all
• ecosystem concerns are non-linear,
• much like what happened to the
• Atlantic cod stocks off the east coast
• of Newfoundland (see right) in
• 1992 when the sudden collapse
• forced the (permanent) closure?