Ep 39 Envisioning and Communicating Climate Success

Climate Communication experts Blair Bazdarich from the San Francisco Zoo and Hannah Pickard at Boston's New England Aquarium share proven insider tips about effective communication strategies. They are both leaders at NNOCCI, the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation. They train aquarium and zoo professionals how to speak about climate change. NNOCCI is a network of individuals and organizations in informal education, the social sciences, and climate sciences. They are currently working in 170 institutions in 38 states. NNOCCI members reach over 190 million people each year. In this episode Hannah and Blair share the techniques they have been using, including a “values-first” approach. Through NNOCCI’s research, they identified two motivating values that prove highly effective in opening up conversations with members of the public. The first value is Protection—we feel a strong need to protect the people and places we love. And the second is Responsible Management. We value solving problems earlier before they become too big. Hear this conversations to gain value lessons from leaders in the field of climate communication. The Art House We need to reduce localized pollution and heat-trapping greenhouse gases globally. So how do we build the political will so that the public clamors for legislation and policy that will change how we get and use energy? We need to communicate to the public what success looks like. Envisioning success in our climate work though requires imagination. To help us with this task Sean Dague, the group leader for the Mid-Hudson South chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, leads us through a powerful exercise. He asks us, What does a decarbonized world look like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? Once you hear Sean’s vision of a successful future, we invite you to continue the exercise. Try some creative writing. Write a short story or a letter from the future about what you see, smell, and hear. Maybe create visual art, a drawing or painting. If you can’t draw or paint, get images from magazines and on-line then create a collage. Write a song, create a map, choreograph a dance. Use art to capture a vision of a decarbonized world. Even if you do not see yourself as an artsy person, just try it. Towards the end of his life, writer Kurt Vonnegut would say, "Everyone should practice art because art enlarges the soul." PLEASE feel free to share your art with our host, Peterson Toscano, and let him know if I can share it with listeners, on the podcast, Facebook, and Twitter. If you have art from this exercise to share or if you have idea for the Art House, feel free to contact Peterson at radio @ citizensclimate.org Puzzler Joining us to answer last month’s question about climate adaptation is Doug Parsons, the host of the America Adapts podcast. New Puzzler Question You just spoke to a group of middle school students about your climate change work. During the Q&A a student named Victor says, “I am freaking out because of all the bad stuff I am seeing and it seems like it is just getting worse and worse. I really do not see the point of even trying anymore. I think we are too far gone. What difference does this make?” Lots of people young and old feel the same way. So how do you respond to Victor? How can you validate his fears while also giving him reasons to hope and pursue solutions. Send us your answers. Leave your name, contact info, and where you are from. Get back to Peterson by September, 15, 2019 Email: radio @ citizensclimate.org or leave a voicemail of 3 minutes or less: 518.595.9414. (+1 if calling from outside the USA.) You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio.