We Need to Talk About Talking About Climate Change

At Davos this past week, Greta Thunberg addressed the zeitgeist shifting impact of her grassroots climate movement. Far from content, she noted the need for ever greater awareness to be generated. Global attention spiked with the onset of the Australian bushfire crisis and the level of support – financial, logistical, and emotional – could prove a watershed moment in the climate debate. Such devastation is unlikely to be few and far between in the future.

Thunberg is absolutely correct that sustaining this level of awareness and engagement is imperative for decarbonisation to occur. Such action cannot be achieved through awareness alone, however. Not only is there a need to understand the complexity at hand – both climatical and political – but, importantly, how we communicate ideas to build broad support for reform.

The task is a difficult one. There exists a gap between the true nature and complexity of the world and the narratives people use to comprehend it. With that in mind, what people think is not merely a matter of facts and figures, but of beliefs and values. Unsurprising then that there are passionate voices on every side of any debate whose beliefs are unshakeable. Those are not the voices to engage. Instead there is an unheard – often skeptical – majority that holds the power to sway discourse, elections, and policy. It is those people who may be persuaded not with partisan politics, but effective precautionary logic.

She’s right, the science is beyond alarming, but there also exists the need for political and social consensus to achieve broad support for reforms. The reality is that, alongside a mountainous rise in awareness, a political schism has formed along ideological lines that threatens progress. In light of this schism, climate science may not be persuasive as Thunberg presumes. Partially due to the effects of a few inaccurate predictions granting…

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