Dr. Elizabeth Sawin✨Jul 7, 2023
I find I get this uneasy feeling in my belly every time earth system parameters hop outside of the limits of the last 125,000 years. You?
Show threadPauline von HellermannJul 8, 2023

@bethsawin
Yes. Was just staring at this graph.

I understand the argument that fearmongering doesn’t work, that (the majority of) people need positive messaging to be motivated to act etc. But: it is also not right that the vast majority are so in the dark about where we are actually at; that there is no serious engagement or messaging about this from political leaders. #ClimateEmergency

Show threadDavidBJul 11, 2023
@pvonhellermannn @bethsawin Honestly, I don't understand the argument for positive messaging at the moment.

If there is a moment to panic and to be scared as hell is now.

Positive messaging is surfing on the "slightly changing your daily habits can save the planet." Which is BS, always has been BS. Changing the entire fabric of the Western World can save the planet and only that at this point.
Show threadNeil Hopkins (He/Him)
@David @pvonhellermannn @bethsawin it's also a way to trigger reactance though.
Jul 11, 2023 at 6:50amWeb
Show threadDavidBJul 11, 2023
@interacter @pvonhellermannn @bethsawin

What is? Positive messaging?

Indeed it worked so well for the past 20-30 years. Let's so more of it, until we're all cooked to death.
Show threadNeil Hopkins (He/Him)Jul 11, 2023

@David @pvonhellermannn @bethsawin sorry, I wasn't clear.

Making people scared as hell is a way to trigger unhelpful reactance.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that we need to change our communication models.

I am certainly not talking about telling people it will all be ok if they just remember to put their plastics out for recycling.

But we also need to look across the whole spectrum of messaging to understand what does and doesn't work. (Personal bias - social marketing/behaviour change is an area of geekery).

If you look at one of the recent Climate Warnings from scientists, not even the red top tabloids (who write to just under the average UK reading age of 9) could translate the science-ese for their audience. I think the coverage of the pres release was the only article I have ever seen in The Mirror where the reading age was post-grad.
It was also accompanied by a picture of an asteroid hitting earth. Which, you know, doesn't really help the conception or the reality of the situation.

We also need to look at the behaviour of governments and their levers.
Switch to electric cars was a.message on one hand. Then the story was about opening a new coal mine in England.
The two do not add up and the poor public, who have daily things to think about like affording rent, food or heat (possibly not all three) can't parse the information together in the way science folk would.like.

Just personal opinions. There is some great work being done around science and academic communication to open them up to people without the privilege of extensive education and study in these areas.
But is it enough?

No, it isn't. Let's face it, people like EF Schumacher were writing in the 1970s about the.coming oil crash, but, lock d away in academia, I don't think the impact was what it could have been.
And that is without rolling out arguments about the grip of Big Energy on political influence....