Communicating Climate Change

This episode features a conversation with Brooklyn-based climate communicator, creator, and independent reporter, Jacob Simon. It was recorded in August 2024.

As the mind behind Jacobsimonsays, a platform telling real stories of progress to replace dread and fear with hope and action, Jacob inspires his audience of well over half a million people across social media and his newsletter, Climativity, to overcome eco-anxiety and get involved with tackling the climate crisis through optimism, community, and action.

Jacobsimonsays has racked up more than 83 million views, over 11 million likes, and maintains a following of more than 700,000 individuals who tune in every day to hear stories about those tackling the climate crisis and learn about simple and impactful actions they can take to protect the environment.

Amongst other things, Jacob and I discussed the trials and tribulations of being a social media influencer, where to draw your line in the sand when it comes to collaborations, and the kinds of content that performs best on climate and environmental topics.

Additional links:

Follow Jacobsimonsays on TikTok

Follow Jacobsimonsays on Instagram

Visit the Jacobsimonsays website

Check out Jacob’s Climativity newsletter

Read Social tipping dynamics for stabilizing Earth’s climate by 2050

This episode features a conversation with Bogdan Glogovac, Partnerships Manager at Ducky, a Norwegian technology company working to turn climate efforts from a solo struggle into something fun, collaborative and engaging. It was recorded in July 2024.

With a background in Ecology, Marine Biology, and Conservation, Bogdan has spent more than a decade nurturing strategic relationships, creating and managing climate campaigns, and facilitating climate engagement workshops for a wide range of stakeholders across the public and private sectors.

Ducky offers software solutions to help track, report and reduce organizational climate footprints. One such solution, Ducky Challenge, is a digital competition that helps companies, communities, and collectives raise climate awareness and educate peers in a fun and engaging bottom-up approach.

As a father of three boys and a member of Trondheim-based improvisational theater group "Gibberish", Bogdan is passionate about playfulness. Something that, as you’ll hear, plays a major part in his life and work.  

Amongst other things, Bogdan and I discussed the art of turning data into stories, the magic and mechanics of gamification, and what the wisdom of improv has to offer when it comes to tackling challenges like climate change.

Additional links:

Visit the Ducky website

Explore Ducky Challenge

Discover the Forest app

Learn more about Green Apes

This episode features a conversation with film producer, Adam Stanhope. It was recorded in July 2024.

Alongside the likes of Mike Medavoy, Rodrigo Blaas, Keith Chapman, and executive producer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam produced the animated feature film, Ozi – Voice of the Forest, which hits theatres across the globe on August 16th.

With a background in marketing and media, Adam has helped finance and produce an array of programmes across a range of genres, including Sky Atlantic’s Grierson-nominated sports documentary, The Fall, BBC Worldwide’s Earth, and Channel 4’s Ministry at the Dome.

Adam’s media career started in the 1980s, selling airtime for British TV network, ITV, before working his way up the ranks to Director at hugely successful UK Advertising agency Still Price Court Twivy d’Souza.

After leading one of IPG’s Global Media Agencies, Initiative Media, working with clients like Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, Coca Cola and Virgin Atlantic, Adam co-founded GCI Film to produce and finance movies.

Adam’s passions are film and the environment, and the Voices franchise, of which Ozi – Voice of the Forest is the first instalment, seeks to raise climate change awareness for a new generation.

Amongst other things, Adam and I discussed the power of animation to act as a vehicle for climate literacy, the challenges that large productions can run into as they prepare to launch, and what superstars, like DiCaprio, can bring to such projects.

Additional links:

Visit the official website for Ozi – Voice of the Forest

Watch the trailer for Ozi - Voice of the Forest

Find out more about Orangutan Coffee

Explore International Animal Rescue’s Orangutan Project

Check out the Oscar-winning short film, The Silent Child

This episode features a conversation with climate scholar and youth climate activist, Wawa Gatheru. It was recorded in July 2024.

Wawa is the founder and Executive Director of Black Girl Environmentalist, an organization dedicated to empowering Black girls, women, and non-binary people across the climate sector.

Wawa works to bring climate justice to the mainstream, and in addition to her work at Black Girl Environmentalist, is a popular climate content creator, focused on debunking climate nihilism, highlighting the unique contributions of Black environmental leaders, and equipping her audience with what they need to get involved in climate action.

In 2019, Wawa was named the first Black person in history to receive the prestigious Rhodes, Truman and Udall scholarships for her environmental scholarship and activism.

She has since become an inaugural member of the National Environmental Youth Advisory Council of the US EPA, the first federal youth-led advisory board in the US History. She is also a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Wawa sits on boards and advisory councils for EarthJustice, Climate Power, the Environmental Media Association, the National Parks Conservation Association, Good Energy, and Sound Future.

And, for her work alongside other organizers and activists, Wawa has been recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient, an AfroTech Future 50, a 776 Fellow, Young Futurist by The Root, a Grist 50 FIXER, a Glamour College Woman of the Year, and named a Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In January 2023, she even joined Billie Eilish and seven other climate activists on the cover of Vogue.

Amongst other things, Wawa and I discussed the largely unsung leadership of African American women in environmental stewardship, the make-up and mechanics of inclusive and participatory movement building, and the need to amplify alternatives to the exclusionary narratives that dominate the climate space and beyond.

Additional links:

Visit the Black Girl Environmentalist website

Visit Wawa’s personal website

Read the Vice piece that sent Wawa viral

Check out the digital Vogue cover with Billie Eilish

Read Wawa’s Earth Day 2024 article in Vogue

Find insights on inclusivity over at the Green 2.0 website

Battling Petrochemical Expansion in Cancer Alley with Rise St. James

Explore The Vessel Project of Louisiana

Discover The Descendants Project

This episode features a conversation with Simone Salvo, Creative Director at Third Act, an organization harnessing unparalleled generational power to safeguard the climate and democracy. It was recorded in June 2024.

Simone’s work blends design, media, and technology to bridge generational and digital divides and drive impactful social change. In her role at Third Act, she leads the charge in building an accessible technological infrastructure for a powerful elder-led climate justice movement, amplifying the progressive activism of Americans over sixty, under the guidance of environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Previously, Simone was Head of Creative Communications at the Magnum Foundation, serving a global network of social justice-focused image makers, as well as committing herself to a research and communications fellowship at Human Rights First, a non-partisan organization working to right human wrongs.

She’s also an adjunct faculty member at the NYU-Tisch Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she teaches courses on memory and immersive media, where her focus is on leveraging technology to enhance storytelling, rather than the other way around.

Amongst other things, Simone and I discussed the practicalities involved in engaging older adults on the climate, the enormous, largely-untapped structural power that this demographic brings to the table, and the unique ability of legacy to motivate people to take action.

Additional links:

Visit the Third Act website

Discover the Summer of Heat campaign

Read Bill McKibben’s article, “Photo editors get lazy in the heat”

Watch as a 100 year-old woman gets arrested on her birthday

See that photo of Dorothy Day and the Farmworker Movement

Communicating Climate Change is launching a Call-In Show!

That means, it’s time for you to join the conversation.

Do you have questions related to climate communication?

Maybe you’re running into challenges developing your own climate-related output?

Or perhaps you’ve seen or heard some related content or news that you thought needed closer examination?  

Well, that’s exactly what we’re looking for!

Simply head to communicatingclimatechange.com to submit a voice message about your challenge or example and it might be featured on an upcoming episode, where listener input will provide a springboard for brainstorming, problem solving, and broader discussion.

Guidance on submitting to the Call-In Show:

Step 1: Go to the Call-In Show page.

Step 2: Hit the “Start Recording” button.

Step 3: Describe your challenge, example, or observation.

Step 4: Hit the “Stop” button when you’re done.

Step 5: Enter your name and email if you want (it’s optional) and hit “Send”.

Step 6: Tune in to the Call-In Show to see if your message gets featured!

I can’t wait hear from you!

This episode features a conversation with Thomas Coombes, Founder and Director of narrative change organization, Hope-based communications. It was recorded in January 2024.

Hope-based communications is a simple, open-source tool for anyone to use, as well as a community anyone can join. It centres around a pledge to apply five shifts to any and all communications output. Those shifts are fear to hope, problem to solution, against to for, threat to opportunity, and victims to everyday heroes.

It’s a pragmatic approach to winning support for policies and advocacy positions by showing how they’ll actually work, acting on the principle that we should be focused on building the world we want, setting the agenda with our values, our goals, our mission, rather than reacting to our opponent's frames and actions.

Borne of learnings and epiphanies during Thomas’ prior roles at Amnesty International and the European Commission, Hope-based communications offers a simple formula for telling stories of our own that contribute to the long-term changes in ideas, attitudes and behaviours, that we want to bring about.

Amongst other things, Thomas and I discussed the concept of hope as both active and visionary, how flipping our intuitions inside out and focusing on particular aspects of a story over others can strengthen our output, and how our brains work to trip us up at so many points along the way.

Additional links:

Visit the hope-based communications website

Check out Thomas’s TED Talk

Thomas’ article "Hope is Action”

Thomas’s piece "“A New Green Wave of Hope”

Follow Thomas on Substack or LinkedIn

“A Message From the Future” from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

This episode features a conversation with Tory Stephens, who manages all things climate fiction at independent, non-profit media organization, Grist. It was recorded in March 2024.

Tory is a force for good. He creates opportunities and interventions that transform organizations and shift culture, building communities around social justice issues and using storytelling to champion green, clean, and just futures.

In his role at Grist, Tory oversees the annual Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest, engaging writers from across the globe in envisioning the next generations of climate progress. Whether built on abundance or adaptation, reform or a new understanding of survival, these stories serve as a springboard for exploring how fiction can help create a better reality.

Amongst other things, Tory and I discussed the ins and outs of the cli-fi genre, how this medium is key to reaching otherwise inaccessible audiences, and how speculative imaginings can inspire change in the here and now.

Additional links:

Visit Grist’s website

Learn more about the Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest

Discover the Imagine 2200 catalogue

Listen to the audio versions

Explore Humans of New York

Denzel Washington “It’s not color, it’s culture”

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future

This episode features a conversation with John Marshall, CEO of the Potential Energy Coalition. It was recorded in March 2024.

John’s three decades of experience in advising the leaders of Fortune 500 companies spans branding, marketing, innovation, and digital transformation. As well as his work leading Potential Energy Coalition, John is a Professor at Dartmouth College, a senior client advisor at the marketing consulting firm, Lippincott, and he’s even delivered a Ted Talk on climate change too.

John’s been a partner at consulting firms big and small, and a frequent industry commentator, speaker, and marketing writer whose words have graced the likes of the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The New York Times, Wired, and Fast Company.

Amongst other things, John and I discussed radical audience centricity, the down sides of using crisis messaging, and how we can more successfully sell the troubled “brand” that is climate change.

Additional links:

Sign up to the “That’s Interesting!” newsletter on Potential Energy Coalition’s website

The Talk Like a Human guide

The Later is Too Late report and interactive tool

John’s TED Talk on effectively talking about climate change

This episode features a conversation with Katherine Dunn, Content Editor at the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, a program led by the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute. It was recorded in March 2024.

Through her work at the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (or OCJN) Katherine has worked with more than 500 journalists from over 100 countries, seeking to improve climate literacy and climate storytelling. In 2023, she was a co-author of the European Broadcasting Union’s, “Climate Journalism That Works”, a report on how newsrooms can better cover climate change and build a climate strategy. I actually discussed this amazing resource in a previous episode, with Alexandra Borchardt, so, though Katherine and I didn’t talk about it here, if you’re interested, you can find a link to that episode below.

Before joining the Reuters Institute, Katherine spent the best part of a decade working as a reporter and editor in business journalism, with a focus on the energy and commodities markets and industries. This included a stint as editor at Fortune magazine, where she covered climate change and the energy transition.

Amongst other things, Katherine and I discussed what makes an effective climate news story, the obligations of newsrooms when it comes to addressing climate issues, and the unique role of meteorologists in delivering relevant and actionable local climate insights.

Additional links:

About the Oxford Climate Journalism Network

Climate news insights from The Reuters Institute

Insights on news avoidance from The Digital News Report

“Find your mango” and other learnings from the OCJN

The BBC’s “Life at 50C” series

The New Yorker’s stories about electricians 

My interview with Alexandra Borchardt about the “Climate Journalism That Works” report.