Communicating Climate Change

This episode features a conversation with Ravi Sreenath, Managing Director of data-for-good advisory firm, Ripple Research. It was recorded in April 2023.

Ripple Research operates at the intersection of data science, behavioural psychology, and social impact, collaborating with universities, international organizations, and businesses to conduct research and deliver insights on key themes including climate change, misinformation, hate speech, infodemics, ESG, and mental health.

Amongst other things, Ravi and I discussed the benefits of applying big data to pressing challenges like the social impacts of climate change, what aggregated online activity can tell us about society, and how we can use those kinds of insights to create more impactful communication.

Additional links:

Ripple Research’s website

Ripple Research’s work on climate anxiety

Ripple Research’s work on climate polarization

This episode features a conversation with senior journalist, media researcher, and independent advisor, Alexandra Borchardt. It was recorded in March 2023.

Alexandra, who holds a Ph.D. in Political Science, is the former managing editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s major daily newspapers. With a strong journalistic resume, she now teaches, advises, and coaches on topics around journalism, innovation, digital transformation, and leadership, for organisations and institutions including the World Association of News Publishers, The Technical University of Munich, the University of the Arts, Berlin, and Hamburg Media School. She is also affiliated with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford as a Senior Research Associate.

Alexandra is the lead author of the recent European Broadcasting Union’s News Report entitled “Climate Journalism That Works - Between Knowledge and Impact,” which formed the basis of our conversation.

Amongst other things, we discussed the shortfalls of climate journalism conducted over the last few decades, the value of sidestepping big stories and big names in favour of approaches that bring news home to people in their local contexts, and the responsibility that climate journalists hold by virtue of their work.

Photo by Ina Abraham.

Additional links:

The “Climate Journalism That Works - Between Knowledge and Impact” report

Alexandra’s website

Connect with Alexandra on Twitter or LinkedIn

This episode features a conversation with Just Stop Oil supporter, Phoebe Plummer. It was recorded in March 2023.

Phoebe, a 21-year-old student from London, has been arrested eight times for acts of civil disobedience associated with nonviolent civil resistance group, Just Stop Oil, most notably after having thrown soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery.

Amongst other things, our discussion explores the role of direct action in response to the climate crisis, the urgency of the situation, and what we, as communicators, can learn from groups like Just Stop Oil.

Additional links:

Just Stop Oil’s website

Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers

This episode features a conversation with author and entrepreneur, Georgina Wilson-Powell. It was recorded in March 2023.

A consumer-focused sustainability expert with 20 years of experience from the media industry, Georgina is on a mission to make sustainable choices the norm.

Georgina’s accolades include founding Pebble, the UK’s leading sustainable living magazine, as well as launching her own eco festival and creating a purpose-led online community around it. She now focuses on consultancy, speaking, and her own books.

Her first book, “Is It Really Green? Eco Dilemmas Answered” reached the top of the Amazon bestseller charts, whilst her new book “365 Ways To Save The Planet”, which formed the basis of our conversation, has just become available.

Amongst other things, our discussion delved into the value of actions taken at the individual scale, the benefits of encouraging small shifts in behaviour rather than enormous ones, and the pressing need for a broad, inclusive approach to talking about – and acting on – climate change.

Additional links:

Georgina’s website

365 Ways To Save The Planet

Is It Really Green? Eco Dilemmas Answered

This episode features a conversation with cognitive scientist, Hugo Mercier. It was recorded in February 2023.

Hugo studies human reasoning and communication, as well as cultural evolution, working out of the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris. He is the co-author, alongside Dan Sperber, of The Enigma of Reason, and the author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who we Trust and What we Believe.

Not Born Yesterday is the book that brought Hugo to my attention and is a highly recommended read for anyone interested in persuasion and influence. If, like me, you come from a marketing and communications background, it might tickle your cognitive biases, but it’s a super constructive read.

Amongst other things, Hugo and I discussed the reasons that climate change is so hard for humans to grasp, how we assess messages we’re exposed to as credible, or not, and what happens when we encounter information that doesn’t align with our existing beliefs.

Additional links:

Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe

Hugo’s profile at the Jean Nicod Institute

The Enigma of Reason, co-authored with Dan Sperber

This episode features a conversation with Celine Novenario, Digital Content Manager at the Global Center on Adaptation. It was recorded in February 2023.

Celine is a multimedia storyteller and strategist who has spent the last 15 years deploying communications outreach for international organizations and think tanks ranging from the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative to the World Meteorological Organisation, as well as the United Nations.

During the latter half of that period, Celine’s work has focused specifically on climate change communication, harnessing the latest digital trends and technologies to amplify associated stories and content.

Amongst other things, we discussed the unique ability of social media and digital communications to drive engagement with new audiences and to provide voices to those who might otherwise be voiceless, as well as how we might better conduct ourselves as climate change communicators in this often overwhelming information environment.  

Additional links:

The Global Center on Adaptation's website and State & Trends in Adaptation report

Climate Interactive En-ROADS simulator

A video about the MoA-Info SMS service for farmers

The amazing Katharine Hayhoe

Pique Action on TikTok

The Kurzgesagt video that's an antidote to climate change hopelessness

This episode features a conversation with Mairi Dupar, a Senior Technical Advisor in the Global Risks and Resilience Programme at independent global think tank, ODI. It was recorded in December 2022.

Mairi, whose expertise lies in climate risk management and ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change, works with colleagues in Africa, South Asia and Latin America on enhancing and restoring ecosystem functions for nature and people as part of a holistic approach to implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change. She’s also worked extensively on social inclusion - especially regarding the rights of women and historically disadvantaged groups - in climate policies and investments.

Mairi has worked at ODI since 2010, where she previously worked as Head of Knowledge Management for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network. She also serves as the Technical Lead of the Knowledge Hub for Gender Equality in a Low Carbon World.

Mairi provides research support for the Climate Ambition Support Alliance, which works to amplify the voice and influence, as well as defend the interests, of small island states and least developed countries in the international climate change negotiations.

Before joining ODI, Mairi worked as a Senior Research Associate at the World Resources Institute. She was also a Campaign Coordinator and science writer at RSPB/BirdLife, working especially on tropical forest restoration, renewable energy and marine conservation.

Amongst other things, our discussion explores where and when certain messengers might not be the best choice, how communicators can work with partners for greater impact, and the importance of always remembering to put things in local terms.

Additional links:

ODI’s website

Communicating climate change - a practitioner’s guide

Free resources from the Climate & Development Knowledge Network

This episode features a conversation with Markus Reymann, Director of the research center and cultural ecosystem, TBA21–Academy. It was recorded in September 2022.

The organisation, which Markus co-founded back in 2011, fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange surrounding the most urgent ecological, social, and economic issues facing the ocean today.

In his role, Markus leads the non-profit’s engagement with artists, activists, scientists, and policy-makers across the globe, catalysing new commissions, bodies of knowledge, and policies that advance the conservation and protection of the ocean.

He also serves as Chair of Alligator Head Foundation, the scientific partner of TBA21–Academy, which maintains the East Portland Fish Sanctuary and oversees a marine wet laboratory in Jamaica.

Markus has presented on art and the oceans at conferences around the world, and represents TBA21–Academy in the Mission Healthy Oceans Board, as an officially endorsed Member of UNESCO’s Decade of Ocean Science, and as an observer at the International Seabed Authority.

Our discussion weaves through the many and varied ways that art can respond to the climate crisis, how it can serve as a bridge between the public and an array of knowledge systems - including, but not limited to - science, and, amongst other things, what sets art apart as a means to connect with an audience.

Additional links:

TBA21-Academy website

Ocean Space in Venice

Joan Jonas - Moving Off the Land II

Jana Winderen - Between Dry Land

This episode features a conversation with award-winning campaigner, Harriet Kingaby. It was recorded at the end of October 2022.

Harriet is an activist working at the intersection of advertising, climate change, and misinformation, and has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, start-ups, and social enterprises to land international climate change campaigns, build brands with purpose, and create behaviour change programs with impact.

She co-founded The Conscious Advertising Network, something we’ll hear plenty about in this episode, and works as Insight Lead at Media Bounty, a creative and media agency that believes environmental and social innovation drives business performance.

After some obligatory Brit-on-Brit weather chat, our conversation gets stuck into all things greenwashing.

Additional links:

Conscious Advertising Network

ACT Climate Labs

Media Bounty

Clean Creatives

Brief Sabotage Handbook

This episode, an extended holiday special, features a conversation with scientist turned filmmaker and writer, Randy Olson. It was recorded in November 2022.

Randy, who got his PhD at Harvard, left a tenured professorship in marine biology to attend film school, before spending 25 years making movies. His output in this field includes documentary features about attacks on science, and a comedy about global warming that Variety called, “an exceedingly clever vehicle for making science engaging for a general audience”.

By 2008, Randy noted that the anti-science sentiment in society was getting serious, and so started writing books, kicking off with Don’t Be Such A Scientist, which discussed the problem of poor communication of science. Around this time, institutions started asking Randy to run workshops, focused on the solution to this communication problem, which Randy believes resides in the power of narrative structure.

He’s since gone on to write many more books, including Houston, We Have a Narrative, which brought Randy to my attention and, well, literally changed the way I think about communication entirely.

He's done TED Talks, won all kinds of awards, and has trained thousands of scientists, students, and government staff in the power of narrative. Randy is a fountain of knowledge and has an infectious energy.

Our conversation taps into one of the tools from Randy’s latest book, The Narrative Gym, looking at how we can close the gap between a hypothetical world where the last 50 years of communicating climate change had gone perfectly and the world we live in where, in Randy’s opinion, it didn’t. Whether you’re a scientist, a journalist, a marketer, whatever, there’s plenty to chew on.

Please be warned, there is a single f-bomb in this episode.

Additional links:

Randy’s new book, The Narrative Gym

Randy’s website, The ABT Framework

Sizzle, a global warming comedy

Randy’s first book, Don’t Be Such A Scientist

The book that brought Randy to my attention, Houston, We Have a Narrative

1985 Royal Society report about Public Understanding of Science

Michael Crichton’s obfuscation paper from 1975