The most important thing you can do to fight climate change this Thanksgiving
It’s not eating organic food or making sure all your bottles and cans are recycled (but don’t NOT do that!).
It’s talking about climate change. Studies have shown that merely talking about the climate crisis is one of the most important ways to spur awareness and action.
An act as simple as talking to your social circle (think friends, family, guy at the next cubicle over) about the climate crisis can jumpstart a feedback loop leading to greater awareness and concern.
According to the researchers, it goes like this:
1. When people talk about the climate crisis with people they know, they’re more likely to learn key facts. Most important, they’re likely to learn about the clear scientific consensus on climate change being real and human-caused.
2. As people learn about the scientific consensus, they begin to believe the crisis is happening. They also get more concerned. Significantly.
3. Greater belief encourages greater discussion of the issue, which starts the cycle again. More discussion. Greater belief. Greater concern.
So, you understand the why. But how should you approach what could be an awkward conversation, especially if cranky Uncle Dale is there. It’s important to find common ground. For us, it’s beer, and a great example of climate impacting beer is the freak storm that hit Texas this year, shutting down beer production at breweries across the state. Or the drought impacting barley yields, which could result in higher prices.
For you, it might be family members, beloved vacation spots or a favorite sports team.
We’ll let EcoAmerica take it from here: (Check out EcoAmerica’s Let’s Talk Climate guide, too!)
Don’t despair, prepare!
Climate conversations don’t have to be filled with conflict, and the dinner table can offer some of the greatest opportunities to talk productively about climate change. To help, ecoAmerica offers guidance on how to speak authentically and effectively on climate, from words and phrases, to building your own authentic narrative! You can also watch a short skit, created in collaboration with our partners at Climate Resolve, that playfully illustrates a Thanksgiving dinner conversation-gone-wrong, then right.
Key strategies in talking about climate:
1) Make it personal. Connect over a shared value, concerns or experience. You can acknowledge not everyone’s on the same page — but we all have things that will be impacted by climate change, if not already.
2) Talk about the real changes that are happening. Record devastation from wildfires. Increasingly violent and more common hurricanes. Destructive floods. Warming temperatures. We’ve seen it all in the last few months, alone.
3) Listen to their personal experiences. Be empathetic. Don’t be accusatory, condescending or negative. We are looking for solutions.
4) Speaking of: talk about the solutions we have at hand. Wind power. Solar power. Wind farms in the ocean and across the plains. Cheaper electric vehicles. Science that’s turning carbon into jet fuel and clothes! We know green energy is cheaper now than dirty fossil fuels. A green economy is a jobs economy. An innovative economy. A growing economy.
What’s your story? Why do you care? These personal connections matter.
These conversations can be difficult and awkward, but done right, they can be a catalyst for change! Good luck and happy Thanksgiving!