Are you struggling to find ways of talking to people who simply don't believe that climate
change is happening? The vast majority of people formerly have used from their social
interactions to people around them, which is why those conversations are so important.
And the people that they listen to are the people who seem like them, share things with
them and seem to have something in common. Actually, you have more in common with people
than you might think. We all have a lot more in common with each other than we have in
difference. This is the starting point. And of course, if you're talking with somebody
who you already know, maybe you know what you have in common with them, maybe you work
in the same place, maybe your members of the same family, it might be that you have other
things too. Because you're seeking that common ground, it's really important that you don't
go into this as an argument that you think you are going to win or lose. Because when
you have an argument with somebody, what you're emphasizing is the difference between you,
not what you have in common. That's why often conversations turn into a row. I bet that's
also a good reason why you might want to avoid the conversation altogether in the first place.
And sometimes, people who don't accept climate change can be highly argumentative. They can
sometimes be quite aggressive with their views. Skeptic is a bit of a problem too. Skeptic
is a word that suggests that what a skeptic does is they weigh up all the evidence very
carefully, but then they're not sure about it. But actually, that isn't what skeptics
do. Because if they did do that, they'd actually accept the climate change that's happening.
So let's use a nice word. Let's call them from now on. Let's call them dissenters. Dissenters
are people who sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong, but there's definitely
quality and value in the fact that they dissent. So going back to the experience we all hold,
remember, we all have within us a kind of roadmap for what works or what doesn't work
for communicating. Think about what has really changed your views on the people you've met.
Well, I bet they were respectful. I bet that they found a common ground. It is important
when you tell people the views that you hold, that you explain the process by which you
came to them. In other words, that you talk to them about your personal journey. Talking
about your journey, it sounds like some kind of marketing cliche. It's not necessarily
as blatant or as rough as that. It's explaining to people that you yourself have been on a
direction from a situation where, like them, you're establishing the common ground, you
did not accept that there was a problem to a situation where now you do. And what climate
change feels like, all of the rules have shifted, the ground has shifted. So much of a language
of climate change appears to be about taking things away from people, how they're going
to have to have less, how they're going to have to have a smaller car, a smaller house,
or not fly for their holidays and so on. And many people see this as actually pulling
the rug from under their feet, especially just at the time that they feel that they
finally actually managed to stand up properly. You need to recognize that when you talk to
people. Rewards are really important. After all, rewards are the reason why anybody wants
to do anything and climate change is a huge issue. Overwhelming, it can be frightening,
it can be terrifying. If people sense in their engagement with you that it's having those
effects on you, they may very reasonably decide they don't want to change their views and
accept climate change. Many people already keep themselves in the state of quite deliberate
under information about climate change for this reason. On the internet, scarcely a minute
of looking around and giving you as much information as you would, you actually ever
need to make a decision on it and people deliberately keep it at arm's length. So when it comes
to rewards, it is partly in your own actions, in your own behavior showing that it is adding
something to your life and the meaning of your life. But it's also recognizing the values
of the people you're speaking to. And often for people who do not believe in climate change,
they nonetheless have very strong values in other areas. These are often people who are
very strongly invested in their community, in their family, in a social life. They can
often be quite traditional in the sense that they have a very strong sense of identity
in place. And these are all the kinds of values to speak to in terms of giving rewards. And
you know, we can also decouple the big issue, which is climate change, from the solutions.
Because you don't have to accept the whole package of climate change in order to see
the reasons for solutions. And one of the things we know psychologically is if people
start on a set of actions, for example, they start insulating their homes, they start traveling
differently, they start maybe consuming differently. But those actions alone, even if they don't
yet fully accept climate change, can bring behind them a change in attitudes. It makes
it so much more possible, if you're changing the way you live, to accept that there might
be a wider global reason for that change.
