Six ways to change hearts and minds about climate change
Climate change has become the greatest threat to our planet and everyone on it. What we say about climate change and how we say it matters. It affects how people think, feel and act.
At Greenhouse, we’re passionate about creating stories that build awareness and drive meaningful change. A well-framed story can make people feel empowered to take action, which is why we’re delighted to support the Climate Stories that Work campaign from On Road Media.
Funded by the Climate Change Collaboration, Climate Stories that Work outlines six framing techniques to improve public understanding and inspire the action we so urgently need:
- Make it do-able and show change is possible.
- Focus on the big things and how we can change them.
- Normalise action and change, not inaction.
- Connect the planet’s health with our own health.
- Emphasise our shared responsibility to future generations.
- Keep it down to earth.
What does this mean in practice?
When we’ve consistently heard how drastic a problem is, the odds of overcoming it seem small. We know there are big problems, but we don’t believe they can be fixed.
Messaging needs to focus on pairing problems with the ability to fix them. Messages that convey that action on climate change is do-able make people want to learn and contribute to solutions.
Example:
BEFORE
“Climate change is the biggest challenge we face. Life on earth is in crisis. Our house is on fire and our leaders are not listening or acting. In fact, many of them are fanning the flames.”
AFTER
“We face major threats to the future of our planet and human life on it. But we have it within our power to repair and restore our world. Our leaders can and must act now.”
By using this framework, communicators can spark a new way of thinking about climate change, which has action at its heart.
Download the ‘Six ways to change hearts and minds about climate change’ PDF here.
Watch this film showing the difference in how we talk can make to people’s reactions to climate – tested on the street.
We hope you will find this guide useful – our team will be using it to frame our campaigns moving forward. Together, we can tell the stories we need to tell to drive and normalise action.