Transcript Communicating Urgency – Facilitating Social Change

Communicating Urgency –
Facilitating Social Change
New Strategies
for Climate Change
Susi Moser
Boulder, June 8-11, 2004
Welcome!
The Challenge
The Territory
The Map
The Goals
How We Might Get
There…
or: Will the
Frog Jump
OutTitanic?
of the Boiling Pot?
Turning
the
A frog in water
doesn’t feel it boil in time.
Dude, we are that frog.
Winning
haikuturn
in Grist
Will we
theMagazine
ship in
Competition June 2004
time?
Why the Communication – Social
Change Interface?
What is not seen does not exist
– Detection and naming of problem
– Public agenda setting
What is not understood is dismissed, denied, or
polemically discussed
– Facilitation of informed public discourse
about issue and solutions
How something is framed determines response
– Influence on “issue culture”
What is not talked about exerts no political pressure
– Link between public discourse and political stage
Without knowing about accessible solutions
we will do nothing
– Critical R&D
– Pioneers, models, early adopters
– Promotion
The Difficult Character of
Climate Change
Global
Complex system (with lags and thresholds)
Defined and perceived as slow/gradual or as
occurring in the far future
Difficult to detect
Causes pervasive >> solutions challenging
(we have found the scapegoat and it is us)
Impacts dispersed; not all bad; many
“creeping” phenomena
Cumulative, synergistic
Uncertainty pervasive
Politically very controversial
Public Perceptions of Climate
Change
~90% of American public aware of “global warming”
For ~30% it is personally serious, urgent, worth
worrying about
Still confusion about causes of global warming
Global warming seen as inevitable and unfixable
Related to irreversible deterioration of moral values
Few know about solutions; most are (believed to be)
ineffective or irrelevant
Few if any studies have looked at adaptation; climate
variability
“The typical global warming news story
overwhelms and immobilizes people.”
(Frameworks Institute 2003)
Societal Resistance to Change
Some examples…
Design life of a power plant: 30+ years
Design life of a dam: decades to 100 years
Dominant economic paradigm and supporting
social structures: decades to centuries
Habits: years to a lifetime
Values: change over generations
“The conditions that brought us [anthropogenic] climate
change, as well as the conditions surrounding future
options for dealing with it, are embedded in
socioeconomic structures and value systems, embracing
material advancement and fossil fuels, structures and
values that are highly resistant to change.”
Trumbo and Shanahan, 2000
Communicating…
What shall we say?
How shall we say it?
Who should say it?
To whom shall we speak,
when?
Through what channels?
How might we - and our
message - be received?
Does anyone care anyway?
and
…Urgency…
“If a red light blinks on in a cockpit, should
the pilot ignore it until it speaks in an
unexcited tone?
Exactly how should one point out that there are
too many of us consuming too much stuff,
trashing for short-term profit the life-support
system that we and all other creatures depend
upon? Is there any way to say that sweetly?
Patiently? If one did, would anyone pay
attention?”
Donella Meadows
– Facilitating…
Webster’s: Make possible, make easy or easier,
smooth the progress of, help or assist,
reduce resistance
INNOVATION
INCENTIVES
PROMOTION
PRACTICAL HELP, RESOURCES, TOOLS
REMOVAL OF BARRIERS
Also: Plan, implement, evaluate, obtain
commitments, agree on norms, give prompts
STRATEGY
CONTINUAL ENCOURAGEMENT &
MAINTENANCE
DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
…Social Change
What needs changing? –
how deep do we aim?
Who is changing? –
consumers, human
species, citizens, people
with hearts and minds
Where to start or focus? –
scales of action/behavior
Over what timeframe? –
once or repeat actions?
What is in the way? –
barriers and how to
overcome them?
New Strategies for Climate Change
Working toward…
Research and Action Agendas
Synthesis article in Environment, BAMS
Edited volume of papers emerging from
this workshop
New projects, new collaborations
Having fun along the way…
Challenges for Workshop
Walking Our Talk
– Communicating across disciplinary boundaries
– Communicating across professional boundaries
Theoretical Integration/Complementarity
– Different disciplines
– Levels of social change
Maintaining credibility for
academics and relevance
for practitioners
– Balance of research and
action agendas
Getting there….
Let’s practice what we preach….
Conversation Styles
Based on Kahn (1974) “The Seminar”
Free-For-All
It’s all about winning
– Approval
– Self-esteem
– Recognition
Anything goes
I’m smart…
…you’re not
Beauty Contest
Parading ideas
in bathing suits
and high heels
Isn’t my idea the best?
And while you’re out
front, I’m backstage
prepping for my next
appearance
Distinguished House Tour
Your idea is an
interesting and
beautiful house –
let’s explore it
How well is it built,
decorated? Does it
hold up to poking?
Let’s move on to the
next house…
Barn Raising
Someone offers an
idea
Let’s work on it together
• Let’s use others’
ideas to make the
barn even
better
How do the pieces
fit?
Thank you for being here!