Framing to overcome fatalism and drive action
Conversations about climate change can’t wait—but they must be navigated carefully. The right frames avoid dead-end debates and despair. To build political will for climate justice, we must deepen understanding, inoculate against resignation, and broaden support for systemic solutions.
What the Research Tells Us
Avoid crisis framing.
Climate change is urgent, but research shows that leaning on crisis language actually leads people to feel overwhelmed and to disengage. Balance urgency with efficacy by highlighting real solutions.
Maximize your metaphors.
Translate the basic mechanism of climate change by explaining that burning fossil fuels releases excess carbon dioxide, which builds up like a heat-trapping blanket in our atmosphere, disrupting nature’s delicate balance.
Keep people in the picture.
Don’t rely solely on stories about harm to iconic animals or their ecosystems. Also talk about the ways that a disrupted climate system is harming human health and wellbeing.
Resources / Climate Change & Environment Resources
Reframing Farming: Strategies for expanding thinking about agriculture
As most of us now lack personal experience with farming, we also lack ways to understand what farming involves, who it involves, what is required to stay in business, and how it affects our environment and society as a whole.
December 22, 2022