To get conservative climate contrarians to really listen, try speaking their language

It’s a well-studied fact that facts don’t speak for themselves. This is especially apparent with climate change. Some brilliant studies in the past ten years have shown that people respond to narratives about climate change, not raw facts.

People will listen more when they like what they’re hearing. 

We also know that politics, not scientific knowledge, shapes people’s view of climate change. Hence deniers are generally politically conservative, regardless of scientific literacy. That means a climate change narrative that appeals to conservative values is a high priority.

The effects of climate change are potentially catastrophic. Currently, a minority of conservative contrarians, including politicians in several countries, have an outsized influence on our lack of action. It makes sense that a big chunk of our campaigning efforts should be targeted at them.

Read the story from The Conversation by a PhD student in literature from the The University of Queensland, Jamie Freestone - “To get conservative climate contrarians to really listen, try speaking their language.”

Future shocks: 10 emerging risks that threaten our world

It rocked the global economy and threatened to destroy the financial systems that we rely on. Ten years on, some countries are still picking up the pieces.

According to The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks
Report 2018 these are the worlds biggest risks. 

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, we asked ourselves one question over and over again: why didn’t we see it coming?

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2018 says that, in our increasingly complex and interconnected world, this type of shock may become more likely.

Read Alex Gray’s story from the World Economic Forum -“Future shocks: 10 emerging risks that threaten our world.”