Why stories and a little humour help fight climate gloom
Successful climate adaptation needs the support and involvement of the public, but the frequently fearful climate change narrative can be paralysing. How might alternative approaches using humour, storytelling and art help motivate people?
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n existential threat to civilisation”, “a state of planetary emergency”, “‘dangerously close’ to irreversible change” – the headlines covering a recent Nature article, which warned that the Earth may have already passed a series of climate tipping points, made for bleak reading. That the headlines were backed up by a series of compelling data points and a call for urgent international action, offers little to alleviate the sense of dread.
It’s an undeniably serious issue, but do stories of irreversible devastation delivered in sombre tones help activate the public or demotivate them?
Evidence is emerging that quite the opposite approach could, in fact, help deepen public understanding of and engagement with climate issues. Welcome to climate-change humour. Lakshmi Magon, a journalism fellow and science communicator at the University of Toronto, argues that humour can remove some of the immobilising fear factor from climate change. It can help people understand it and find new responses and forms of climate change adaptation, she suggests. Her work cites the likes of satirical environmental reporting by The Onion and late-night US comedy hosts John Oliver and Stephen Colbert.
Egyptian play
There’s research supporting this funny idea too: the results of an experiment published in the Journal of Communicationsuggest humour can make 18-24-year-olds more politically engaged with climate change. In Egypt, a comedy play has helped farmers understand how to better cope with climate change threats. The $7-million project, funded by the World Food Programme (WFP) and managed by the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture, has significantly increased production of some major crops and drastically cut water consumption on the farms involved. The comic element has helped the audience better understand the play’s message, say actors involved.
“If the public are to become engaged with the climate challenge and contribute to achieving net-zero emissions then the wider policy context will also need to be more supportive,” suggests a recent report from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change.
Until recently, much of the success in reducing emissions has occurred “with minimal change or awareness needed from the public,” it adds, but that’s changing: “New, compelling narratives will be needed to inspire and mobilise mainstream participation in solutions, adoption of technologies and change in behaviours.”
Banksy gets the joke. Photo of Banksy graffiti, taken by Dunk/Flickr
Storytelling route
Finding different ways to talk about and prompt action on climate change is also the aim of a group of artists in New Zealand, who want to inspire a cultural response to climate change rooted in storytelling rather than statistics. The initiative brings together choreographers, dancers, composers, musicians, poets and visual artists with experts in mātauranga Māori and scientists, including climate adaptation, land and ocean and freshwater science specialists. The aim of the “What if Climate Change was Purple?” project is to create new artworks that help expedite our response to climate change.
“Both artists and scientists share a curiosity for discovery and ways of communicating while art speaks about human values, emotions and thoughts that are deeply held. Bringing artists and scientists together will hopefully contribute to how deeply and fast we act on climate change,” says Carla van Zon, board member of organisers Track Zero.
Elsewhere, a project in Sweden aimed at helping nine cities become carbon neutral by 2030 comes complete with a chief storyteller. The Viable Cities initiative appointed author and journalist Per Grankvist to help engage the public with the programme and get their help in achieving the goal. A big part of this is to depict and communicate relatable and compelling versions of what a sustainable city might look like and nudging people to change their daily behaviours. Talking about an imagined future city is, in essence, creating a fiction and telling a story.
“We need storytellers because generally when scientists come up with conclusions, they are very non-personalised,” he tells CityLab.
“When you take research out into the public and you want people to connect with it, you have to involve an ‘I’, a ‘we.’ My job is helping people to emotionally connect. When they emotionally connect with an issue, then they engage.”
Vision of the future
Grankvist has only been in post since November, so it’s too soon to know what form his stories will take, but whether they use social, print or outdoor media, the focus will be “practical solutions and existing technologies”. The project wants to present a vision of the future which really understands how a person’s day-to-day life might change – and what might stay the same – as well as what they want from that future on a personal level.
“You have to connect to what people want, their reasons for getting engaged. Some people passionately want to save the planet. Others are concerned, but still want to continue driving and eating some meat. We need storytelling to address both those groups,” says Grankvist, who adds that the story told should be as specific to each setting as possible.
“If you have a city website simply stating, ‘Everyone should stop driving and eat plants instead of beef’ – that isn’t storytelling. That’s advertising, which doesn’t work any longer.”
While they may eschew the doom-mongering style of news headlines, none of these storytelling or comedy projects is avoiding the reality of climate nor the need for greater climate change adaptation. Instead, they offer alternative approaches aimed at deepening public understanding and engagement to help expedite our response. In a world of individual ecoanxiety and a time when a record number of citizens say global warming is personally important, a different climate-change mindset might be just what we need to help us take action.
The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.
