Speaking Moylanguage #3: The Green Edition
Young climate campaigners, public communication and the climate transition, scientific disinformation, public opinion, conversations on climate.
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the third edition of Speaking Moylanguage!
This is a special edition for several reasons. It is my first thematic edition, focusing on climate, environmental and green communication. It is also my first collaboration, having shared research, notes and ideas with Cass Hebron - and it was a pleasure! Her own newsletter, The Green Fix, you will find in the skills section below.
A quick overview for the uninitiated:
The newsletter is divided into three sections - stories, ideas and skills.
The content is mostly shared in Google Doc format, with comments enabled.
Please leave comments, share more content, elaborate and ask questions - I do reply, read and appreciate them!
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1 . Stories
Reflections on Young Climate Campaigners
It was impossible to talk about the topic of climate communication without talking about Greta Thunberg. This teenager from Sweden and her cohort have arguably broken the paradigm of climate communication. I this piece I share some notes and thoughts, trying to explore these young campaigners’ style, structure and impact.
Public Opinion and a Greener New Normal
Last year I attended a presentation on a piece of research by More in Common. It surveyed 14,000 people on the impact of COVID on topics like trust, social cohesion, democracy and expectations for an uncertain future. One thing that jumped out at me was the broad support across for the need for a “Green Deal” - a trend that held across demographics and geographies.
2. Ideas
Public Communication and the Green Transition
I recently read a research report from Nicolas Baygert and Luca Iuliano of the ULB’s Institute of European Studies. The main focus of the report was on inducing eco-responsible behaviours in the post-COVID era and the climate transition, but within that conversation emerged interesting themes around what the role of public communication should be within this context.
Contending with Scientific Disinformation
In “Evidence-based strategies to combat scientific misinformation”, Justin Farrell, Kathryn McConnell and Robert Brulle take an interesting and broad view of the US environment. They identify the motivations and sources of disinformation. Ultimately they make suggestions on how to better fight concerted efforts to lie about the climate emergency. This was a real eye opener and I would be really interested in reading similar literature on European contexts if anyone has any recommendations.
3 . Skills
The Green Fix: How to talk about the climate crisis
Cass Hebron comes out with another excellent issue of The Green Fix - a newsletter that shares information and free practical resources on helping fight the climate crisis. In this issue, she explores how to talk about the climate emergency on a personal level, looking at values, language, and dos and don’ts.
Shouting into the Void: Tips for Giving Virtual Talks
Video conferencing is overall better for the environment than being shackled to real life conferences. We are saving energy, creating less pollution by travelling less, reducing our use of paper and ink, skipping out on plastic cups, and limiting food waste. Over the past year I have been settling into this new aspect of my work more and more. Earlier this month, I put together a few tips (some mine, some from others) for a Twitter thread!
Some recommendations
Reads, watches and links from followers and friends:
Via Adrian Hiel: Why do people keep saying “climate crisis”?
Via Sandra Cavallo: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication.
Via Robert Watt: The excellent Stockholm Environment Institute’s “Building Bridges and Changing Minds: insights from climate communication research and practice”.
Via Gary Finnegan: The Debunking Handbook 2020, from the Center for Climate Change Communication.
Via MEP Assistant: This month we saw the first ever EU Twitch channel launched.
A great thread on CV tips from Andrew Stroehlein.
Journalism and statistics team up - the result? Using AI to sniff out corruption in Peru.