Communication

I’ve been impressed for some time by Climate Outreach in the UK. Their small team studies effective ways to deal with the climate crisis - and a couple of my own recent presentations show how other writers use ones that provide hope. Here are some of the key findings from their 2024 report on how Britain Talks Climate. Read the full report.

• They found that no demographic or segment of the general population opposes climate change as a reality that requires action.

• People believe climate change is the job of government - without necessarily feeling that their current government is doing enough.

• They want to work with others in tackling it - not just on an individual basis.

How we talk about it matters:

• Don’t assume that others don’t think it matters. They do. They will differ on the process, but they do care.

• Don’t make people more worried. They are already anxious enough.

• Talk about the progress that is already underway and its benefits.

• Make the connections - a healthy planet, a resilient nature, our own well being.

• Recognize that for many change is scary and times are hard.

Things to avoid

• That climate change is all about more hardship and sacrifice.

• Drastic approaches that are against common sense

• Pitting different aspects of nature and climate change against each other.

The also have good ideas about images and what ones work like the one used here.

The Power of Words

We are seeing how words can mislead, wound, charm and heal these days. A phrase that some use to seek justice make others feel threatened. Words can suggest a context that excludes. Historians have pointed out that the first characters that some children met in books caused the readers of Dick and Jane to feel excluded, because their lives were not like those of middle class suburbia Nearly all such books were boring. There wasn’t much to observe except to see Dick run. Jane and Sally apparently didn’t.

But one author changed everything. Instead of green lawns with no weeds we were catapulted into the world of an invasive cat who made a mess of the house when a mother left for the afternoon – and not even a fish in a bowl could save it.  It didn’t take a ton of words to tell an interesting story for us and a different Sally – and rhymes made The Cat in the Hat memorable using only 222 different words. In a later triumph, the legendary Dr. Suess won a bet of fifty dollars when Bennett Cerf challenged him to write a book using only 50 words.  He did even better by using only one word of more than one syllable – anywhere.  Remember Green Eggs and Ham?

The Beginner Books were fun – both for parents to read and children to listen to at first -and then recite. It changed the children’s book publishing in terms of illusrations and it made reading fun. I notice that many Suess books can be downloaded and listened to on a tablet rather than being read by absent mothers and fathers. That’s rather too bad when those early readings created family bonds and bouts of laughter and maybe the Cat should point that out.  The Suess texts later became much more sophisticated and handled topics like disarmament and the environment.

They still come back to me with a line or two from Too Many Daves whose mother lacked imagination in giving her twenty-three sons the same name – which meant they never came when she called them. Some more interesting alternative names were suggested . . .

“And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey.

And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.”

The last word here was always well received – but my all-time favourite was – and still is:

“Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.

Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.”

 It was good to imagine calling people funny names - even insulting ones in a story, even though you weren’t supposed to do that in real life.. Maybe the other lesson was that Mothers didn’t always get it right,

Civility

Is it even possible in politics? The new game is, “Be as nasty as possible toward the OTHER”. As I watch our American neighbour I am struck by how it always has to have something or someone to be against to affirm its own identity. When that stopped being Russia, it turned inward and was against gays and then moved on to trans-sexuals. But now it is anyone in the other party. And politicians say it is ok for a presidential nominee to denounce the military just because the other party is equally nasty. Has it really come to this?

As observers of events in other parts of the world, some Canadians perhaps are less judgmental but we have not the same history as many others who live here. That’s why I would highly recommend a book I came across recently with the title The Wall Between, What Jews and Palestinians don’t Want to Know About Each Other. The authors, who represent both faiths turned their own conversations into a useful book that details history that most of us have neither lived through nor understood. What they have tried to share is a principle of justice. We’re at a very early stage of awareness let alone judgement. It’s a place to start.

Promises?

I’ve been away from writing here for some time since I am working on other projects. Nevertheless I feel compelled to share some things to watch at the coming COP28 Climate summit from an article in the Guardian. the Cop28 president, Sultan Al Jaber, is the CEO of the UAE’s state oil company, Adnoc. He contends that only someone in the fossil fuel industry can call the others to account.

He is also head of a renewables company. But here are some of the problems:

• Adnoc has a terrible record in reducing emissions. They have huge expansion plans.

• The United Arab Emirates also fail to report methane emissions for almost a decade.

• The industries spend their profits on new exploration. It is clear that new resources become much more challenging to find - and getting them out of the ground costs energy in the process. That means our costs will rise to help them stay in business.

• Renewables can’t come fast enough to save us, if they don’t change to renewables themselves.

So we can watch this rather bizarre scenario and see what happens!

Power & Energy

We in the west are the beneficiaries of the development of energy originally produced by the burning of coal. I am old enough to remember the arrival of the coal man who provided fuel stored in the basement of my house - a scary person, because he was necessarily covered in soot. Later the oil truck arrived to deliver fuel. Still later, my father had a heat pump installed in a newer house - in the late 1970s. His motivation probably had little to do with saving the planet, but saving money.

Canada is blessed with much electricity produced by hydro electric power and my province has more resources than others. But it is human power that also plays a role. There is news this morning that young people in Montana have been successful in suing their state government asking for the right to “a clean and healthful environment” through a provision relating to energy projects. It’s the first successful case following a number of others started by young people. The impact on climate has to be a consideration in approving projects, and more rulings will now have a better chance of success. The suit was brought on behalf of the Children’s Trust and it involved 16 young people aged 5=22.

The oldest of these will be 49 in 2050. I have a friend who is now in his 102nd year and he has said that he thinks 144 would be a good age for a lifetime. He is a retired professor and when he retired at 75 as a University professor, he thought working five hours a day on academic research would be a good aim. He still does - without either a TV or a computer - but attends both opera and Blue Jays games as a fan. His environmental impact is much lower than mine - and since he has never driven a car, it undoubtedly is.

The likelihood of his making age 144 is small. But the politicians who want to slow down the use of climate change might think about how old they will be in 2050. The premier of Alberta will be 79 that year. I’m in a better position than she is to imagine what life will be like for her then. She won’t have her current job. She may have health issues relating to climate change or be affected directly by floods or fires. But basically she will have left the problem of pausing the support of renewable energy for a bit - as she has just done- to the current five and 22 year olds. I wonder how she will feel then.

What we generally lack is imagination and a realistic picture of human nature - the latter with its combination of strength and limitations. Politicians start with the best of intentions - to make the world the better place. After a term of office the intention becomes to stay in office. They like power after having a taste of it. Companies are good at telling us that climate change depends on us as individuals so they can keep doing what they do, which is to make a profit. They like power too.

That doesn’t mean that individual actions don’t count. I continue to recycle in the hope that at least some of my trash gets re-used. I send letters to my premier urging him to reconsider his original promise to retain the Greenbelt. Individuals matter - but governments and movements matter even more. Young people are teaching us that the law matters. What if all these elements converged? That’s a story that imagination could start to tell.