Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Reading new films politically, or engaging with ecocinema sympathetically, are
elements of a wider project to develop a synergy between media and sustainability
literacy. Online film festivals such as Green Unplugged and associated sites line
www.cultureunplugged.com
are making a considerable contribution to promoting
this synergy. For media educator Antonio Lopez (2012) who, influenced by Bill
Box 10.2
Communicating climate change
In 2006 a study conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in
London found that the climate change discourse in the UK was 'confusing,
contradictory and chaotic' (Ereaut and Segnit, 2006: 7). Although there is today a
recognized scientific consensus supporting the theory of anthropogenic climate
change, popular responses consequently veered between 'everything is too big even
to consider doing something about it' to 'climate change is so familiar that there's
no point doing anything now'. The IPPR's advice to climate change and other
sustainability communicators is to treat the fundamental facts as self-evident and
use deep-seated cultural norms to galvanize interest and action. Possible actions
need to become part of people's practical consciousness. They need to be valued
personally, willingly, and understood and accepted in culturally meaningful terms.
'The answer is not to try to change their radar but to change the issue, so it becomes
something they willingly pick up, because it means something valuable in their own
terms', with communicators marketing 'climate-friendly everyday activity as a brand
that can be sold' (Ereaut and Segnit, 2006: 28). Climate-friendly behaviours must
therefore feel normal, natural, right and 'ours'. Uncertainties about the future need
not lead to negative responses if these uncertainties are framed with caution,
highlighting the ways in which loss may be avoided or mitigated (Morton
et al
., 2011).
The National Center for Atmospheric Research's Institute for the Study of Society
and Environment in Colorado hosted a three-day conference on climate change
communication in June 2004. From this emerged the Boulder Manifesto, which
significantly encapsulates a dialogic approach to climate change communication and
social change which its authors believe will nurture efficient, adaptive, resilient and
sustainable understanding and action. Its five propositions state that climate change
communication:
•
will stimulate a dialogue on hopeful visions of future everyday life through
democratic means;
•
will create a future vision that addresses immediate societal issues and
needs while linking them to larger, systemic climate change issues;
•
will acknowledge and incorporate the diversity of local cultures and practices
that contribute to a sense of place;
•
will be concerned with the design of institutions that promote adaptive and
resilient, life-enhancing practices and lifestyles;
•
will embody the change, demonstrating that personal climate-friendly
lifestyles can eventually lead to change in the system as a whole.
(Harriss, 2007)
