{"id":6143,"date":"2014-11-25T09:04:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T09:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6143"},"modified":"2014-11-25T09:04:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T09:04:30","slug":"the-other-side-of-the-coin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2014\/11\/25\/the-other-side-of-the-coin\/","title":{"rendered":"The other side of the COIN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent\u00a0report \"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.climateoutreach.org.uk\/research-reveals-current-climate-engagement-strategies-are-failing-to-reach-young-people\/\">Young Voices<\/a>\", from\u00a0<a href=\"www.climateoutreach.org.uk\">COIN<\/a>, says\u00a0research shows current climate engagement strategies are failing to reach young people. \u00a0Adam Corner, COIN\u2019s Research Director, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cOur research suggests that many young people care deeply and passionately about climate change. However, there has been a collective failure to talk to young people about climate change in a way that inspires them. \u00a0Too many assumptions have been made by communicators, which haven\u2019t been tested. \u00a0Working directly with young people we have been able to trial a series of narratives about climate change, providing valuable insights for anyone interested in improving communication about climate change with this group.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some of the key findings and recommendations from the report include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For young people, climate change is fundamentally about the \u2018here and now\u2019\u00a0\u2013 describing the effect it will have on future generations, as campaigners and scientists often do, undermines the urgency of the problem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Young people want to hear how climate change relates to (and will affect) those aspects of their everyday lives that they are passionate about \u2013 but communicators must take care not to \u2018trivialise\u2019 the issue by failing to link the \u2018personal\u2019 to the \u2018political\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Fighting organised scepticism is mostly seen as a waste of energy by young people\u00a0\u2013 scepticism is relatively uncommon among the young and talking \u2018solutions not science\u2019 is a much better approach.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Young people often find it hard to talk about climate change with their peers \u2013 there was a fear that talking about climate change would set them apart as \u2018preachy\u2019 or \u2018un-cool\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>There is widespread doubt that there is a \u2018concerned majority\u2019 among the general public who support action on climate change \u2013 communicating a \u2018social consensus\u2019 on climate action may be just as important as the scientific consensus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Young people have very little faith in mainstream politicians\u00a0\u2013 so it makes more sense to ask young people to challenge (not support) politicians on climate policies. \u00a0Campaign messages should clearly set out what needs to be done \u2013 who, when, where and what young people can do to make a difference \u2013 and which policy prescriptions support this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Climate jargon is unfamiliar and off-putting\u00a0\u2013 phrases like \u2018managing climate risks\u2019, \u2018decarbonisation\u2019 and \u20182 degrees\u2019 are seen as hollow and vague. \u00a0People want to hear about specific policies and how these relate to protecting the things people love and are passionate about.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Indeed. \u00a0It's not just the young who are confused, and the heart of the problem lies in the first bullet:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>For young people, climate change is fundamentally about the \u2018here and now\u2019 \u2013 describing the effect it will have on future generations, as campaigners and scientists often do, undermines the urgency of the problem.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But climate change is not\u00a0fundamentally about what is happening in the \u2018here and now', at least not in relation to large impacts. \u00a0Political action and communication has to involve explaining what life\u00a0might be like, if we keep on doing <strong>A<\/strong>, or don't start to do <strong>B<\/strong>. \u00a0And for that, you need evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the EU is only directly\u00a0responsible for\u00a011% of global greenhouse gas emissions \u00a0\u2013 a number that is set to fall, not rise \u2013 which means that the UK's contribution is ~1.5% \u2013 another number set to fall \u2013 and the price of Brent Crude is now\u00a0$80.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent\u00a0report \"Young Voices\", from\u00a0COIN, says\u00a0research shows current climate engagement strategies are failing to reach young people. \u00a0Adam Corner, COIN\u2019s Research Director, said: \u201cOur research suggests that many young people care deeply and passionately about climate change. However, there has...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}