Communicating Climate Change

Climate Action March

Climate Change week ran from 3rd to 9th March. Looking back, what did it achieve? Well, it’s always hard to say. Here in Hereford we had our display in All Saints Church, film evenings, a public meeting, a march through Hereford and we lobbied our MP. How any of this changes peoples thinking and behavior, or political policies, is very hard to say. It’s a cumulative and subtle process. Sometimes one person in an audience of a hundred is inspired to make some changes which over time are really significant and yet those of us in the room on the night may never be aware of how this pattern of change has unfolded. I guess for me the best thing to come out of it is that our MP, Jesse Norman, has agreed to meet on a regular basis with a small group of us to see how we can make progress on this agenda. That feels positive to me. Several people have come up to me in the street and said they have seen the photo and articles in the local papers, or watched John Llewellyn Perkins YouTube video of the demo. It’s all part of that cumulative and subtle process of change.

One of the key changes that we need is to improve the media coverage of climate change. Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, writing in the Telegraph has said “The debate isn’t whether global warming exists- it’s what to do about it.” Unfortunately much of our media still give credence to the barmy army of skeptics, which causes great confusion for many people, not least some of the journalists on our best selling newspapers. Vanessa Spedding, via 38 degrees, has an excellent petition to improve media coverage of the issue. This petition currently has 1,735 signatures. Please add yours now.

John Llewellyn Perkins video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9mJ3oAOSNE&list=PLBFFA4A153F976B23

Vanessa Spedding’s petition on media coverage of climate change https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/to-the-media-please-debate-the-constructive-responses-to-climate-change-not-its-existence