This conversation guide is about talking with the people in our lives about the climate crisis. The controversial aspect of climate change used to be whether or not is was happening. As one participant pointed out in our recent conversation, thankfully we seem to have moved on from that. Now we’re more likely to be talking about what should be done about it. This can mean some tricky conversations with colleagues, family and friends about what we, or they are or aren’t doing about the crisis. And what we as a society should be doing. These can touch on very personal issues like our lifestyle and cultural practices, fairness as well as triggering our emotions around the climate crisis and the prospect of change and upheaval.
There is a lot of good, helpful writing available on the topic of talking about climate change. The material I found most useful had lots of detail and covered different aspects of talking about climate change and how we can learn to have meaningful conversations about climate change. Because conversations about a difficult subject like climate change can have many layers, it takes some skill to navigate everything that is going on for you and the other person with grace, and that will take time and practice to develop.
Talking to people about climate change isn’t easy. Not only are there interpersonal dynamics between us and the person we’re talking with, but the conversation is taking place in a social context that provides more tools for weeping the issue under the carpet than it does for confronting it.
The advice around conversations about climate change talk can’t be covered in one meeting. Like so many of our topics, it’s made up of many parts that are all interconnected. We have to pick out one aspect to look at in detail, but we shouldn’t forget that it’s part of a larger, complex and connected whole. In real life, we’ll be juggling all the moving parts at once, but in our group, we can tease out one thread and look at it closely.
This guide starts with an explanation of a general approach to having better conversations about climate action. Then there are some ideas for conversation starters. Finally, there is a list of the resources I referred to while developing this material. In our group, we normally begin with a question that helps us identify our existing beliefs, ideas and feelings on the subject in the first part of the conversation, before a tea break and then a look at an idea, information or resource produced by an expert.1An expert could be an activist, an academic, a professional or an organisation.
What do the experts say?
Most of these ideas come from Rosemary Randall’s and others’ materials for the Carbon Conversations and Living with the Climate Crisis courses.
They say that it’s a mistake to assume that people would take action if only they had more information. And it’s a mistake to try to use fear to motivate people as this can make people defensive. Instead, we could try to make a genuine connection with the person we’re talking to and make a mental shift from an attitude of trying to convince or persuade to trying to be a help and support. In other words, it means going from talking at or to someone to talking with them.
Some approaches in psychology aim to help people make changes in their lives by supporting them, working together, and asking questions that help people figure out why they want to change and how they can do it for themselves2 See for example, motivational interviewing.. I don’t think we should use therapists’ terminology when we talk to our friends. People probably won’t appreciate attempts at amateur psychotherapy anymore than they want to be lectured. However, I think understanding the general principles of these approaches might be useful. People don’t like feeling that change is being imposed on them and if we can talk with them about their feelings, their circumstances and their reasons for wanting to change we can support them rather than pushing them. If you want to learn more about the theories and research the references are at the bottom of this page.
Introduction for participants: making a mental shift
A week or two ago I took a webinar[link to course] with a sustainability scientist and writer. When asked about how to get people to take action the speaker said, that instead of trying to convince people to take personal responsibility, we can listen to them reason through their problems, take them seriously and give them space to come up with their own answers. She also suggested we could lead by example and approach with curiosity.
But how do we put this change of approach into practice? Rosemary Randall says by
- Learning to listen, understand and empathise.
- Learning to tell stories.
- Learning to think about different audiences and target messages.
This is far more than we can cover in one conversation – each element would make a good conversation in its own right. I think it’s helpful to understand how today’s conversation is part of a bigger strategy that will take time and practice to establish. As always, the principles of safety, choice and control apply. We’re looking at these ideas to see if they could help us, I’m not recommending this as the solution to difficult conversations. Whether or not this is something you want to work on is a personal decision.
Conversation starters
Starting with our experiences, beliefs and feelings.
Remind participants that we might have different thoughts, feelings and experiences around this. And that we might not have paid much attention to these before. We’ll start by thinking about our own experiences of being part of conversations about climate action. Hopefully doing this will allow us to be more aware of what’s going on for us, and it’ll help us understand and support each other as the conversation progresses.
Reassure participants that not everyone will have had conversations like this and that’s okay. Sometimes the conversation topic will resonate with us strongly, sometimes we’ll be helping others to work through a problem that means less to us personally. Either way everyone will get something out of this conversation.
Activity (25 minutes): Give everyone about 5 minutes to see what comes up for them in terms of their own experiences.
Prompt A participant at a previous Conversation described a situation where someone they know talks about something they are doing for the environment. The friend might realise there’s a lot more they could do if they had more knowledge but they don’t want to seem patronising or lecturing.
Question “Can you remember a conversation you’ve had about climate action? What happened?”
Ask if anyone would like to go first. Then go around the circle clockwise, allowing people to tell their story or pass. In a large group you might need to set a time limit.
Make notes on the whiteboard to summarise the main elements of the story. Check with the participant that you have understood what they were saying.
Optional: use the empathy circle approach when people are taking turns to tell their stories.
Looking beneath the surface: what else is going on in our conversations?
The idea that there’s a lot more going on in a conversation is only one part of learning how to do conversations differently. Thinking about all the different things going on in a conversation, and that affect the outcome, is part of learning to listen, understand and empathise with the person we’re talking with. Rosemary Randall and others say there are four levels in a conversation that we might want to think about in order to understand better what is going on for the other person, and ourselves as we talk.
The four levels are:
Content The surface level. What the conversation appears to be about.
Mood The moods and emotions of both people, and the interaction.
Perception How we see each other. Our assumptions.
Agenda What each person wants to get out of the conversation.
Activity: Look at one of the conversations we shared earlier and think about what was going on in terms of the four levels.
- Allow 25 minutes.
- Ask if anyone would like their story to be used. If not use your own or have an example ready.
- Make sure both the four levels and the outline of the story are visible to everyone.
- Put people in pairs if possible so they can bounce ideas off each other.
- After 10 -15 minutes share our ideas. Write them up on the whiteboard.
Question: what do you think about using the idea of four levels in conversations?
References
Carbon Conversations
Living with the Climate Crisis is a course designed to help people manage their emotions and take action on climate change. The second module is about talking with friends, family and colleagues. The Participants Handbook outlines the ideas briefly. The Facilitator’s Guide goes into more depth, but the ideas are still explained in a straightforward style. The Facilitators Guide also describes activities for the sessions that I’ve used as inspiration for our Conversation. They also have practical advice on how to have conversations. Carbon Conversations is an older version of the course that ran from 2007-2015.
Randall, Rosemary, Rebecca Nestor, and Daniela Fernandez-Catherall. “The Carbon Conversation’s Guide to Living with the Climate Crisis Participant’s Handbook.” The Climate Psychology Alliance, 2023.
Randall, Rosemary, Rebecca Nestor, and Daniela Fernandez-Catherall. “The Carbon Conversation’s Guide to Living with the Climate Crisis Participant’s Handbook.” The Climate Psychology Alliance, 2023.
Carbon Conversations archive materials
Climate Outreach
Climate Outreach is a British Charity that provides research and training to help people talk about the climate crisis. Much of their material is aimed at helping groups and activists develop their messaging, but the Britain Talks Climate project and Climate Outreach Handbook are helpful for personal conversations.
Webster, Robin, and George Marshall. “Talking Climate Handbook – How to Have a Climate Change Conversation.” Oxford Climate Outreach, 2019.