Don't Bring Facts & Figures to An Emotional Fight
Super important tips for growing your impact!
In one way, climate change is all about facts. At the same time, it’s not about facts at all.
I’ve spent a big part of my adult life trying to figure out why we aren’t acting more on climate change. The journey it brought me on has been so eye-opening (and empowering) that I decided to write a book about it. And one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that it’s not all about rhyme or reason because if it was, we would’ve acted decades ago when the realities of climate change first became known.
The realities of climate change are fairly straight forward However, our ability or will to act is very emotional. And the truth is that most of the time, we’re bringing facts and figures to a highly emotional fight.
Sure, one could argue that we have politics and greed to blame for our inaction, but take a closer look and you’ll see that a lot of emotions are lurking behind those doors. Politics tend to get heated because they are filled to the brim with emotions. Not only do we get emotional about certain opinions about right or wrong, but we attach them to culture, values, and norms. And once we stir in culture, values, and norms, it’s not just about what we think is right anymore, but about who we are.
Speak about getting emotional.
But it doesn’t have to get political to become emotional. If you’re someone who’s tried to tell your grandma that you’ve decided to go vegetarian for animals and the planet, you know exactly what I mean. Suddenly your compassionate actions turned into a dangerous and vicious act when she realized you can no longer eat her food. Saying “thanks but no thanks” to your friends is one thing, but when you factor in grandma, we’re suddenly in a whole different story.
The truth is, emotions run a big chunk of our lives. Anyone who’s familiar with the psychological concept of the elephant and the rider knows that once the elephant (your emotions) enters the room, it is incredibly hard for the rider (your rational thoughts) to take control. This is why, when it comes to climate change, we must recognize that we’re trying to bring facts and figures to an emotional fight.
But once we recognize that this “fight” (I prefer the word journey) is, in fact, emotional, things can get rather simple.
Instead of trying to make your point, you can start to focus on how want to make people feel.
In today’s newsletter, I want to share some tips for how to use this knowledge as the most powerful tool in your toolbox, what emotions to aim for and which ones to be more careful with, as well as some tips for saying the same thing but in a very different way.
Let’s get to it!
For onboarding new climate advocates, here are some powerful emotions to consider. Aim to make them feel.
Curious
Excited
Understood/ listened to
Supported
Inspired
Awakened
Why are these feelings important?
Because they allow you to take the guard down and for optimism, participation, and action to take space. The science of optimism says it all so clearly — we need to believe that something is possible to find the courage and the motivation to act. And in order to believe in something, we must allow our minds to wander and our creativity to come out to play. Because when you do, you invite for that tingling sensation that comes with thinking “What if…?”
That is why we must practice staying in a curious and excited mindset. We must hold on to a sense of adventure and wonder because that is the only way we’ll have a chance at co-creating a better world. That starts with letting the guard down so that we can stop defending ourselves and get curious enough to explore something new. This goes for the conversations you have with yourself as well as the people you’re trying to convert.
Here are some emotions that are powerful but that we should be a bit careful with:
Fear
Anger
Shame (can be powerful if you know how to turn it into growth)
Urgency
The feelings of anger, fear, and urgency are commonly used for driving climate action. For many of us, it was these very feelings that initially sparked us to care and want to act. However, and I’ve learned this the hard way, you can’t think of these are your only “fuel”. If you do, you will soon run yourself dry and give into hopelessness and despair.
It’s also easy to get stuck in a tunnel-vision focus where you can’t see further than the issue at hand, and hence lack the ability to creatively think of new solutions moving forward. So although helping someone get angry about the climate crisis is powerful and can ultimately be the entry door for a new climate activist, be careful to use these feelings as your only ammunition.
Make people angry, sure, but give them reasons for hope and excitement too. Let people fear the future if climate change continues to run its course, but combine it with a feeling of being seen and understood, and most importantly — a sense of agency to act — so that it doesn’t lead to complacency and denial.
Emotions to try to avoid altogether:
Hopelessness/ Despair
Apathy
Resentment
I added resentment here because I feel like it can only lead to one thing — finger-pointing. When we resent someone else for the crisis that we’re facing, it’s easy to fall into victimhood and miss the fact that we, too, can take action.
When you’re resentful it is very hard to feel inspired to take action, which can then easily lead to hopelessness and despair. You can be angry with the world and people in power without losing a sense of agency in what can be done. The truth is that so much can be done (I’ll keep pointing back to this example) and we should never forget the power we have as citizens when we choose to come together and act.
Work with the brain, not against it
Nothing about the science of climate change is wrong, nor should we shove it in a corner. It is so important that we stay up to date with our current reality and use it as a guiding light forward, and we should be eminently grateful to climate scientists across the world for telling us as it is. However, as I’ve just explained, working with our feelings couldn’t be more important for paving the path forward.
Here are some examples of how you can bring thought and intention to this highly emotional “fight”.
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