It isn’t too late…yet

Although global warming is a slow-rolling catastrophe for humanity, it ranks only 24th among the list of issues that Americans will consider when they vote in November. Most people aren’t worried about it. Most people aren’t talking about it. It seems hardly anyone cares.

The Los Angeles Times features a discussion with a former PR executive turned political activist, David Fenton, who has written a new book called The Activist’s Media Handbook.

Fenton argues that climate activists will never succeed until they disavow their distaste for marketing. Activists, especially those affiliated with progressive causes, love statistics and studies and facts. They love complex, nuanced arguments. They love high-brow buzzwords (“emissions” rather than “pollution,” for example). So, they craft their messages accordingly, and most times those messages fail.

Fenton urges climate activists instead to create “moral stories that tug at the emotions.”  And not necessarily stories about endangered wildlife or endangered forests – moral stories about how you and I and our families will be affected by climate change. But hopeful stories, not ones filled with gloom and fear, and certainly not lectures and scolding. Stories that compel people to vote and act told using language people can understand.

The columnist who spoke with Fenton summarizes the perspective of too many activists:  “I’m no fan of marketing either. I’m part of the problem Fenton is bemoaning. I’m reluctant to oversimplify or condescend to my audience, and I worry that heart-tugging, emotion-driven arguments are manipulative. I like to believe that adults can be persuaded with facts, science and rational arguments.”

But this is a silly, childish perspective. For one thing, a moral argument is a rational argument. Second, adults are not persuaded by facts and science alone. As Fenton argues, it is time to let go of that fantasy and shift to reality-based thinking before it is too late.