The climate crisis is accelerating. Yet the conversation around it remains stuck in an echo chamber of jargon. Tom Rivett-Carnac, the renowned climate strategist, author, and co-founder of Global Optimism, is clear: “We need to stop talking to ourselves.” The climate movement must break out of its usual circles. It must engage those who are not yet convinced or feel excluded from the discussion.
A huge issue is climate communication, Rivett-Carnac says it usually fails to reach outside of existing climate-conscious circles. “[We must] stop speaking in jargon, explain things in language that makes sense to people who don’t have the time to try to engage in all these conversations that we often do, so that they feel there is a way for them to get behind meaningful change, and face the risk, and call for a different future.”
Instead, the narrative must be more human and ultimately more inclusive. That means shifting away from overly technical language towards stories of positive transformation. “We have not properly invested in a shift of narrative that helps people see themselves inside this critical moment of transformation, understand the risk that is coming at them and their children if they don’t do something about it, and help them feel empowered to actually step in.”
The climate narrative needs a fundamental rethinking of how businesses, governments, and individuals communicate. He says “We live in such a noisy world. We’re distracted by things yelling at us all the time, whether it’s commercials or narrative or whatever else it might be, the climate movement has not engaged with that to the degree that it needs to.”
Tom emphasises the importance of collective action and why it is more important than ever for businesses, governments and individuals to work together. He says “[We need a] unified approach, so that we don’t devolve into geopolitical fighting, into nationalism, into fascism, into all these other things that we appear to be on the cusp of.”
Time is running out to make meaningful progress. Tom is clear-eyed about the new scale of the challenge. “To see what is before us and understand the moment that we’re in. If we can all sink into that, if there can be a collective moment that we precipitate in which everybody deeply understands that… I know it sounds simple, but that’s what it’s going to take for people to find the determination and the courage for this to turn into the greatest political movement that we’ve ever seen. That’s what it should be. It should be the great unifier. We’re all facing a common challenge. We all need to rise to it. We all face a common destiny if we don’t deal with it.”
For Tom, the answer lies in how we tell the story of climate action.
You can access the full transcript for the video below. You can also contact Tom via the information below.
Tom Rivett-Carnac
Thomas Charles Rivett-Carnac OBE is a former political strategist for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is also an author on climate change policy, a podcaster and an advisor to corporations and governments on climate solutions.
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