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Climate One

REWIND Finding the Heart to Talk About Climate

Climate One

Climate One

News, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science, News Commentary

4.7585 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ever have a difficult conversation about climate? Pretty much everyone has. Knowing all the facts and figures only goes so far when talking to someone who just doesn’t agree. So how do we break through the barriers? Scientists trained to present information in a one-way lecture format face a particular challenge: they first need to unlearn old habits. “Everybody's trying to figure out ‘how do we move past this idea that just arming people with facts will lead to a better world,’ right, because we’ve just seen that that’s absolutely not true,” says Faith Kearns, author of Getting to the Heart of Science Communication.  Kearns argues that we all need to move from an “information deficit” model of communication – where it’s assumed that the audience simply needs more information – to a relational model, where the science communicator does as much listening as talking in order to first find empathy and common ground. Guests: Faith Kearns, author, Getting to the Heart of Science Communication Katerina Gonzales, doctoral research fellow, Stanford University Support our work: climateone.org/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

AI is incredible. They can teach you how to fry an egg and even write a poem, pirate style.

0:07.0

But it knows nothing about your work. Slackbot is different. It doesn't just know the facts.

0:14.0

It knows your schedule. It can turn a brainstorm into a brief and it doesn't need to be taught.

0:20.0

Because Slackbot isn't just another AI.

0:23.3

It's AI that knows your work as well as you do. Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more.

0:31.5

This is Climate One. I'm Greg Dalton. Why is talking about climate change and the science behind it so hard?

0:38.3

Everybody's trying to figure out how do we move past this idea that just arming people with facts will lead to a better world, right?

0:46.3

Because we've just seen that that's absolutely not true.

0:49.3

Scientists are taking lessons from other fields to learn how to reach people on a deeper level.

0:55.0

The only way I've learned how to communicate is by practicing and doing and failing a lot.

1:03.0

And it's not just scientists who are trying to find more effective ways to talk about the climate emergency.

1:08.0

We ended up having about a 50-minute conversation because not only was he a climate change

1:14.3

denier, but he was also very well versed in all of the denial talking points.

1:19.7

Why is it so hard to communicate the science of climate disruption?

1:26.8

More than half of Americans surveyed by Pew have talked about climate change one to two times in recent weeks, and that number is even higher for Gen Z and millennials.

1:35.3

Majority of all groups surveyed think climate should be a top priority to ensure a sustainable future.

1:42.3

While that data may be encouraging,

1:44.9

scientists have been ringing the alarm on climate disruption for decades.

1:49.1

They often speak from their brains with facts and figures as they've been trained to do.

1:53.8

But that approach only goes so far.

1:56.1

In her book, Getting to the Heart of Science Communication,

1:59.4

Faith Kearns offers other, perhaps more effective,

...

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