Can you Scare People Green?

Denise Baden & Sue Lickorish

Introduction by Sue Lickorish

This was such an engaging and inspiring session to join, and I highly recommend watching it.

Weaving her multiple strands of work, Denise Baden is bringing SF into play in personal, actionable ways for some of our biggest shared challenges.

She begins by evidencing how we are more inspired by positive role models of climate action than by scary stories. She goes on to share creative ways to engage pp with climate communication and encourage personal action.

I see Denise as a real-life action heroine: an academic, activist, climate-fiction-writer and visionary, she doesn’t just talk it, she’s DOING it. I was blown-away inspired by this positive role model for SF and climate action.

I left with hope in my heart and a skip in my step. I hope you do too.

Download Denise's slides below

The assumption behind many climate communications is that to report on any positive progress would lead to complacency, and that if people know how bad things will be if they don’t act now, then we will all give up flying, go vegan and campaign for climate policies.

In this presentation, I explore the evidence for such assumptions drawing upon my research in contexts such as news journalism, education and climate fiction. Results indicate that solution-focused narratives are more effective than problem-focused narratives at inspiring behaviour change, and less prone to unintended consequences. I finish with examples of how the findings apply to other issues too, and some do’s and don’ts for effective communication.

The Presentation

Listen on SoundCloud