Scientists need to be storytellers, and storytellers need to include science.
– Dr. Hanna Dijkstra
from the Plastic Odyssey
Science often struggles to translate its findings into real-world change, buried under incomprehensible terminology and concepts too vast to feel tangible. Storytelling is an essential lever for unraveling complexities and impactfully communicating the data and facts. When narratives are compelling, they reach a wider audience and more deeply, increasing climate awareness, and thus motivating real action to combat climate change.
Below are three storytelling principles that any organization serious about climate impact should internalize.
Sustainability becomes digestible when ideas are embedded into the topics people already care about.
The Food Tank and World Food Program USA hosted an event called, Food Security Solutions in a World of Climate Extremes. They invited chef content creators to share how they use their platforms to go beyond their traditional content to incite youth action and sustainable food practices. Third culture chef and cookbook author Jon Kung explained, “When it comes to communicating with your audience, meeting them where they are is the most effective way, especially in times of uncertainty.” He does so by weaving in sustainable cooking practices through the lens of saving money. This is a topic very relevant to young adults, who come to understand that sustainability and money can be closely intertwined and with greater benefit.
Appealing to people’s positive emotions and pleasantly surprising them makes them more receptive to climate messaging.
The Nest Climate Campus put on a session, From Morality to Materiality: The Business Case for Talking About Climate, which explored how to frame climate initiatives as a business benefit and how to resonate with consumers. Eric Asche, President of the Potential Energy Coalition, shared that 89% of participants in a US study agreed that morality messaging backfires. Climate stories need to use joy, hope, humor, even absurdity, instead of fear and sadness to spark urgency into agency. For example, actor Rainn Wilson’s Soul Pancake YouTube channel inspires viewers with videos that delve into social and climate issues using comedy and philosophical storytelling. The most famous video, A Pep Talk from Kid President to You, features a young boy encouraging viewers to “create something that will make the world awesome.” The video leans into his childish qualities of innocence and playfulness, while he ironically wears a suit, applying lighthearted humor in urging adults to uplift each other and make the world a better place.
Art translates nebulous science into mediums that draw people in and allow them to make their own unique meaning.
The Climate Film Festival held a panel, Climate Through a New Lens: Expanding the Changemakers Toolkit with XR, that discussed how extended reality (XR) can be a tool to drive a more just and sustainable future. Award-winning interdisciplinary artist Nancy Backer Cahill created a fictitious, futuristic bio-engineered creature, Cento. She developed a free augmented reality (AR) app that allows people to contribute to Cento’s survival by adding feathers to its body in real time. Cahill envisioned Cento would become scary and eerie, but people’s fun and imaginative nature shifted it into a cute creature they want to return to care for, motivating the agency to act. AR distilled an overwhelming, daunting topic, like the plight of all earth’s inhabitants, into a visualization of one creature. This intimate representation is more digestible and thus, builds a deeper emotional connection to co-existing with other beings during the climate crisis.
Organizations that master how they tell the climate story will shape whether action follows.
These examples reflect something BCG BrightHouse has long believed: that intentionality with context, language, and format is what makes ideas actually land. We bring life and meaning to static, abstract concepts across mediums, audiences, and industries because we know that even the most compelling evidence needs a compelling story behind it.
Notably, climate stories will always be important, not just during Earth Day. Ineffective climate storytelling causes fear, anxiety, and shame, pushing people away from our shared cause. We cannot feed into this, unfortunately, common form of narrative that uses scare tactics and negativity. We need to encourage those on the fence about climate change to fully take the leap over into action, and pique the curiosity of those stuck on the ground to begin peering over the fence.
Integrate messages into what your audience is already interested in; appeal to positive emotions before presenting technicality; and create art to spark visceral feelings and new outlooks. This can seem daunting, but it isn’t something you have to go about alone! Organizations and people globally care and recognize the importance of sustainability. Play to your strengths and find the right experts to partner with so that we, as a collective, can move society from climate ignorance to climate awareness to climate action.
Design:
Abby Hellmann, Senior Art Director, BCG BrightHouse