Climate change is not a myth or a conspiracy theory. It is a real thing, scientists say. It’s been shouted from the rooftops and written on the skyline, but many make the choice to stand amongst the non-believers. Not believing in climate change or that it is a problem is an impediment because it precludes behavior change toward protective and remedial action to create a more sustainable planet. But before we enter into a blame game, it is important to take a step back and think again whether non-believers are entirely to blame. Maybe the flaw lies in the way messages intended to convince people to buy into the idea of climate change may actually be having the opposite effect. 

Communication strategies to spread awareness about climate change have a tendency to highlight only some aspects of climate change, with the intention of making it easier for people with a lesser scientific background to understand. Yes, everyone can feel and understand the concept of heat, but when winter comes it is likely that many would dismiss the issue of climate change as a silly paradox. Therefore, instead of focusing on the easier to understand aspects of climate change, communication efforts could be directed towards making the technical jargon related to climate change more understandable for the general population so that they have a more complete picture of the issue. 

Campaigns in the past have often drawn attention to the climate change problem by overly emphasizing the adverse consequences of climate change and creating panic. For instance, because of the emergency-like portrayal of climate change, many children began to believe and fear that they were going to die early or suffer from very poor quality of life in the near future. The reaction of many adults to messages of doom due to climate change was to go into denial or feel helpless and seek salvation in their religious faith. Yes, it is an emergency — we have to act now and fast to protect our climate, our ecosystem and our planet. But the basic rule for handling an emergency is to remain calm and focus on solutions. Panic creates chaos. You don’t shout “Fire!” and expect everyone to know how to save themselves and others in an orderly fashion. Announcements about any emergency situation need to be accompanied with instructions about how to deal with the situation. Similarly, calling an emergency situation for climate change could be accompanied by directions about what people can do to ameliorate the climate change problem. The aim should be to create a sense of hope for survival and not fear or helplessness or lack of self-efficacy with respect to one’s own capacity to be the change. 

Finally, there is a category of non-believers who do acknowledge that climate change is real, but do not believe that it is a problem or that anything needs to be done to stop it from happening. There could be two reasons for this. First, the process of unsustainable development leading to the climate change issue started much before any human alive today was born, and the monster it has become today is the consequence of a systemic process. We humans as a race are responsible for it, but generally this group of people may not feel obligated to take personal responsibility.  The “you are responsible for this mess” strategy for fighting this kind of passive attitude would probably drive this group into a defensive mode. Hence, rather than criminalizing humans for inflicting damage to nature, maybe messages targeting this group should portray humans as the victims of the climate change problem, stripped away of their right to live in a safe and healthy environment. Sometimes nothing can motivate someone more than the slightest hint of injustice, especially when the victim is oneself or one’s own. Second, many in this category form their opinions based on a Google search. This is where half-knowledge becomes dangerous. There is some understanding of what climate change is, but not enough to grasp the gravity of the problem. For example, many may argue that climate change has happened before and we humans survived and will survive again. All that this group needs is to be introduced to a Climate Change 101. There seems to be a genuine effort and openness here to understand from a scientific point of view, which is half the battle already won.