{"id":1741,"date":"2025-08-12T14:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomabate.com\/ruminations\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2025-08-12T14:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:33:15","slug":"could-two-words-kiss-climate-change-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomabate.com\/ruminations\/could-two-words-kiss-climate-change-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"Could two words KISS climate change goodbye?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 35 years of climate activism, David Fenton challenges climate change activists to quit using abstractions such as \u201cexistential threat\u201d and \u201cnet zero energy\u201d to describe the dangers posed by our warming planet and what we must do to help Earth keep its cool.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a guest column<\/a> for FrameLab<\/em>, a newsletter about how our brains filter language to form opinions, Fenton suggests that communicators tend to behave as if supplying facts is enough to change people\u2019s minds. But that approach isn\u2019t working. He cites surveys suggesting that two out of three people \u201crarely or never\u201d hear about climate change or discuss it with friends and family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t necessarily learn from facts alone,\u201d he writes, advising communicators to make their case more persuasive by supplementing the facts with \u201cvisual metaphors, where people can \u2018see\u2019 the problem and the solution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He puts forth \u201cpollution blanket\u201d as a visible, intuitive, easily understandable image \u2013 blankets trap heat and pollution is disliked. People can imagine going to bed under an extra cover and waking up in a sweat. When the Earth sweats, he writes, \u201cit melts the glaciers and makes heatwaves, fires, and storms stronger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The metaphor also makes the solution clear: \u201creduce, phase out, and take down pollution so the blanket will thin, and we can get back to a comfortable temperature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Using that metaphor to break through public indifference will depend on three things: repetition, repetition, and repetition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say, \u2018the pollution blanket\u2019 every time we talk about climate,\u201d he writes. \u201cIn every interview, every presentation, every conversation. The pollution blanket. The pollution blanket. Only when we are sick of saying it will it work to help save planet Earth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fenton, author of The Activist\u2019s Media Handbook<\/a><\/em>, is currently offering a free PDF download<\/a> of the chapter titled \u201cClimate Change: A Communication Failure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Repeating the simple and seeable phrase \u201cpollution blanket\u201d could build public support for change, says the author of The Activist\u2019s Media Handbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCould two words KISS climate change goodbye? - Tomabate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tomabate.com\/ruminations\/could-two-words-kiss-climate-change-goodbye\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Could two words KISS climate change goodbye? 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