If I look back in time to the year that I first started following the news, there hasn’t been one without some kind of ‘disaster’ story. That is because indeed we have had disasters, but more often than not: the event happened, it was narrated with a big story that made first pages on newspapers ( giving some kind of hope that things were going to change) and then.. puff.. disappeared to leave space to the next political scandal or next disaster. Diseases, tzunamis, floodings, fires, wars, financial collapses.. Even right now there are multiple ‘disasters’ happening.
With the war of course occupying most of our mind space dedicated to ‘disasters’ (in part because it’s what the newspaper focuses on, in part because of the consequences for money - i mean, how can you not think about it when your bills quadruple and filling your car with fuel feels like you might as well be putting diamonds into the tank?). But a big flooding event happened in Australia this month, Europe is under drought, with risks for food production and risks of wildfires (the next disaster topic, I bet), the great barrier reef is experiencing the fourth mass bleaching event …etc… Oh.. And they found first evidence for plastic in human blood! Well. We are what we eat. And there is plastic in food . And when plastic degrades it just becomes smaller and smaller… Go wonder this was going to happen. ‘Disaster’ is becoming the new normal. I recently listened to an interesting podcast about ‘catastrophes’ and how these are not occurrences but are the way in which the ‘modern state’ renews itself. But what if we are no longer able to give the right weighting to disaster? What if disasters are just everyday things, and they enter one ear, exit the other, because, how can you cope with disasters or care about them when you have a life to move forward? Even those of us with a lot of energy may struggle. Especially when things are not so relatable or feel like they are external to us. But the latest IPCC report was clear. Climate change is NOT something to ignore. So how should we communicate about Climate change? And climate related disasters? How can we make people relate? It’s obvious that the current narratives are not working. On one hand narratives of doom and gloom are so tiring for people, and if they are not given actions / solutions.. why should they listen? Plus the ‘apocalyptic’ narrative has a lot of similarities with the ‘conspiracy’ ones that one may be even weary.. Using too many sciency words (guilty of that! ) is also likely to make people feel detached from the problem. Talking about the consequences in terms of costs may be more effective -like the take home message of this ted talk : “I no longer care about climate change, but I care about the social, financial and security impacts it will have on me”. Very anthropocentric. But what if this view is the one that will make us act ?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Disclaimer: some posts may contain affiliate links. At no extra costs to you, buying through the link will help me in this blogging journey!
Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|