Do Sustainability Conversations Have to Be Divisive?

This story about divisive conversations is part of The Solutions Effect, a monthly newsletter covering the best of solutions journalism in the sustainability and social impact space. If you aren't already getting this newsletter, you can sign up here.

We’ve all seen a notable shift in social impact and sustainability communications in the United States since the start of the year. As a communicator myself, the topic runs around my mind like a hamster on its beloved squeaky wheel in the middle of the night. What’s really happening? Is communication ceasing or simply shifting as it has many times before? How can we encourage constructive conversations about topics that seem to become more divisive each day? 

Plenty of surveys show people still prioritize these issues in daily life, and businesses remain committed to taking action, even if they aren’t talking about it. All of this suggests to me that these conversations are still happening, they just might be happening in new ways. This month, I kept an eye out for solutions stories about how people are opening up new dialogues about the issues we face right now. Here’s what I found. 

Speaking up as a trusted source 

The connection between climate change and healthcare may not be obvious, but things like extreme weather, infectious diseases, and changes in food production all lie at the intersection of climate and health. Primary care providers spend years having tough conversations, building trust, and debunking misinformation with their patients. As a result, many Americans across political parties rank their primary care provider as one of the most trustworthy sources for climate change information, even those who are doubtful or dismissive of the topic. Atlanta care providers are a prime example. They’re talking to patients about how climate change can affect their health, hoping to depolarize the issue, Atlanta Community Press Collective reports. 

That doesn’t mean care providers are lecturing patients on the specifics of climate change. They’re just connecting patient health to what’s happening around them. They might explain how conditions like asthma can be impacted by local air quality, for example. But some hope the healthcare system will take this concept further, offering more training on the topic and interventions like automated heatwave and hurricane preparedness messages or individual climate risk screenings. 

“Our research shows that when people learn about climate as a health issue, it’s depolarizing,” Atlanta-based primary care physician Quratulain Syed told the collective. “So, not only are primary care physicians effective messengers, but the topic of health is something that people can understand and it allows them to approach the issue of climate change in ways that aren’t polarized or colored by all their viewpoints or identities that they hold.” Read more. 

Putting differences aside to find shared opportunities  

As founder of the nonprofit social impact consultancy Renaissance94, environmental and civil rights advocate Daniel Blackman may meet with heads of state, community leaders, environmental activists and fossil fuel executives all in the same week. It’s an effort to bring together unlikely allies by putting aside ideological differences and political disputes to find areas of mutual opportunity, like making a city’s economy stronger while also building resilience to climate change. Breaking down these barriers is necessary to create systemic change, Blackman told TriplePundit earlier this year. 

"We're not going to make everybody happy when we meet with the president or the CEO of an oil company. We're not going to make everyone happy when we meet with someone who is a Republican," Blackman told 3p. "But our job isn't to characterize people, it's to solve problems." Read more. 

Leveraging entertainment to connect and inform

For the vast majority of young Americans, video games are a regular part of life. Gamers build strong communities, often playing with friends and forming social connections online. That includes watching others who broadcast their gameplay on platforms like YouTube or Twitch, called streamers. Recognizing that some of the most popular games center around guns and weapons, leaders at the gun violence prevention organization Project Unloaded wondered if they could reach out to these communities to promote gun safety among children and teens via video games, The Trace reports. 

For its new campaign, Leave Guns in the Game, Project Unloaded partners with streamers to meet young audiences where they are and raise awareness about the dangers firearms pose. It joins live streams to share information and encourage an open discussion about gun violence in the online chat. The campaign focuses on information-sharing and is careful not to associate firearms with gaming. Video games have long been demonized as a cause of mass shootings, but researchers have called that idea a myth, saying the problem lies elsewhere. Instead of perpetuating that conversation, Leave Guns in the Game looks to correct potentially dangerous misconceptions about guns, emphasize safer thinking and provide accurate information. Read more. 

Sharing relatable examples of complicated issues   

It may be hard to imagine the impact of gradually increasing global temperatures over many years. But you can probably remember if a local lake used to freeze over during winter, or notice if it hasn’t in a while. People tend to fail to react to gradual climate change, as our brains normalize the information incredibly quickly, adjusting our typical idea of the weather to match. But events we personally experience don’t have the same effect. They make consequences easier to digest and difficult to feel apathetic about. That’s the idea behind a new study: explaining data in stark “this or that” examples can break through climate change apathy, Grist reports. 

Researchers tested how people responded to a graph of winter temperatures rising over time in a fictional town versus a graph that depicted whether a fictional local lake froze over each year. Those who saw the chart about the lake thought climate change was causing more abrupt impacts, even though the two graphs depicted the same overall data on temperature rise. If scientists want to combat a lack of urgency around climate change, highlighting clear, concrete changes people experience in everyday life might be the answer. Read more.

Finding new ways to tell the story 

Every year, artists use public data released by the New York City government to inform their installations at the Data Through Design exhibition. This year, Michelle Hui asked attendees to join in with an interactive piece called “Aging Out of Place.” It uses mahjong, a game designed to emphasize social connection that’s important in Chinese culture, to demonstrate what it means to grow old in the city’s rapidly gentrifying Chinatown, Next City reports. 

Attendees were given context about the community and the issues it faces, then presented with a mahjong board turned into a map of Chinatown. Moveable mahjong tiles on the board represented buildings vulnerable to gentrification, like libraries and community centers. Fixed tiles represented open-source data on the community and places not vulnerable to gentrification. Attendees were encouraged to add and remove pieces to create a reimagined Chinatown where residents can comfortably age in place instead of being pushed out or sent to an elderly home. 

“One of the reasons I decided to make this game of mahjong so interactive and engaging with the piece is because I think it’s more impactful when people can actually build their own stories and share their own stories,” Hui told Next City. “Ultimately, you want to reveal how people connect to the piece. It shouldn’t be a top-down data thing, and it shouldn’t be a government thing.” Read more. 

Dive deeper into this solution:
Four Words That Don’t Polarize People, TriplePundit
From Fixers to Builders, Stanford Social Innovation Review
What the Trust?: What It Takes To Earn — and Keep — Public Trust Today, TriplePundit
If Restaurants Serve Up Climate Education, Will Diners Pay Attention?, Civil Eats