The Climate Crisis and the Global Epidemic of Disconnection

In order to bring people together we must change our communication strategies to adapt to the new world

The bigger issue that I wish I could’ve targeted was the deep disconnect that people have between issues and their own lifestyles. It surprises me that people are shocked and shaken at the Amazon fires but aren’t able to see the reason behind it or their own responsibility towards it.

This disassociation isn’t always a choice. A couple of years ago, I was working on a project in a small, drought-prone, village in Madhya Pradesh, India. While we spoke to the stakeholders about restoration efforts in the region, an overwhelming response was that unless they’re able to secure food and livelihood for their families, they didn’t want to talk about the environment or wildlife. Clearly, conservation still needs to incorporate social and economic dynamics more effectively. On the other hand, people in cities talk about climate change but continuously frequent shopping malls in diesel-guzzling SUVs. How do you convince an entire meat-eating community to give it up? They won’t and your argument will only push them away further.

Where did we go wrong? How does the conservation community fix this?

How do we communicate this science to people without scaring the guts out of them? Lord knows, I have eco-anxiety because of the kind of profession I’m in.

We need people to care and call for action. We also need people to accept drastic changes in their lives — think higher taxes for private transportation, flights and luxury living, increased pricing on high carbon food, higher wages for labour markets in developing countries. These aren’t easy changes.

How do we ensure that the people who are concerned about climate change are also agreeable to these changes? How do we ensure that people start connecting with nature at a personal level and not as something distant or unrelated?

If we are going to stop climate change-induced temperature increases, we will need collective action. In order to bring people together we must change our communication strategies to adapt to the new world. We need to talk about climate change more seriously but ensure that we aren’t painting a doomsday picture. We must give hope of a better future which includes making certain personal sacrifices too. As Václav Havel said, “Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” We must tell stories of hope. Stories that encourage us to do better. Stories that drive human empathy for the planet. Stories that show the beauty, and equally the vulnerability of this beautiful planet.

Because when people start to connect with ‘Their Living Planet’, instead of an impersonal ‘Planet Earth’, we will come together to demand action from the government and accept drastic changes to our way of life in the future.

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