Organizing at the grass roots

Tip 1. Use a simple conversational style

Organizing and building at the grassroots is important, time consuming, but vital. Basic here is connecting with another person, not standing in a corner waiting for the person to ask you! Climate activists often encounter people who do not want to discuss climate change or do not want to acknowledge their energy dependence on fuels with emissions from coal, gas, and oil. A few guideposts are helpful to get these conversations going, to make us more confident and skilled, and, ideally, to help induce more people over time to break their addiction to fossil fuels. A basic conversational style is important for all encounters with others.

• Be well prepared. To boost your confidence and to present the climate change perspective persuasively, familiarize yourself with the most recent news related to climate change, the flooding in Kenya, the fires in Los Angeles, the hurricanes in Florida, and some simple facts and figures. Have the materials ready, such as a petition, pen, paper, general information, flyer, and your contact information. If you have a petition, know the basics of what the petition is about, so when asked what it’s for, you can answer in 10 seconds without hesitation. Look and dress like your desired audience, do not chew gum, avoid being unkempt, stand straight, look people in the eye to connect, and always offer options.

• For those skeptical of climate change or hesitant to embrace even a bit of it, do not throw science or IPCC reports or books at them. Instead, first seek to build trust and then strengthen that trust.

• Start by thinking positive. Welcome the people you converse with. Being calm opens our ears and emotional receptors to listen and respond. This will help the other person feel respected and not threatened. Relax and be friendly to help your voice and body language be conducive to a conversation.

• Start small. Our grassroots sensibility has taught us that small groups or one-on-one conversations are the easiest ways to communicate. If possible, have a one-on-one at a public location where you can get to know each other even better. Unlike sending an email or even calling on the phone, talking “close up” makes it easier to find common ground and feel united.

• Seek to connect repeatedly. Often we believe that person will change if you manage to say climate change over and over. Instead do your contacting near where you know you will meet again in trust building.

• Search for that common ground. Discovering similar life experiences and issues that resonate for both of you is best, the fish you caught, the football game you saw, the clothes you wear. Bring in gradually the issue of energy, and fossil fuels,for example in how much we cook, in the food we eat, in the work we do. Avoid that we/they situation, where he or she feels you are the enemy or stupid, and you feel the same.

• Listen respectfully and allow the other person ample time to voice an opinion or perspective, which may be very different from your own opinions. Be prepared to speak little.

• Ask questions to help yourself understand why the other person has that opinion, perspective, and experience. Also ask questions to ensure the other person feels heard and acknowledged. How might that person relate to the issue of climate change or fossil fuel energy?

• Avoid long or big words, keep your sentences short. President Trump’s success comes partially from talking simply. Hardly any other politician can communicate so well – ignoring the content of his messages.

• Share stories. Your own first-hand experiences with energy are powerful tools for communication and illustrate that energy is a real part of our lives. Describe what drove you to start thinking or not thinking about energy, or fossil fuels, or climate change, or renewables.

• Connect the energy issue to things that interest the other person, such as job stability, financial burdens, food and water availability, traffic, transportation, tree die-off in a local forest or tree planting projects.

• Do not expect immediate agreement that climate change is a problem or that the listener will join you at once. Building trust between you is more important and basic than getting the message out we are all going to fry.

• Talk about successful stories related to renewable energy and regeneration of ecosystems to those more receptive, but do not push it. The minute you talk about a solution such as renewables to a passionate COG cohort, you turn off that chance for communication as (s)he thinks, “aha another one of those climate freaks.”

• Above all, reach out. Do not expect the stranger to come to you, rather anticipate you will have to go meet the stranger. That is one reason urging signing a petition about a climate issue can open the closed door a crack, well what is the petition about.

In brief, in reaching out use every conversation as an opportunity to foster awareness around the energy problem. Depending on the person, generating this awareness could be short and simple, or take months. Every conversation is an opportunity to build a foundation for change in the mindset against a doublethink pounding away that coal oil or gas or greenhouse gases are not a problem.

The above is just a summery from multiple sources:

Klima, in Germany,https://klima.com/blog/how-to-talk-about-climate-change/

The David Suzuki Foundation; in Canada, https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/how-and-why-to-have-climate-change-conversations/

https://davidsuzuki.org/climate-conversation-coach/

Climate Outreach https://climateoutreach.org/awkward-climate-conversations/

The Climate Reality Project https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/starting-conversation-five-tips-how-talk-climate-deniers-your-family

Climate Emotions Conversations from Climate Awakening, https://climateawakening.org