How can we get more people to take action against climate change?
This is such a great question! Taking climate action is really important for stopping or reducing the climate change impacts that we might face. The more people who take action, the more we can collectively curb these impacts.
To understand how to get more people to take action, we need to think of why they might not be taking action already. One reason might be that people don’t know how to take action or where to find information to learn about taking action. In this case, we know that climate conversations are really helpful. Talking to your friends, teachers, neighbours, parents, and other family members about what climate change is, what it means for the world, and what each of us can do to take action, can be a catalyst for people to make changes they might not have done otherwise. In fact, some recent research shows that children build climate change concern among their parents and are key to encouraging parents to take action. You can have your own climate conversations with your parents or other people you know, telling them why climate change is such a big issue and what they, you, and we all can do to take action and make a difference. Check out the Curious Climate Schools website for lots of suggestions on small to bigger ways we can all take climate action.
Another reason that people might not already be taking action, is that they are overwhelmed by the climate emergency. They might be sad or angry about climate change and not think that their actions can make a difference. But these individual actions can and do make a difference. We can ask people: Does climate change make you angry, scared, worried? And let them articulate their feelings. We can tell them that this is okay, we all have feelings about climate change and it’s useful to talk about them with our classmates, friends, and families. Talking about climate change can help us all to work together to imagine and create more ways to address climate problems.
For example, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions we can think of ways we can act
- individually: such as recycling or reducing our food waste
- collectively: such as using our voices in climate strikes, or demanding that classrooms and schools make changes too,
- at systematic levels (think big scale): by talking to local politicians about what they are and can be doing to make climate action happen at local to State levels, or by encouraging parents and adults to vote for parties who take climate action into real consideration.
Taking action can help people realise that there is something they can do to make a difference and can help with their feelings of overwhelm and climate worry or anger. Keep talking about climate change to those around you, every conversation can make a difference and encourage people to take actions, big and small 😊
