Want less Hurricane Helene’s? Invest in strong climate communication initiatives

“Yes they [democrats] can control the weather” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted in response to the catastrophic hurricanes that have shocked Americans and decimated communities thousands of miles outside of typical hurricane zones.?

No Marjorie, democrats aren't to blame, climate change is. With hurricanes hitting deep red states and communities, it's clear the climate crisis knows no boundaries and that regardless of political party, all Americans deserve to be free from climate chaos. While research has shown that disaster victims understandably don’t want to talk about climate change, we need to, or we will have more climate disasters and more victims.?

These hurricane conspiracies being high during a historic election season are a timely reason for non-governmental institutions to properly resource effective climate communications across all levels of society, to combat the misinformation and divisive narratives that distract from the need to prevent historic devastation in the future through climate action and community resilience.?

Climate action must continue regardless of which party wins office in November. Effective climate communication that unites across the political spectrum is necessary to make this possible. These communication methods include creative mediums (art, music, theater, poetry, film), media (journalism, marketing, social media, entertainment), and interpersonal communication, such as storytelling, education, and conversations with community members and peers.

As a climate activist for 6 years, I’ve studied and applied these climate communication and storytelling techniques, seeing how personalized climate storytelling can influence family, friends, and peers. When I started my climate activism at 14, I influenced my parents who spread the climate message to their coworkers. After publishing letters to the editor and social media content about climate change, my classmates, neighbors, and friends felt inspired to join climate initiatives I started. This is what on the ground communication work to combat dominant narratives looks like.

From hurricane community responses to the climate crisis, dominant narratives from media and politicians have been polarizing and uninspiring. In communities impacted by the hurricanes, those directly affected share how people put politics aside and foster community care to get their neighbors through the loss, countering the politically divisive coverage of the hurricanes. Grassroots people-centered storytelling has always been countering dominant narratives, and that’s what collectives of environmental journalists and artists have been doing to tell a more truthful and inspiring climate action story, from Hollywood Climate Summit, to the well-established Yale Climate Communications.??

I’ve organized with people running these initiatives and seen how important funding is to reaching the most people. My climate communications class at MIT taught me how humans respond more to personal and emotional stories and media about climate change than scientific data. Because culture influences how we think, we must shift culture to enable the climate action mindset. To change culture, we must invest in what moves culture.?

Honest art and journalism has the power to move people, but is not being properly resourced, leading to inequity and burnout. Resourcing climate communications matters to create the cultural change needed to combat the climate crisis and misinformation. This cultural change looks like the community care communities hit by hurricanes are practicing, helping people process loss and grief, and making clear the methods for taking action.?

The kind of language that works to inspire climate action is different from community to community. We need to resource and train ordinary people to be climate storytellers in their local communities to effectively combat misinformation and empower communities. I call on higher education, foundations, businesses, nonprofit organizations, churches and community centers to prioritize funding climate communications initiatives in every part of this country. There’s already so many existing initiatives that deserve your attention, and we need many more. Only then can make our communities more resilient and empowered.?