Taking the Next Step: Continuing the Conversation off Camera, in Your Work and Personal Life

Broadcast meteorologists are powerful and trusted messengers for their viewers, followers, and colleagues. Professionally trained, and able to grasp the complexities of climate science, TV weather reporters elucidate the connections between extreme-weather events and a warming planet, which are often dense and difficult to comprehend. As examples of exacerbated conditions continue to occur, in local areas and in increasingly familiar locations around the world (108ºF in Paris?!), public awareness and concern continue to drive great interest in how this all works: What, exactly, is happening? What are the causes? What are the effects -- in my hometown and for the planet, today and in the future? Most of all, what are the solutions, and how can we make them a reality?

Resources like Climate Central's "Climate Matters" are exceptional for professional meteorologists on the air. Off-camera, meteorologists have an opportunity to continue the climate conversation, with their colleagues and producers, via their social channels, and as members of their communities, organizations, personal networks, and families. However, these conversations can be awkward or even unproductive. No surprise there: this subject is terrifying, threatening, inconvenient, potentially catastrophic, and all-around depressing as heck.

Simply put, one of the most impactful actions any individual can take to combat global warming is to talk about it. When that individual is also a broadcast meteorologist -- an expert not only on our day-to-day weather, and how it affects our routines; but also on the science of atmospheric patterns and disruptions, with an ability to connect dots for local audiences -- he or she has a very special role to play in the popular culture of our contemporary society. This session aims to optimize the inherent ability of media professionals to be constructive and reliable resources wherever they are -- on the air, at work, at home, and in the community. Broadcast meteorologists are in a unique position to improve the conversation, both on and off the air.

The 51 Percent Project is a research platform named for the growing majority of Americans who are concerned or alarmed about climate change. This critical segment is aware that the climate is changing, can see impacts for themselves every day, understand the basics of global warming, accept man’s role in it. They know this isn’t going away, they want to do something, but they’re not sure what could possibly make a dent, and consequently, they don’t talk about this much. Although this is changing, people don't hear much about climate change in the media they consume, except on the occasional weather report. This cohort is a vital and untapped resource to speed the transition away from the unhealthy, expensive, and dangerous effects of fossil fuels.

Founded in 2018 at Boston University's Institute for Sustainable Energy, this new initiative identifies best practices of climate communication from the vast body of relevant scholarly literature, along with standout examples of engaging content. We use common sense to translate the scholarly findings, which are sometimes difficult for a regular person to grasp, into practical guidance that anyone can use to have a conversation about this. The 51 Percent Project envisions two related goals: one objective is to inform and inspire messaging across mainstream media, including news outlets; another is to engage the public and accelerate the large-scale solutions urgently prescribed by the IPCC report authors and other expert bodies, including, notably, the American Meteorological Society.

In this session, we'll present a selection of key principles for efficacious climate conversations:

1. The influence of a trusted messenger
2. Building a solid business case, and other financial factors
3. Personal impacts, with a focus on health
4. The careful use of Humor in the climate conversation
5. Crossing barriers of politics, information bias, and cultural peer-group identification
6. Imagery: how do we visually "show" climate change?
7. Effective data: the Scientific Consensus
8. Finding your sweet spot to get involved in climate action.

The presentation incorporates a robust Q&A discussion segment. Participants are encouraged to share comments and stories in an open dialogue.

Sarah Finnie Robinson is the Founding Director of The 51 Percent Project, a climate-communications initiative launched in 2018 and based at the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University, where she is a Senior Fellow; and the College of Communication, where she is a Professor. Her research identifies best practices for climate-change communications to engage an increasingly concerned public and accelerate the global low-carbon transition. Robinson is the Founding Partner of WeSpire, a Boston tech firm that powers corporate sustainability programs. She lives on Boston’s historic downtown harbor, and she is active on the Climate Task Force for Boston Harbor Now, where she serves on the Advisory Council. A large-scale climate-solutions investor, Robinson supports Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund, Mothers Out Front, and the Sakonnet Preservation Association. She is a Climate Reality Leader and Mentor and is vice-president of the Princeton78 Foundation, whose endowment fuels undergraduate service projects in the United States and around the world. She is a Trustee of the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health.

Robinson holds a Princeton B.A., Middlebury M.A. (Bread Loaf School of English), and she graduated with the inaugural class of Seth Godin’s altMBA. She began her career at The New Yorker and continued at The Atlantic and at iVillage, where she was the launch content director. Robinson is a frequent guest speaker at conferences and business courses focused on human behavior, sustainability, climate solutions, work and life, and living well with positive impact. Publications include The Atlantic, Family Life; and via Huffington Post, Medium, and LinkedIn. She tweets from @SarahFRobinson.

Beta site: https://www.the51percent.io