Conclusion

Having done the Global Warming course in Toronto, I came into this course thinking climate change was the biggest, most urgent threat we face. Indeed that's why the url for this blog is "rethinkingglobalwarming"- when I made it at the start of the course I thought that nothing was more urgent than global warming. This course rebalanced my view a little in that yes, climate change is a big issue but environmental protection is just as important to consider. For example, in the post about Maltese bird shooting, the vulnerability and threatened status of birds like the European turtle dove comes mainly from overexploitation by humans through hunting, not climate change. Human activity will harm the environment more quickly than climate change will and as we see from the Planetary Boundaries framework, biosphere integrity is crucial to the other planetary boundaries and the overall stability of the Earth in its Holocene state.

In order to engage more of the public on issues regarding the environment, I think it is important to keep raising the subject and raising awareness. A lot of the time, people don't know why something they're doing is bad, or they don't know how to behave in a more environmentally friendly way. That's why informing people of what they need to change and how they can actually change it is so important. It's also crucial not too sound too pessimistic but rather frame the problem in a way that empowers people to want to change. I myself need to get more involved with citizen science programmes, campaign for indigenous rights and environmental movements, and overall adopt more environmentally friendly behaviours- this blog has helped me work out a few of the ways in which to do so.

On a personal note, I'll admit I struggled with this assignment. I was a little too nervous to press publish sometimes, or I'd spend far too long agonizing over insignificant details in the post that took up far too much time and resulted in fewer posts overall, with quite a few beginnings of posts that will probably not get published (at least not before the deadline for this assignment- these draft posts include GMO foods and how they can be useful in light of climate change; and also carbon offsetting). I guess this is because I felt a little uncomfortable putting my thoughts and work up on such a public platform. Sure, I did a blog for my year abroad (and I actually have some global warming related posts on there including Syria's climate refugees and how we need to eat less meat), but again, I only ever shared it with my close friends and family so there wasn't that pressure of knowing strangers will read it. Why am I nervous of sharing my work? Having spoken to a few people about climate change issues, it's happened a few times that I've been challenged to the point that I haven't been able to answer why something has to happen the way it has to, or I haven't been able to explain a physical process properly and thus my whole argument of why we need to change a certain behaviour etc. gets discounted and I feel frustrated that I've failed to engage someone about such an important issue . I guess I kind of missed the point of this exercise which encourages dialogue with the other geographers to learn, as had I been a little more timely with posts, I could have gotten more out of it. I'd love to continue an environmental awareness blog in the future, as I do think it can be a very engaging way of raising climate change and environmental issues- I just need to be more confident that I'm writing something worthy of being published and realise it's all about opening discussion rather than aiming for the perfect post!

Positive framing is the key

I follow the blog aviewtosea.org, written by a lovely former UCL geographer. A recent post reminded me about the need for positivity when spreading environmental message. Too much negativity about environmental issues can be scary meaning people switch off and simply ignore the problems exist. Instead, by focusing on acknowledging the problem, then emphasising that we have the ability to make the necessary changes and doing so may help in other ways too (for example, reducing costs), people are more likely to feel empowered and feel like they can, and want to, make a change.

How we frame environmental problems and climate change is really important. What is a frame? Well, a hospital frame for example would include doctors, nurses, patients, acts of operating and getting better. All of our knowledge makes use of frames, and these frames are often connected with the emotional parts of the brain. Political ideologies are also characterized by frames; with repetition of a certain type of language and imagery serving to strengthen particular messages. The problem with environmentalism is that there hasn't yet been an effective framing system developed yet- people simply don't have the system of frames in place to make sense of the environmental facts that they are bombarded with while conservative climate skeptics and deniers have developed much more effective framing systems for their own environmental messages. As such environmentalists need to construct messages that build new framing systems as well as activate these new frames.

How to develop more effective environmental frames:

• don't repeat incorrect frames and messages from for example conservatives as this simply activates the wrong frames and messages in peoples' brains,
• tell stories that rouse emotions; don't simply give numbers and facts as their overall significance might not be understood,
• address everyday concerns, 
• use words people can understand- i.e. don't use technical jargon,
• visuals are really important for engaging people. The image below is quite striking in how it tells the story of the turtle simply and visually, rousing our emotions that the poor turtle might be eating a plastic bag instead of a jellyfish. It activates a frame in our minds of how we can protect the turtle, similar to how we wouldn't want harm to come to our pets. 

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