Shift The Climate "Attentional Field"

On making anything less than ACTION irrelevant

I was inspired by a recent Ezra Klein piece in the New York Times on the Harris/Walz approach to the presidential campaign. His political insight includes points that also apply to climate leadership communications and storytelling. As I am known to do - I connect the dots in this quick audio post. And, this digs right into a theory I have LONG emphasized in my Climate Influence work - we are not doing enough with the “naming and faming” tool to make the fossil fuel sector and climate denying leaders in any sector look irrelevant.

We absolutely CAN counter gigantic fossil fuel greenwash campaigns in combination with all of the great investigative reporting going on. We can better use our voices and our conversations and social media sharing to make the joy, hope, solutions and innovations look the most relevant.

A quote from my audio post:

One of the ways we can do that is to take a cue from the Harris/Walz campaign… and think in terms of joy and smiling and naming and faming all the cool things that are happening, and to elevate that, to elevate the leaders, the corporate leaders, the political leaders who are boldly and more progressively acting on climate.

The best way to do this is for us to create a groundswell of talking, really focusing on talking about the good. And we haven't done that, and I don't think as climate action leaders or advocates that have any sort of platform, I don't think we've done a good job of that.

Another thing I talk about is - how we can collectively elevate NOT JUST OURSELVES, but the people, research and innovation that ARE lifting the entire sector.

So, we can help the media by having substantive conversations about amazing progress and leadership on LinkedIn, and then THAT conversation becomes easy to find (for those journalists who are looking for it). And, THAT helps them write and report stories that counter the doom and gloom with progress and innovation. For those still cynical on this front - it absolutely does help our own businesses if we are seen leading in a way that includes elevating positive trends we see - even if we do not pitch ourselves. And, frankly - taking this approach WILL get you on more media radars for future reference.

This is ALL a lot of what I advise my clients around. This is also what you’ll find in listening to my Living Change podcast and what will be in all of the future projects I am working on (Season 2 of the podcast, a short documentary on my Climate Influence work, and a book…).

(A note: I have started paid subscriptions. The rest of this post, including the audio, and some deeper insights on how to build your #ClimateWeekNYC attendance strategy, is behind a paywall. So, if my ideas and dot-connecting is helpful, please let me know by subscribing! )

And, will I see you at #ClimateWeekNYC? I’ll be heavily focused on food systems shift events - as I am deeply into my work with New York City’s Plant Powered Carbon Challenge - and aiming to name and fame all of those corporate and organizational signatories for going BOLD on reducing Scope 3 emissions of agriculture/food. As part of this, I’ll be at the NYT Climate Forward Luncheon which will celebrate Katie Cantrell of Greener By Default as one of that publication’s Changemakers.

Now - on to the details and some suggestions I have for climate leadership storytelling and the ways to use “name and fame” (of others) - toward shifting the “attentional field” in the Climate ACTION direction.