Telling a Good Climate Story

Overview and Purpose: When we think about stories, we usually mean individual stories. We also tell stories about whole systems. A good explanation of a major public issue has the elements of a good story. This document provides guidance on how to tell a good story about our Climate Accountability Bill, and climate policy generally.  

Elements of Good Climate Stories:

1. Climate Change Moral Emotions: Putting the Pressure of the Future on the Present. Stories that inspire people to action need to not only make a strong argument, they need to spark our moral emotions. (Moral emotions are about what is right and wrong, not only a person’s individual self interest). When telling our systems stories, we need to be attuned to what emotions we are trying to invoke in our audience (the people we are organizing). When considering climate change, the most powerful moral emotion that motivates urgent action among a large majority of Americans (including many Independents and Republicans) is our responsibility to leave a livable world to our children and to all future generations.A second moral emission is our duty to protect our beautiful environment, including all the plants and animals we love. Economic arguments, such as job creation, although they appeal to self interest, are too abstract to generate moral emotions and fervent commitment. (They are also so over-used by politicians of both parties that people tend not to believe them). We use them as a secondary argument to supplement the more powerful moral emotions.
2. Centering the Urgency Without Burying Our Audience in Facts: Facts, statistics, complicated scientific assessments, confusing policies, and terrifying global warming scenarios disempower and overwhelm the audiences we seek to inspire to action. A large majority of Americans already believe there is a climate crisis which requires urgent action and that we have a moral responsibility to our children to take necessary action.What they lack is 1) A clear definition of what action is necessary to prevent the worst consequences; 2) A clear compelling explanation of the antagonists who are getting in the way, and how to defeat them; 3) A clear definition of what to demand of elected officials.
3. Antagonists (i.e. villains): A good deal of policy talk lacks clear antagonists, which is why it does not engage our emotions and inspire action. Often causes are abstract and lack human actors, as if the climate is changing on its own and not because of the deliberate decisions of powerful people.Like superhero movies or a good streaming series, effective climate stories need villains. The elements we need are: 1) The people causing the problem. At the state level the most powerful actors preventing urgent climate action are the big for profit energy utilities (We Energies, WPS, Xcel Energy, etc); 2) Some sense of the villain’s motivation, usually in this case greed for windfall profits and the desire to wring maximum profit out of fossil fuel infrastructure.
4. Protagonists (heroes and victims): the victims are the people harmed, just as there are always people injured or killed by the supervillains that superheroes oppose. The heroes in a systems story are not superheroes, but the people who organize together to defeat them. As organizers you are offering people the opportunity to become heroes in the drama.
5. Our power. We need to make our audience feel that they have the power to address the climate crisis. Superheroes of course have super powers. Lacking these, our story needs to be clear that we can defeat our antagonists (the power of the big for-profit utilities). Our powers are organized people together (our heroes) and the policies they wield (in this case, the Climate Accountability bill). We need to be clear and simple in explaining how it will work. The Climate Accountability Act requires the Legislature to pass a plan to meet the climate emergency by 2026. It does not get into the details, other than to require a plan that will cut emissions in half within 5 years.
6. Concrete and emotive words. Progressives and elected Democrats often avoid strong and emotive words, which is a mistake not made by our opponents. Here are some example:Emotive Words to describe industry antagonists. Words to describe their motives are best, but it’s also good to describe their impact: greed, profit motive, selfish  thirst for windfall profits, excessive profits, price gouging, grasping, corporate bureaucracy, red tape, endanger, kill (in extreme cases), waste, corrupt, abuse of power, cheat and steal. Positive Words to describe our policy: secure, guarantee, assure, protect, care stewardship, freedom from fear, safety.
7. Opposition narrative. Outright climate denial is becoming less prevalent in Wisconsin politics. For-profit utilities and most elected officials address the climate crisis through performative acts, standing in front of new solar arrays or wind farms, or speaking in glittering generalities, to create the impression they are on the right side of the issue. When justifying expensive new fossil fuel plants they talk about reliable energy supplies. What they avoid is taking responsibility for the scale of immediate action needed to meet the climate crisis, cutting carbon emissions in half in the next five years. It is our job to define what is serious, and call the question.