{"id":80846,"date":"2020-12-15T11:30:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T16:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/?p=80846"},"modified":"2021-05-07T16:29:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T20:29:09","slug":"climate-change-improving-communication-better-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/climate-change-improving-communication-better-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change : improving communications could lead to better actions"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the population of Quebec seems more than ready to do its part in the fight against climate change, there is still work to be done, especially on how we communicate on the matter.<\/b><\/h3>\n

This is one of the many conclusions drawn by the Barom\u00e8tre de l’action climatique<\/a>, conducted by the Climate Action laboratory. The lab is part of a collaboration between the Un point cinq media outlet and a research team from Laval University.<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal of this collaboration is to understand the population\u2019s vision of climate change. What actions do the inhabitants of Quebec implement, how do they feel about environmental issues\u2026 and most recently, do they actually understand what climate change is.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Quebecers seem ready to do their part – 78% of the respondents say they are willing to do more to fight climate change – there is still work to be done, according to Val\u00e9riane Champagne St-Arnaud, marketing Professor at Laval University.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab The good news is that Quebecers are preoccupied by climate emergency. It\u2019s actually a growing concern, but their behaviors don\u2019t really follow their beliefs. While they do act, the most significant actions in addressing climate change are still falling short, like curbing single use and composting, for instance. \u00bb<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lack of motivation? Laziness? None of those, according to the lab, but a lack of education.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab The lack of knowledge is an important issue that we first took note of last year and that is still present in 2020. We notice that Quebecers will often confuse the climatic impact of an action with its environnemental one. There still is a lot of confusion that can lead to some kind of illusion, a negative impact even. It can give the impression that we\u2019re doing a lot because we try not to waste drinkable water, when it\u2019s in fact not the case. People will justify doing other actions because they feel as though they have already done their part, \u00bb Val\u00e9rie Champagne St-Arnaud explains.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Better communication about climate matters<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To eradicate this lack of education, we need to better communicate about these questions. This is where the Climate Action Laboratory comes into play.<\/span><\/p>\n

The work of the teams, apart from the annual barometer, is to try out different communication techniques on focus groups, and to evaluate how efficient they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other terms, the laboratory gathers different population segments and presents them different types of content mentioning climate change. \u00ab We work on the content but also on the message itself \u00bb, the experts add.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab A single message can\u2019t work for everybody. We need to segment our communications for them to be effective. Some will react more to comics, other to video, and some other to written content. A part of the population will need trustworthy spokes-people, like scientists, whereas other will prefer local entrepreneurs or tv-reality stars. The idea is to identify the different formats, spokes-people and communication lines that work best for each portion of the population \u00bb, Cl\u00e9mence Lalloz, co-founder and CEO Of Un point cinq, adds.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tools for communication professionals and the media<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The laboratory\u2019s mission is also to equip professionals and the media to help them better communicate these challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the laboratory’s teams, most people will be receiving their information and education about these issues via these outlets.<\/span><\/p>\n

More over, a report presenting all of the teams\u2019 conclusions will be published next spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until then, they already offer some tips and ideas on how to cover climate change in a more efficient way :<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab Climate change is omnipresent, it is in all aspects of our daily life, not just the environment. It can also impact our economy, social justice, health\u2026 we can choose one of these particular angles to portray the issue. We also tend to fixate on the negative impacts of climate change, on what our governments do or don\u2019t do, but it also takes positive examples. We need to show inspiring actions, at all levels. We should demonstrate companies, cities, communities but also individuals. It\u2019s important to present what people actually do around us. We see it in the barometer : people know there is a consensus on this question, but don\u2019t see the change happening around them. It certainly doesn\u2019t help getting started. \u00bb – Cl\u00e9mence Lalloz<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another suggestion is to choose from daily topics, and bring the environment or the climate question into it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Photo credits : Markus Spiske \/ Pexels<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the Quebecer population seems more than ready to do its part in the fight against climate change, there is still work to be done, especially on how we communicate on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,80],"tags":[23,22,21,24,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80846"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81455,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80846\/revisions\/81455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}