UfU Information | Issue 11 – January 2024 | Michelle Grunwald & Winona Bölling
The role of emotions in sustainability communication
The KlimaGesichter project shows how this can be achieved
Our behavior is driven by social and personal norms as well as the assessment of costs and benefits. This also has an impact on various measures to reduce our ecological footprint or the decision to become politically active in terms of socio-ecological transformation.
Both our rational and our emotional side play an important role in such balancing processes. In order to save cognitive resources, the human brain routinizes the majority of tasks and processes. Reflecting on these automated habits of thought and action and transforming them in a sustainable way is a constant challenge for actors in the context of education for sustainable development (ESD). The aim of sustainability communication is to reduce the constantly growing complexity of the topic without losing evidence.
Although many educational projects are already demonstrating everyday references and concrete options for action, and participants are rationally aware of the negative impact their behavior has on the environment and the quality of life of all living beings, cars continue to be used as a daily means of transport, money is routinely invested in non-sustainable banks and there is no political commitment to more climate protection. There is a gap between knowledge and behavior that needs to be closed. In this context, emotions play an important role in motivating people to take action and can effectively influence motivational processes.
Personal emotions and real emotional states can make us much more aware of the extent and seriousness of a situation and are therefore powerful, often underestimated driving forces. As the negative effects and consequences of the climate crisis are being felt to varying degrees around the world, making the realities of the lives of those affected visible and, above all, tangible can reduce the temporal, spatial and social distance.
In our KlimaGesichter project, which we are implementing in collaboration with the German Climate Foundation and which is funded by the National Climate Initiative, people with experience of flight or migration give workshops in which they give authentic and personal accounts of their experiences with climate change in their countries of origin. With the help of the storytelling approach, their stories not only convey information and explain problems, but above all create emotions and closeness between them, the topic and the target group. The phenomenon of the climate crisis, which is still abstract for many, suddenly becomes tangible and tangible when there is this personal connection. The method has the great potential to touch people emotionally as they listen and to trigger empathy in them. This compassion and change of perspective create a sense of mutual responsibility and understanding and help to promote intrinsic motivation for change. Above all, if we meet each other as equals and find value-based common ground with our counterparts, we can actively take action together for more climate protection.
Climate flight and migration
A world that is warming by more than 1.5°C on average compared to pre-industrial levels is characterized by regions that can no longer provide a habitat for humans. Natural disasters and rising temperatures are contributing to the fact that parts of the earth are no longer habitable. A distinction is made between two types of change. Slow-onset changes are, for example, rising temperatures and sea levels. Fast-onset changes are events such as flood disasters and storms. Adaptation strategies to changing habitats are essential, if not life-saving. Flight from crisis areas and long-term migration in response is a process that often takes place primarily within the affected country, e.g. from rural areas to cities or from coastal regions to inland areas.
Interested parties can find more information material at: klimagesichter.de/materials
The workshops in the KlimaGesichter project took place in 2023 at educational events such as the Zukunftsakademie in Freiburg and the Fair Week in Braunschweig – many more will hopefully follow. The largest event this year (September 15 to 17) was held in Münster: A musical and cultural exchange was created there in cooperation with the intercultural choir TRIMUM and the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe. In several music workshops, a collaboration was developed that went beyond words and was filled with music, ending with a concert on Sunday.
In the current project phase, we would also like to facilitate international participation in the project and jointly develop projects and campaigns with committed climate ambassadors in their home countries. To this end, we regularly offer online training courses and spaces for exchange and have initiated a future alliance on the topic of climate migration with various stakeholders who are centrally involved in the topics of climate change and migration.
At the same time, the Future Alliance is to form the framework for a series of events with innovative and emotionally appealing forms of education and mediation, in which the ClimateFaces will be involved as a mouthpiece for people affected by climate change worldwide. Further articles and information can be found on the website klimagesichter.de and on social media under @klimagesichter.