If you’re interested in communicating climate change at any level then this 50-minute talk by Solitaire Townsend at MIT is a must-see.  Solitaire is managing director of Futerra, a UK communications consultancy specialising in sustainability issues.  She and her company have studied the communication of climate change for the UK government and other clients, and in this talk she presents an excellent and accessible overview of their findings, including a list of ‘20 rules’ for communicating climate change.

Forget the science for a while.  This is about something just as important - communication.

Solitaire combines a professional marketing and communication approach with a real understanding and focus on climate change and on the reality of mass communication of the issues involved.  This is vitally important work, especially for those of us who live in democracies and would like our governments to take radical action. 

Its very easy to remain trapped in an environmental ghetto of like-minded people, preaching always to the converted.  But if you want to change popular attitudes, then listen to this talk.

Futurra’s website at http://www.futerra.co.uk/ has additional information about communicating climate change, including ‘New Rules: New Game’ (PDF), a guide to behaviour change communications.  This is an update to a longer previous document ‘Rules of the Game‘ (PDF) that was created as part of the UK Climate Change Communications Strategy, an evidence-based strategy aiming to change public attitudes towards climate change in the UK.

For the real communication geeks there’s a full inventory of the work done by Futerra for the UK Department of Environment on communicating climate change here .