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Did you know you are at war?
If really feels like it, if you read the scary headings of newspapers and your LinkedIn feed talking about fighting the climate crisis, tackling environmental disasters, becoming eco-warriors...
Without discounting the seriousness of the situation we are in, I have noticed how negative the narrative has become over the years, and yet, serious actions to address the challenges haven't followed.
Why?
Because in nature for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (even Newton said that). If your language is aggressive and negative, you will probably get an opposite and equally aggressive and negative reaction from people that feel attacked and become defensive.
Author George Monbiot thinks that, in order to convey the urgency and agency of our actions, we need to use stronger terms: for instance, talk about ecocide instead of extinction.
In my view, he is both right and wrong. Some people may get paralysed by strong and negative language, others may feel angry and can convey that anger into action.
So, why not try to start your next sustainability conversation by seeking to understand others instead of risking scaring them into inaction?
Because the goal here is to save everyone's home, we need to focus on the power of collective action and on stubborn optimism since the alternative is incredibly bleak.
The key is to find solutions together. Just like a cake is tastier than the single ingredients, putting together our ideas can be transformative. So what if, instead of telling other people what to do (even if we are the expert), we ask them questions?
Questions about what they care about, about their ideas?
What if we try to find common ground, instead of seeing our fellow humans as the enemy?
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