Climate Change Pub Chat: How to save the world over a pint
 

I went to an event organised by the Social venture network last weekend and one of the sessions was how to bring up the topic of climate change and get more people thinking about it! (and then of course ultimately doing something).

I would like to invite everyone to try this and if you can feed back any useful information then we will pool it all together and hopefully take it on to another level. If you have already tried similar things or completely different things that have worked well, please share these also, so we can find what works best.

Best wishes

Steven Knight, Ethical Junction, [email protected]

PS if you can forward it on to others, please do, and hopefully it will encourage conversations not just in the pub but anywhere

Opening questions:

• What do you think about climate change? (an open question, no accusation, no steer, just a request for an honest response which will enable us to engage them in further, possibly deeper conversation)
• What is causing climate change? (again, not personal, enables them to answer in the abstract if necessary…but gentle prompting here may be useful to ascertain how much they connect their own lifestyle with the impacts…which leads into Q.3)
• Do we need to do anything about it? (use of ‘we’ very important, implies shared responsibility and avoids people becoming defensive)…a following question from this might be
• ‘Who needs to do it?' Do you think climate change affects you? (bringing it gently into their personal circle of concern or circle of influence)

Depending on the answers to the above the following supplementary questions may prove effective:

• What do you think needs to be done? Do you think talking about it makes a difference?
• What additional proof would you need to take climate change seriously?
• What is more important to you than climate change?
• If I was your MP what would you say to me r.e. climate change?
• Where else have you heard about climate change?
• What 5 questions should we be asking on climate change?

Key things to consider:

• Tackling climate change is about increasing intolerance to ‘poor quality’ – i.e. energy inefficiency, waste, poor design
• Talking about climate change is vitally important – we need it to be part of the national discourse
• Keep responses on a ‘yes…and’ basis not a ‘no…but’ approach as this will keep the discussion flowing

Action for Sustainable Living, St Wilfrid's Enterprise Centre, Royce Road, Hulme, , M15 5BJ.

Email: [email protected] Tel: 0845 634 4510 Fax: 0870 167 4655

Page last modified: 16 June 2006