Many people find it a challenge to talk about climate change and its many related issues. Even when it’s a topic that touches and concerns them deeply, and they’re active participants in doing something about it. So much so that the term ‘climate silence’ has come into being in the last few years, describing the taboo status that climate change is coming to hold – particularly in more industrialised economies.
But to successfully respond to the challenges that climate change poses to our communities, it’s crucial that we talk explicitly about it – and in a way that invites and welcomes into the conversation a broad spectrum of people. And this is the clincher – it can be tough enough to start conversations on this topic, but it can be all-too-easy to unwittingly alienate or switch others off, or cause them to deepen their commitment to their own, contrary perspectives