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Collection: Flashcards

Sightline Flashcards are quick reference tools for effective communications strategies. They’re messaging memos distilled from experts and savvy communicators—to help you do your job and save you time.

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Sightline Flashcards are quick reference tools for effective communications strategies. They’re messaging memos distilled from experts and savvy communicators—to help you do your job and save you time. The Flashcards focus on values-based communication: strategies for talking about important policies or issue solutions in terms of shared values. Browse the Flashcards to gain insight into particular sustainability issues or simply to hone your values-based communications strategies.

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2015’s Five Fave Flashcards

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From the Pope’s encyclical to the Paris climate talks to steadily growing traction for a price on carbon pollution, and in communities across the region where people are saying “no” to coal and oil infrastructure, folks in our neck of the woods have been talking about climate change more than ever! And you’ve been savvy about it too, arming yourselves with tested … Read more

Climate Scientists Are People, Too

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As a general rule, scientists are expected to keep their personal feelings to themselves. Scientific detachment is important. Objectivity is the name of the game for sound and accurate findings. But, as Ewan Birney, a computational biologist at Cambridge, wrote in the Guardian not long ago, “The lack of a natural forum for scientists to describe … Read more

Pope Francis’ Climate Change Talking Points

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Maybe you heard? Pope Francis was making the rounds last week in DC, New York, and Philly. The buzz has been hard to miss.

It’s no wonder. The Pope is the “faith boss” of every practicing Catholic on earth: 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide and at least 70 million Catholics in the US—that’s the largest denomination by far, 22 percent of the American population. (Interestingly, the second-largest US “faith” group is former Catholics.)

But it’s not just his flock that’s paying attention these days; the crowd-pleasing Pope has mostly everybody’s ear. And he’s talking about climate change—a lot.

Environmental protection—or creation care—is based on long-standing Catholic teaching, as old as Genesis, grounded in the New Testament, and reflected in the life of the Pope Francis’ chosen namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, protector of the poor and patron saint of the environment. The last two Popes, both considered very conservative in many ways, were solid environmentalists in both word and deed. But Pope Francis is taking on climate change specifically, he’s talking about it in powerful new ways, and he’s going to great lengths to deliver his message far beyond the Catholic Church.

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Video: The Art of Talking Climate Science

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Communicating science to non-experts in compelling, convincing ways feels more important than ever. But the accepted language of academic reporting as well as the established norms of most scientific fields can set scientists up for trouble.

So, what’s a scientist to do when a news reporter calls or a public speech is coming up?

Here’s a short video outlining four messaging guidelines to avoid the most common pitfalls and to be ready to go with compelling messages.

Picture Perfect Energy Efficiency

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Words matter—I’d say, a lot. But that doesn’t mean we should treat visuals as an afterthought. Far from it. As Resource Media reminds us, the right images can have a mighty powerful emotional impact.

We should aim to combine compelling messaging and images.

With that in mind, those same smart Resource Media folks did some testing to pick out what kinds of visuals capitalize on the widespread enthusiasm Americans have for energy efficiency to boost support for bigger picture policy initiatives.

The opportunity: The good news is that people across the political spectrum support energy efficiency. They know what it is, believe it is a good thing, and want to be a part of it. Indeed, most people relate personally to insulation and thermostats in a way that they can’t to wind turbines or solar panels (and efficiency isn’t as politically polarizing as those symbols of renewable energy have become.)

The challenge: People view energy efficiency as a personal responsibility, not the job of government or regulations.

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Walking and Talking the Thin Green Line

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In Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, we’re faced with the prospect of becoming a primary gateway for exporting massive fossil fuel deposits—Alberta tar sands, Bakken shale oil, and coal in Wyoming and Montana’s Powder River Basin—to Asian markets.

But, the region is shaping up to be what Eric de Place calls a Thin Green Line, a last line of defense against the fossil fuel industry’s relentless pursuit of profit—and that pursuit’s devastating consequences for our communities and the climate.

A powerful narrative is unfolding in cities and towns across the region: The triumph of good over evil. Small town heroes are taking on multinational villains to protect the people and places they love; local climate action is having real, measurable global impact; and communities are standing together to loosen the fossil fuel industry’s tight grip on our energy choices and charting cleaner, safer, healthier pathways forward.

These stories give us hope and inspiration, and…talking points to take to the next fight—and win.

3 Climate Messages That Win

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Poll after poll tells us that majorities of Americans support climate and energy solutions. But neither the talking heads on TV nor our elected officials have kept pace with public opinion—or with scientific urgency.

Why? One major factor is that the fossil fuel industry is actively stalling our progress, spending millions to influence elections, lobby decision-makers, and hammer Americans with messages designed to mislead, cast doubt, distract, and polarize.

Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions (along with Sightline and a team of messaging experts) has retested and updated the powerful climate change narrative first developed in 2012 that informed high-profile climate communications from the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency to 350.org and state and local leaders across the US.

It’s a clear, compelling narrative that cuts through these coal and oil industry tactics and frames global warming and energy solutions on our terms, not theirs. (Climate blogger Joe Romm hailed it a “must-read” for climate communicators.)

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Smarter Street Talk

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Policy solutions often come with their own vocabulary—acronyms, insider shorthand, and jargon. It can be alienating or confusing. Worse, policy-speak can risk obscuring the most important messages: why solutions matter and the people who should care.

The folks at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, a local coalition of safe street community groups, have seen this first hand. At countless public meetings and in hundreds of community conversations, they’ve seen how the wrong message can confuse, put off, or even backfire, pitting otherwise friendly stakeholders against one another.

They set out to find a better way. They listened, they observed, they used trial and error. And with years of road testing, they’ve learned what words and messages work to bring people together, build support for smart solutions, and create more civil and productive public discourse around how we design our streets.

The new rules of the road they’ve developed help break bad habits and more successfully engage people’s interest, values, and emotions. Here’s what they learned:

What’s Your Climate Change Elevator Pitch?

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The clever folks over at Climate Denial Crock of the Week (that’s Peter Sinclair) and Skeptical Science (John Cook) were in San Fran back in December, interviewing scientists, when they had the brilliant idea to ask each one to give their best climate change “elevator pitch.”

The set-up is simple: You’re on an elevator. Somebody says, “Oh, hi, you’re a climate scientist? What’s the big deal about climate change anyway?” What do you say in two minutes or less? And the resulting series of short videos is proving to be inspiring and instructive.

Katharine Hayhoe rocks the first one.

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