AGU Chapman Conference on Communicating Climate Science: A Historic Look to the Future
08 June 2013 — 13 June 2013, Granby, CO, USA
Presenter: John Calderazzo
Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Session: 4.3 Shifting the Paradigm in Climate Communication and Education
Abstract Title: Stealing From then: How Simple Narrative Techniques Can Help Scientists Communicate Better
Children everywhere plead, "Tell me a story!" They love a good tale. But this desire to hear a coherent story spun from the complicated and sometimes bewildering chaos of life doesn't end with childhood. Fairy tales, fables, plays, songs, novels, newspapers, movies, and water cooler conversations all tell stories. By helping us to understand and appreciate the world and our place in it, they fulfill a universal human need. Old or new, stories also share some basic and easy-to-steal narrative techniques that can help scientists communicate to the public with increased clarity, power, and relevance. I propose to show how story structures and techniques such as character development, dramatic tension and scenes can help anyone reach a larger audience. With these methods, a researcher's quest for knowledge in the lab or the field can easily be told as a compelling journey from ignorance to knowledge, mystery to enlightenment. A quick example of a simple story telling technique is one that Rachel Carson used to introduce what could have been an intimidating tale of chemistry, biology, and ecology. She opens Silent Spring with "A Fable for Tomorrow" about a town where once upon a time "all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings" until one day "a strange blight crept over the area." These are the effects of DDT, of course. Carson goes on to explain plenty of hard science. But first she has grabbed the attention of the unscientific reader by telling a tale that parallels one of the most common story lines in human history: A stranger comes to town, and then important things begin to change. The same structure powers some of our earliest English literature (Beowulf), to popular movies like E.T. (benign stranger helps lonely boy) or Jaws and Alien (monsters need to be defeated). In small or large ways, the same structure can accurately be used to talk about climate change, a "stranger" that's come to the 21st century town we call Earth. Who would not pay attention? I've learned about these and many other storytelling techniques in two ways. First, for much of my career, I've written about science and nature in mainstream magazines such as Audubon and in two books on volcanoes, including one for kids. I've also written a how-to guide to freelance writing. As a teacher for the last 27 years, I've studied many kinds of nonfiction writing and helped students become book writers, editors and contributors to dozens of magazines and journals. Second, with my CSU English Department colleague SueEllen Campbell, I co-direct an interdisciplinary climate change education and outreach program in which we've recruited and coached professors and researchers from 28 academic departments to share their expertise with large campus and community audiences. We've also created a website, videos, and teaching materials with college-level content and primer-level clarity. Finally, at CSU and elsewhere, we've begun to train scientists who wish to better connect with the public, the media, and policy makers.
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