The UK Energy Research Centre is a kind of retirement home for greens, where environmentalists go to spend their declining years writing political pamphlets at your expense. Back in March you paid for them and some of their colleagues in green NGOs to hold a conference entitled "Breaking the Deadlock", about how better communication of climate change can help win political battles for the eco-movement. There were some familiar names involved - Chris Rapley and Adam Corner for example - plus representatives of organisations like COIN and the Transition Towns and with a cast of that nature it's not surprising that there was much of interest; notes of what went on have now been published.
I was much amused by Adam Corner's apparently being upset that media people and scientists didn't invent enough spurious links between last winter's floods and climate change:
Carbon Brief conducted analysis of the recent national floods, and found that only 7% of thousands of articles mentioned climate change.
and
...a colleague from the scientific community who was interviewed about floods, was asked by the interviewer if it was related to climate change. However they did not answer the question...
And Corner's concern seems to have been shared among the audience
Everyone understands that [flooding] is happening more frequently but there is no next step to talk about climate change.
Another amusing snippet was the suggestion that the public might be impressed by a look at how scientists' fears over global warming have led them to adopt sustainable lifestyles:
Q: Do we need to record stories how climate scientists have acted in their personal lives?
A: some senior climate change scientists are very carbon intensive people around the world, therefore personal stories might not be that helpful.
"Don't mention the carbon footprint", it seems.
There was also a passing reference to Roger Harrabin's Cambridge Media and Environment Programme:
How to engage people from the media on breaking the deadlock?
Idea: Discussions with media who persistently report about low carbon futures, how do they do it in the face of extreme opposition? And then share those insights with journalists who do not do that.
BBC OU Environmental Seminars are related, but on a smaller scale.
Read the whole thing.