Human Psychology + Communication

Reach out to Tom Hayden - director of environmental communication.

• Avoid negative statements like "eating beef will hurt the world" or "By doing X you are wasting Y."
• Emphasize positive impacts, e.g., "eating these vegetables will help reduce your carbon footprint by X amount."
• Allow people to come to their own decisions.
• Be cautious with policies that enforce ultimatums.
• Use relatable measurements, e.g., "12 tons" may seem abstract, but minutes and quantities people are familiar with are better.
  • Relate daily activities to resource use, e.g., "5k is X water"; "eating one steak is equivalent to a 30-minute shower."
  • In Earth Sys classes, communicate in SI units initially, but when communicating to others translate to standard terms (e.g., "this pothole is 7 meters" vs. "3 dishwashers wide").
  • Energy usage: typical to analogize in terms of time
• The biggest misconception is that food comes from "the grocery store."
  • Showing the source of food is important.
• Explain gigaton in relatable terms (e.g., country level).
• Provide examples that make abstract concepts relatable, e.g., "this is equivalent to the city of LA's loss," or "the average American household."
• Compare nebulous examples to more familiar probabilities, such as sports analogies.
• A good science communicator should use analogies effectively.
• Balance simplicity with the potential for greater impact.

Water Waste

• Water use cycle: shower water goes to a processing plant and then back to the sea; new water comes from a reservoir.
• Highlight that water waste is equivalent to energy waste: gray water (soap contamination) can be used for agriculture; brown water requires energy to separate waste from water.
• Emphasize the cost of recycling water.