Shared climate hope beats fear

Climate Optimist
United Kingdom (London)

“The ice caps are melting, Leonard. In the future, swimming won’t be optional!”

 

So says the inept genius Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory whilst explaining why he learnt swimming off the internet (rather than in a pool). This might be taking climate fatalism a little far, but Sheldon’s attitude is more prevalent than you might think.

We must, we can and we will solve climate change. It’s that simple. And that difficult. Because climate change feels so great and its consequences are so serious. But solving climate change starts with the belief that we can. Which makes optimism essential. Hope beats fear. It’s the attitude that inspires progress.

The #ClimateOptimist Campaign was born from a deep conviction that climate fatalism is fatal. Futerra and The Climate Group, two of the world’s leading advocacy organisations for climate action, have joined forces to interrupt the dominant, doom climate narrative.

Pubic attitude research commissioned for the campaign proved why this is more important than ever. The first survey of its kind, conducted in 26 countries by Ipsos, revealed a secret crisis in how we feel about climate change. While only 4% of people worldwide deny climate change is happening, a staggering 14% believe it’s now inevitable and unavoidable. And the demographic with the least hope we can solve climate change? The young. 22% of people aged under 35 years old believe it is now too late to stop climate change.

With that level of defeatism, we are in danger of inevitable defeat.

How is the #ClimateOptimist Campaign disrupting this trend?  The survey also revealed that 61% of people worldwide hear much more about the negative impacts of climate change than they do about progress on reducing it.

So, Climate Optimism are shining a light on solutions with powerful proof-points that have generated over 30 million impressions on twitter. The examples-laden campaign film has 56,000 views and rising.

The campaign was launched at Climate Week NYC in September 2017, after a mere eight-week whirlwind development and a shoestring budget. Messages were shared by Ellie Goulding, The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, brands such as H&M, and Instagram influencers. Current sponsors include Mars, DivestInvest, Ashden, VF Corp and Interface.

AtlasAction ► Turn your optimism into action. Select what type of optimist you are.

AtlasEvent ► Ed Gillspie will be speaking at our Fixing the Future event in Barcelona. More info and tickets here.

Written by

Futerra (30 January 2018)

Bio

Futerra is a change agency. We join the magic of creative and the logic of strategy to make sustainability happen.

Project leader

Solitaire Townsend and Ed Gillespie, Co-founders, Futerra

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