To bring divided Americans together on climate, the US should turn to Scotland

Presently, a majority of American’s have made the leap on climate change. A 2020 Pew Research Center poll found two thirds believed governments should do more to address climate change. Climate change ranks as one of the nation’s leading worries, especially for younger voters.

Voters want the government to act. This is why President Biden’s $2 trillion green infrastructure proposal was relatively uncontroversial. A U.S. president is finally responding to voter alarm with action. And none too soon. But even still, America appears split with a large minority, fueled by misinformation, resisting action. In such a divided country, which appears to lack common language on climate change, what can be done to bridge the divide? 

I believe we need to create new stories and narratives on climate change. For with common stories can come understanding, consensus and action. Indeed, our dim remembrance of past global warming comes down to us in the story of Noah’s Ark. Scholars believe this relates to a prior instance of regional global warming. 

In 2021, addressing climate change requires reimagining common stories to replace accusation and counterclaim. What might this look like in practice? We need open, frank and localized discussions about climate change and its impact on our economies, communities and lives. These conversations must be supported by governments and civic groups, engage people inside their communities and be firmly rooted in and based upon scientific fact. 

My home country, Scotland, has done it. In 2019, they launched the “Big Climate Conversation,” which aimed to help communities understand and begin to think about climate change and localized solutions. At the outset, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was clear about the necessity to talk about the issue: 

“Becoming a net-zero emissions nation will require changes to virtually every aspect of everyday life. We will need to change how we travel, how we keep homes and workplaces warm and how we design cities and towns.” 

The Big Climate Conversation aimed to build understanding of the climate crisis and inform how communities could plan for and respond to it. Because Scottish scientists estimate that less than 40 percent of needed changes will be achieved through low carbon technologies or renewable fuels alone, most of the action needed to meet Scotland’s net-zero emissions goal of 2045 will require behavioral or societal changes for all Scots. People needed to understand the challenges to respond effectively.

The Scottish conversation took the form of a series of facilitated workshops, 110 community-led conversations, and a parallel digital conversation. It was in over 80 percent of communities across the country, and thousands of Scots, young and old from across all communities, participated. At the start everyone was polled about their level of understanding of climate change, their level of concern, and their personal willingness to act. First, the scientific facts were presented by experts. Participants found that once they understood the issue and agreed that climate change was real, unavoidable and urgent, the nature of the discussion changed to what can be done about it as leaders, businesses, communities and individuals. 

Scotland’s experiment worked. Participants polled at the end of each day exhibited greater understanding, a sense of greater urgency, and a desire to act. Forty-three percent of participants reported low understanding of climate change at the start of the conversations. By the end this had fallen to 13 percent, while the number of people reporting a high level of understanding about climate change leaped from 20 percent to 58 percent. In open audiences, the level of understanding jumped from 57 percent to 74 percent at the end of the dialogue. 

Scotland’s Big Climate Conversation provides lessons for Americans seeking a way forward on climate change and our collective response.

We can see that civil local conversations based on facts and rooted in our communities can shift our stories about climate change and alter decisions and actions. After all, our localized climate change stories are tangible, observable. They are different in specifics. Our stories will be different in California than on the Florida coast, or in the Rockies of Colorado. The solutions too may be different and specific. 

In Scotland many left the dialogues wanting more aggressive policy action from the government, and all were left with a better understanding of the necessity for action. A series of American climate conversations could do the same. Scotland’s dialogue also shows us that it is in our communities where climate change response and reaction become actualized based on common stories, new plans, and new opportunities. And it is in our own communities where the response to shifting climate change stories can be positive, forward looking, dynamic, and inclusive.

Finally, Scotland’s Big Climate Conversation shows us we can and indeed must put down our devices, look away from our screens, and re-engage with one another in this urgent conversation, the outcome of which will affect all of us, our children and grandchildren, and the livability of the earth upon which we all rely. Surely these essential, real conversations can be more meaningful and productive than the virtual isolated rabbit hole where too many of us now reside.

I believe reality trumps the virtual and civility and community conversations can deliver real results and faster, more effective responses. I believe America’s communities should commence their own series of climate change conversations and in doing so help move us all to a new understanding of what we face and what we must do to address climate change together as communities and individuals. 

Dr. Stuart Mackintosh, is the executive director of Group 30, and studies the importance of narratives and stories in economics. His third book, Climate Crisis Economics: The Net Zero Transition, will be published by Rutledge, September 2021.