How to Talk to Your Relatives About Climate Change (And Maybe Change Their Minds)

The guide encourages people to overcome the 'spiral' of silence regarding climate change by engaging in interpersonal conversations. It suggests using a combination of scientific data on extreme weather, personal narratives of climate impacts, and economic arguments regarding the competitiveness and job-creation potential of clean energy to persuade others.

• People often avoid discussing climate change with peers due to fears that their concerns are not shared, creating a cycle of silence that benefits the fossil fuels industry.
• Scientific evidence links rising temperatures to increased disaster severity; for example, anthropogenic warming doubled the total area burned in the western U.S. over the last 33 years, an area equivalent to Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.
• Clean energy presents a strong economic argument for the U.S., as solar installation costs have fallen by over 70 percent since 2010 and renewable energy jobs are growing 12 times faster than the rest of the U.S. economy.
• Solar energy is becoming highly competitive, outperforming efficient new gas plants in states such as Texas and employing more people than the entire coal industry despite accounting for only 1 percent of the power mix in 2016.
• Transitioning from fossil fuels, which are responsible for approximately three-quarters of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, to clean energy is identified as the most critical action to limit climate change.

APA

Earthjustice (2017). How to Talk to Your Relatives About Climate Change (And Maybe Change Their Minds). https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-talk-to-that-one-relative-about-climate-change-without-ruining-your-holiday-meal

Chicago

Earthjustice. How to Talk to Your Relatives About Climate Change (And Maybe Change Their Minds). 2017. https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-talk-to-that-one-relative-about-climate-change-without-ruining-your-holiday-meal.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=How to Talk to Your Relatives About Climate Change (And Maybe Change Their Minds) |date=21 November 2017 |url=https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-talk-to-that-one-relative-about-climate-change-without-ruining-your-holiday-meal |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2017how, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{How to Talk to Your Relatives About Climate Change (And Maybe Change Their Minds)}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2017}, month = nov, url = {https://earthjustice.org/article/how-to-talk-to-that-one-relative-about-climate-change-without-ruining-your-holiday-meal}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }