Want people to act on climate? Tell them how to fix it

Juan Vargas doesn’t shy away from stark news that reveals the reality of the climate crisis. As someone involved in climate organizing since undergrad, they appreciate media that calls out the burning of fossil fuels as the main culprit of climate change impacts like increased wildfires and other extreme weather events. 

However, the 28-year-old notes that it’s also important to highlight solutions that address those impacts: from adaptation measures that can keep communities safer from floods, fires and storms, to reducing emissions through clean energy projects. Vargas’ approach to climate communication, in their role as national co-lead for the Youth Climate Corps, is to refrain from sugarcoating climate change while emphasizing concrete solutions.

That’s the kind of project researchers say we need to be hearing more about. A study from the University of Oregon, published this month in the journal Environment and Behavior, found that climate news that includes a solutions angle is more likely to influence people to take action — whether by supporting policies that address greenhouse gas emissions or donating to environmental causes. 

The findings build on previous research about solutions journalism, which notes that readers report feeling less anxious and more connected to their communities when news focuses on solutions, rather than problems. Surveys done by the Solutions Journalism Network also found that solutions journalism is more likely to spur people to take action.

The participants in the U.S. study read one of two versions of a story about flooding: one was solely focused on the problems and risks associated with increased flooding due to climate change, while the other was a solutions version which was focused on the ways communities are adapting to flood risk. 

After reading their assigned story, the 482 participants answered survey questions about how they felt and to indicate if they were inspired to engage in “pro-environmental behaviours.” The majority were, which doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication and co-author of the study Emmanuel Maduneme said is important information as society reckons with the current and future impacts of climate change. 

The researchers wanted to look into behaviour specifically because “in past studies, we found that people are likely to share negative stories, but it doesn't tell you anything about if they are engaging…It's easy to share. It becomes more valuable when you're committed to engaging in things like volunteering or supporting certain policies,” he said.

While the study used American readers to produce its findings, the results apply to the Canadian news landscape, explained Amélie Daoust-Boisvert, an associate professor at Concordia University who teaches solutions journalism. 

Readers being more likely to take action after consuming the solutions journalism story aligns with a previous report authored by Daoust-Boisvert that found readers were more likely to take “soft actions” like further researching the issue after reading a climate solutions story. 

She notes that both the U.S. study and the research she’s done focuses on solutions-based journalism that isn’t individualistic – a common approach in mainstream media. While she notes that stories of one person being a climate hero can be positive or interesting to readers, they aren’t tackling the real, and often complex, actions needed to address climate change and its impacts.

Climate solutions journalism “centers around the solution” rather than tacking it on the end of a traditional news story and can be used as an important accountability tool – it’s another way to make people in positions of power responsible “for the solutions they should be using and are not,” she said. 

While news has traditionally been skewed more negatively in Canada, she sees evidence of that shifting: one example is CBC Radio-Canada reporters taking solutions journalism training, which she leads.

“If the public broadcaster is interested in this approach, it means something for sure … but the independent and alternative media landscape is really showing the way,” Daoust-Boisvert said.

“They're the ones who are really innovating and trying things out and trying to do journalism in a different way, and then legacy media follows suit.”

A report published by Daoust-Boisvert and co-author Willow Beck on Tuesday digs into the alternative news landscape and its approach to environmental solutions reporting. The researchers developed a full criteria list for solutions journalism, which includes focusing the story on the solution, introducing the solution high up in the article and examining its limitations. 

They surveyed reporting by seven online news outlets from 2022  – including Canada’s National Observer – and found that a third of all climate and environmental articles included at least some of the solutions-oriented criteria. The full criteria was included in 8.5 per cent of total stories.

Climate journalism during elections 

Climate journalism that highlights achievable solutions is particularly important now, with a federal election cycle looming, said Daoust-Boisvert. She predicts politicians will present a spectrum of both real and false climate solutions – carbon capture projects are one example. Often lauded by governments and industry as a silver bullet to decarbonize industrial processes, carbon capture is also criticized for being a costly distraction that locks in fossil fuels and pollution.

The timely importance of solutions journalism is echoed by Maduneme. Fresh into Donald Trump’s second term as president, he is noticing journalists debunking his claims that boosting U.S. fossil fuel production is essential to meeting energy needs along with his justification for pulling out of the Paris Agreement (again). 

He says that solutions journalism started to pick up steam pre-Trump, and that while still not completely mainstream, has continued to gain popularity. He points to the Solutions Journalism Tracker, a story database that includes over 16,000 stories from over 2,000 news outlets across the world.

While not all journalism can be solutions-based, Maduneme sees solution stories as a way to comprehensively cover a piece of climate news or issue. It should start with reporting of the facts to give people an understanding of what is happening. 

“And in many cases, the facts … are not pleasant,” he said. “People should know when things are not pleasant.”

From there, writing a solution story is a way to “complete the cycle of storytelling.” Without a balance between laying out the problem and possible solutions, people sometimes just tune out. 

Maduneme said this happened a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic when the onslaught of bad news led to audience fatigue. Maduneme notes that those findings “exist in a paradox”:  people are drawn to negative headlines, but the study’s findings prove that journalism has an essential role in supporting readers’ mental well-being. 

He notes that climate change is “now a thing, for some communities, of life and death. For some marginalized groups, especially here in the United States, it is a thing of existential cause.

“If you really care about these communities and want to help them, you have to be some sort of an advocate for the truth, not advocate for the solutions, per se, but for the truth.”