Emma Joyner- Communicating Sustainability

 In my sophomore year, I took an honors seminar entitled “Communicating Sustainability”. To this day, that has been one of my most favorite and rewarding classes I have had the privilege of taking, here at CNU. In this class, we learned all about the different opinions and perspectives of people who have all sorts of different opinions and feelings in regard to climate change. While everyone in this class likely has some care for the environment, there are many individuals who don’t believe in climate change and/or don’t care about the effects of it. In this class, however, we learned a lot of different strategies you can use to persuade and convince people of your argument. For example, if you’re dealing with total climate change deniers, it’s best not to use scientific data to appeal to them. First, it can come off as ingenuine and these are also things people can look up to themselves; at the end of the day, people don’t want to be preached at and this can also make them further reject your idea at hand. Instead, it’s better to appeal to their emotions and learn more about your audience to understand what they care about. The best thing is to try to find a link between your issue and something they are already passionate about to make them understand your perspective. When Dr. Atkinson came to our class, I thought back on this sustainability class a lot. He talked about a time with the Great Dismal Swamp when he tried to convince them to be careful of forest fires. However, the supervisor didn’t want to listen and the implications of that decision were detrimental to the swamp’s environment. Dr. Atkinson admitted and argues for the need for interdisciplinary, well-rounded individuals because of this scenario. He says that maybe if he had been a better communicator or convincer, the devastating forest fires would maybe not have happened.

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