Have you heard of eco-anxiety yet? 

Eco-anxiety is a new term describing how many people feel overwhelmed and scared by all the ecological challenges we are facing (see the report of the American Psychological Association by Clayton et al., 2017). 

This has gone as far as people offering - and undertaking - therapy for this. But even in less severe forms, all the challenges and threats we are facing can make people feel unsafe and uncomfortable. And as Schein (1996) argues when he talks about change: learning and change are extremely difficult to achieve if we don't feel psychologically safe to change our ways of thinking. Because then, rather than processing new information, we find mechanisms of how to discredit and ignore them, as change is often scary.

Think about it!

Could this explain why some people persistently ignore all the scientific data proving human made climate change? Is everybody at a meeting of climate change deniers just shifting uncomfortably in their chairs and sweaty suit pants, trying to find ways of how to deal with this fear - choosing denial? (apart from other possible factors, like being more interested in short term money than long term solutions).

Or even people who do believe climate change is happening or who are less opinionated - why do they not inform themselves more and act to do something about it? Is it this feeling of unsafety, this fear of huge, unpredictable changes, that sometimes makes us shut our ears and eyes when we are confronted with environmental issues?


Adult education and organisations such as the ELF (Estonian Fund for Nature) try to raise awareness for the importance of caring for our planet. But often, this information gets lost somewhere between sender and receiver. People sometimes don't listen, or they listen but counter argue, or they agree but don't act accordingly. Could some kind of eco-anxiety be a part of this? In some situations for sure.

When we, Anya and I, from the international Master of Adult Education for Social Change, had the idea to support the ELF by designing an online course for them as an additional material for their communication training, we were wondering how we could make this course something special.

While Anya focused on good examples of how social media can be used for environmental communication, I quickly found out that I wanted to go into humour as an effective tool for talking and educating about the importance of caring for the environment.

This might sound weird first.

How can you make jokes about something so serious as climate change or environmental conservation?Well, look at some of the most famous comedy shows. A lot of them talk about politics and people love it! For example, last week tonight is one of the biggest ones in the US, or in Germany, where I am from, the satirical Heute Show is quite popular. 

Using humour to talk about something serious can

  1. break things down so that people can understand complex information better, and
  2. can open people up so that they are motivated and ready to take this information in. Humour can help to lift the feelings of unsafety and anxiety that often hold hands with large-scale impact topics such as climate change and other environmental issues (Magon, 2019).


I truly believe that humour is a very underestimated factor in communication, so I was very passionate about adding a module on humour to our mini course, with the example of memes and backed up by some studies specifically showing the positive effect of humours in environmental communication.

Please feel free to have a look (and maybe a laugh) at a module in the SOCIAL MEDIA CRASH COURSE. 

Visit the course

Having people start with a laugh obviously won't replace preparing yourself well to communicate in the field of environmental conservation and protection, but it might help you to get the audience to actually listen to or read what you have spent so many hours preparing.

So, as an adult educator, whether you work in environmental conservation or in anything else - don't be scared to be funny! It might open doors and windows for you that you usually need a key for.

So, as an adult educator, whether you work in environmental conservation or in anything else - don't be scared to be funny! It might open doors and windows for you that you usually need a key for.




References:

Schein, E. H. (1996). Kurt Lewin's change theory in the field and in the classroom: Notes toward a model of managed learning. Systems practice, 9(1), 27-47.

Magon, L. (2019, Nov 10). A little humour may help with climate change gloom. The conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/a-little-humour-may-help-with-climate-change-gloom-125860

Clayton, S., Manning, C.M., Krygsman, K. & Speiser, M. (2017) Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf