Chris Caldwell of United Renewables in Conversation with Professor Zoe Chance
Chris Caldwell of United Renewables in Conversation with Professor Zoe Chance
DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Feb. 23, 2023in a new article entitled 'Why I'm swearing off engaging with climate denial in 2023'.
Citing evidence from behavioural science, Caldwell makes the case that false polarisation bias, loss aversion, and other cognitive fallacies mean that reaching out to climate hold-outs 'just doesn't work.' The result is 'burnout and issue fatigue,' as activists face influential opponents who are 'constantly perceiving, but doing nothing.'
Social media shifts increased denial platforms in 2022
Caldwell's announcement follows reporting from Media Matters and work by the Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition in December, which revealed that denialist voices grew stronger on Twitter across 2022. Since Elon Musk's takeover, a number of prominent climate deniers saw their follower numbers grow by 5x to 1000x more than their prior monthly growth rates.
Behavioural cues for committed action
Instead, Caldwell used his piece to call for more focus on priming believers for action by employing implementation intentions, which 'take a lofty goal and concretise it into a clear set of if-then steps.' He declared this behavioural approach easier and more successful on all sides.
Caldwell is an entrepreneur who founded United Renewables, a cleantech infrastructure firm working across wind, solar, tidal and anaerobic technologies. As host of the podcast Conversations on Climate, he is also a fast-growing voice in the climate space, where he interviews leading scientists and activists around effective climate action.
Conversations on Climateis a joint production of United Renewables and the London Business School Alumni Energy Club.
The episode, featuring Professor Zoe Chance of Yale Business School, is available here.
Conversations on Climatebrings world-leading thinkers from business and academia together to share their expertise on the subject of climate change. Previous guests include Sir Andrew Likierman, Julio Dal Poz, Professor Jean-Pierre Benoît, and Professor Ioannou. Tara SchmidtProfessor Dan Cabletree app entrepreneurs
All previous episodes can be found here. Related articles can be found here.
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