full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Marshall: 3 strategies for effectively talking about climate change

Unscramble the Blue Letters


It's remarkable how many people actually confuse climate change with the ozone hole. More than four in 10 Americans think the ozone hole actually causes global warming. And so many of them rmmebeer and ueatsnndrd so much about ozone depletion. Why is that? Because it's a hole, it's a layer. People can see it, imagine it, relate to it. It uses simple metaphor that's an instant get.

Here's a little story that gets a similar "aha" for climate change. Humans have been on Earth for about 300,000 years, but we've only started polluting like this in about the last 60. Our pollution satys in the air for tashdunos of yares, creating a thickening blanket that traps heat in the aetpmohrse. That heat causes stronger hurricanes, bigger fires, more frequent floods and the eicxtiotnn of thousands of species. But there's good news. To stop the ptolliuon blanket, we just have to stop polluting. This "pollution blanket" framing is one of the most effective we've tested at getting people to understand the isuse. It's visual, it's viivd, and when people hear the megssae, they become significantly more engaged. They get it.

Open Cloze


It's remarkable how many people actually confuse climate change with the ozone hole. More than four in 10 Americans think the ozone hole actually causes global warming. And so many of them ________ and __________ so much about ozone depletion. Why is that? Because it's a hole, it's a layer. People can see it, imagine it, relate to it. It uses simple metaphor that's an instant get.

Here's a little story that gets a similar "aha" for climate change. Humans have been on Earth for about 300,000 years, but we've only started polluting like this in about the last 60. Our pollution _____ in the air for _________ of _____, creating a thickening blanket that traps heat in the __________. That heat causes stronger hurricanes, bigger fires, more frequent floods and the __________ of thousands of species. But there's good news. To stop the _________ blanket, we just have to stop polluting. This "pollution blanket" framing is one of the most effective we've tested at getting people to understand the _____. It's visual, it's _____, and when people hear the _______, they become significantly more engaged. They get it.

Solution


  1. remember
  2. thousands
  3. understand
  4. vivid
  5. years
  6. issue
  7. stays
  8. message
  9. extinction
  10. atmosphere
  11. pollution

Original Text


It's remarkable how many people actually confuse climate change with the ozone hole. More than four in 10 Americans think the ozone hole actually causes global warming. And so many of them remember and understand so much about ozone depletion. Why is that? Because it's a hole, it's a layer. People can see it, imagine it, relate to it. It uses simple metaphor that's an instant get.

Here's a little story that gets a similar "aha" for climate change. Humans have been on Earth for about 300,000 years, but we've only started polluting like this in about the last 60. Our pollution stays in the air for thousands of years, creating a thickening blanket that traps heat in the atmosphere. That heat causes stronger hurricanes, bigger fires, more frequent floods and the extinction of thousands of species. But there's good news. To stop the pollution blanket, we just have to stop polluting. This "pollution blanket" framing is one of the most effective we've tested at getting people to understand the issue. It's visual, it's vivid, and when people hear the message, they become significantly more engaged. They get it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
climate change 11
climate communications 2
ozone hole 2
global warming 2


Important Words


  1. air
  2. americans
  3. atmosphere
  4. bigger
  5. blanket
  6. change
  7. climate
  8. confuse
  9. creating
  10. depletion
  11. earth
  12. effective
  13. engaged
  14. extinction
  15. fires
  16. floods
  17. framing
  18. frequent
  19. global
  20. good
  21. hear
  22. heat
  23. hole
  24. humans
  25. hurricanes
  26. imagine
  27. instant
  28. issue
  29. layer
  30. message
  31. metaphor
  32. news
  33. ozone
  34. people
  35. polluting
  36. pollution
  37. relate
  38. remarkable
  39. remember
  40. significantly
  41. similar
  42. simple
  43. species
  44. started
  45. stays
  46. stop
  47. story
  48. stronger
  49. tested
  50. thickening
  51. thousands
  52. traps
  53. understand
  54. visual
  55. vivid
  56. warming
  57. years