Mind the (Climate-Change Knowledge) Gap

There is a big gap between what we think we know about climate change and what is actually happening with climate change, according to Anna Rosling Rönnlund, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation and co-author of Factfulness: Ten Reasons Why We Are Wrong About the World-And Why Things Are Better Than You Think.

“We’re basically ignorant about our own ignorance,” Rönnlund said in a podcast hosted by Jason Mitchell, Co-Head of Responsible Investment at Man Group. “And when we’re ignorant about our own ignorance, there’s no need to learn anything because we think we already know.”

So how can we bridge this gap?

Rönnlund believes there are three ways to do this.

The first is to talk about climate change without politicising it because otherwise people “jump into their ideological thinking,” she says. “For instance, when we talk about men and women, we usually don’t talk about gender. We talk about women. Because no one is using [women] as a phrase; it’s a neutral word.”

The second is to talk about climate change in a way that is easy to understand and without clouding it with biases. “We have to be fact-based, scientific and boring when it comes to the content, but in a way people can understand,” she says. “People don’t make the best decisions when they are fear-driven. We need to resonate with analytical minds.”

The third is to evaluate who we’re blaming for the climate change, and determine if that’s accurate. “It’s very easy to sit up in the richest ends of the world and blame the poor ones for environmental decisions, but … the problems we cause with our lifestyles are usually huge in the richer end of the world. It all starts with us starting to behave better.”

Comments may have been edited and condensed for editorial purposes.

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