Letters for Change
For my culminating communication project, I decided to combine essential class concepts with a tried and true method of individual action: letter writing.
Effectively combating climate change will require significant institutional shifts likely through policy changes, and writing letters to representatives provides a concrete, bottom-up method of pushing for this action. I had always avoided this form of activism in the past due to fears of sounding uninformed and thinking that it would take too long, so I saw this project as an opportunity to challenge myself to create targeted messages for specific government officials in hopes of spurring political action.
I ultimately decided to write to Senator Rick Scott, Governor Ron DeSantis, and Representative Charlie Crist. Since understanding one's audience is vital for crafting messages that resonate with recipients and for avoiding frames that may evoke a negative response, I set out to get a general overview of each individual by browsing their official websites, personal Twitter accounts, and news articles. Then, using the insight I gathered, I decided to sort all three representatives into one of Global Warming's Six Americas. Although these six groupings originated from the fascinating annual surveys conducted by Yale's Program on Climate Change Communication, personally identifying which group I thought each individual was in allowed me to narrow down my messaging approach. Based on relevant findings discussed in the next section, I think that Crist is Alarmed, DeSantis is Cautious, and Scott is somewhere between Disengaged and Doubtful. Once I designated a more concrete direction, I did additional research on relevant climate change legislation that would matter to each person and selected unique narratives and frames. Per Espen Stoknes' What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming served as a helpful guide in choosing the best techniques for each person.
The Letters
Senator Rick Scott -- When he was Florida's governor, Scott had a lot of experience with hurricanes. He also had a fairly rocky relationship with the environment & climate change. For his letter, I urged him to vote in support of H.R. 4737, a bill that would promote research on the relationship between climate change and national security. I shaped this message with a preparedness frame (Stoknes, 2015, p.117) that likened preparing for climate change's national security impacts to the importance of preparing for a hurricane.
Representative Charlie Crist -- Although I wasn't originally going to send anything to Crist since he is already active in supporting relevant legislation, I decided to write him a letter of encouragement after thinking back to our class discussion about sometimes feeling hopeless when facing this huge issue. Crist helped pass the Climate Action Now Act that passed in the House, but it will likely never get past the Senate. Adopting Stoknes' tone of "it's hopeless and we're going all-in" (2015, p.222), I commended his past actions and offered realistic hope to keep on pushing for change despite certain obstacles.
Unfortunately, I will likely never receive a response to any of my letters. However, I know that each of these representatives received a document that reflects a constituent's deep concern about climate change, and I think that matters. They also allowed me to work on my skills as a climate change communicator which will enable me to share more effective messages in the future. It also showed me that writing letters to representatives isn't as intimidating or time consuming as I once thought. As activist writer Louise Dunlap says, "everytime we put a vision of change into words, we are beginning to act on that vision, to undo what holds us back and create positive movement forward" (2007, p. 26). If you want to get involved with climate action but don't know how, grab your laptop or a piece of paper and start writing. You never know what change you might set in motion.
Effectively combating climate change will require significant institutional shifts likely through policy changes, and writing letters to representatives provides a concrete, bottom-up method of pushing for this action. I had always avoided this form of activism in the past due to fears of sounding uninformed and thinking that it would take too long, so I saw this project as an opportunity to challenge myself to create targeted messages for specific government officials in hopes of spurring political action.
Process
Overall, my letter writing process consisted of identifying my individual audiences, developing a well-rounded understanding of each and their potential attitudes toward climate change, and choosing a specific call to climate change action that was valuable for the particular individual.I ultimately decided to write to Senator Rick Scott, Governor Ron DeSantis, and Representative Charlie Crist. Since understanding one's audience is vital for crafting messages that resonate with recipients and for avoiding frames that may evoke a negative response, I set out to get a general overview of each individual by browsing their official websites, personal Twitter accounts, and news articles. Then, using the insight I gathered, I decided to sort all three representatives into one of Global Warming's Six Americas. Although these six groupings originated from the fascinating annual surveys conducted by Yale's Program on Climate Change Communication, personally identifying which group I thought each individual was in allowed me to narrow down my messaging approach. Based on relevant findings discussed in the next section, I think that Crist is Alarmed, DeSantis is Cautious, and Scott is somewhere between Disengaged and Doubtful. Once I designated a more concrete direction, I did additional research on relevant climate change legislation that would matter to each person and selected unique narratives and frames. Per Espen Stoknes' What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming served as a helpful guide in choosing the best techniques for each person.
The Letters
Senator Rick Scott -- When he was Florida's governor, Scott had a lot of experience with hurricanes. He also had a fairly rocky relationship with the environment & climate change. For his letter, I urged him to vote in support of H.R. 4737, a bill that would promote research on the relationship between climate change and national security. I shaped this message with a preparedness frame (Stoknes, 2015, p.117) that likened preparing for climate change's national security impacts to the importance of preparing for a hurricane.
Governor Ron Desantis -- Compared to Scott, DeSantis has so far been a better advocate for the environment and recognizing climate change's effects on Florida. My letter to DeSantis asked him to appoint someone to be the next Chief Resilience Officer, a position he created last year whose original appointee has since left for Washington, instead of pawning off these responsibilities to someone who already has many duties (Sampson, 2020). Instead of listing the negatives that would ensue if he didn't do this, I talked about what improvements this role has already made by referencing Nesheiwat's 2019 report and emphasized the benefits it would have for Florida through opportunity framing (Stoknes, 2015, p.119).
Representative Charlie Crist -- Although I wasn't originally going to send anything to Crist since he is already active in supporting relevant legislation, I decided to write him a letter of encouragement after thinking back to our class discussion about sometimes feeling hopeless when facing this huge issue. Crist helped pass the Climate Action Now Act that passed in the House, but it will likely never get past the Senate. Adopting Stoknes' tone of "it's hopeless and we're going all-in" (2015, p.222), I commended his past actions and offered realistic hope to keep on pushing for change despite certain obstacles.
Conclusion
References
Dunlap, L. (2007). Undoing the silence: Six tools for social change writing. New Village Press.
Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., & Roser-Renouf, C. (2009). Global warming’s six americas 2009: An audience segmentation
analysis. Yale program on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/projects/global-warmings-six-americas/
analysis. Yale program on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/projects/global-warmings-six-americas/
Sampson, Z. T. (2020). Florida’s climate change efforts ‘disjointed,’ former state resilience officer found. Tampa Bay Times. https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2020/04/22/floridas-climate-change-efforts-disjointed-former-state-resilience-officer-found/
Stoknes, P. E. (2015). What we think about when we try not to think about global warming: Toward a new psychology of climate action. Chelsea Green Publishing.
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