75-3 Fear! Fire! Scale! Four strategies that need more attention to bring the urgency of climate change home and foster action

Abstract:

Climate communication has not driven the scale of change needed to protect continued human thriving. I suggest four strategies to improve these efforts:

- strategic use of fear, coupled with efficacious action, 

- increased attention to fire’s central role in the climate emergency,

- straightforward discussion of the difficulties people have with understanding scale and how the understanding of scale is essential for communicating the urgency of the climate emergency, and,

- connect to locally relevant climate phenomenon. 

Thoughtful Attention to Fear:

Being frightened by climate change is rational and a key motivator for those working to address it. Many educators avoid using fear, yet we have a moral obligation to be honest: if people aren’t scared, they don't truly understand the crisis.

However, fear shouldn't stand alone. Being too scared can lead to a state of hyperarousal, where one cannot calm down, or it can lead to hypoarousal, where one is depressed and shuts down. In between these extremes is the “window of tolerance,” where they remain mentally engaged. We can do this by validating fear as a rational response and pairing it with efficacious, community-based action. Working together to address the problem doesn't just alleviate climate anxiety; it transforms paralysis into productive, collective effort.

The Central Role of Fire:

Modern climate change is primarily driven by humans burning stuff - mostly fossil fuels. Everyone has familiarity with fire. This is not true of greenhouse gases or how they warm the planet.

Highlighting fire’s role in climate change makes key solutions more obvious. Wherever we can fire fire in our energy system - replace it with cooler processes or simply stop using it - we reduce emissions and reduce economic costs in the long term. 

Teach Scale

Huge numbers are common in climate communication, but most people misunderstand scale. When asked to mark one billion between zero and a trillion, most place it at ~30%—about 300 billion! Without grasping the difference among a thousand, a million, and a billion, people can't appreciate the implications of Americans burning 376 million gallons of gasoline daily or what a gigaton of CO2 means.

Bring it Home

If the audience is connected to a geographic region, use examples of how the local climate is changing. Extreme weather events of 2026 have made this straightforward. 

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