A couple of months ago I wrote about the perception gap on climate change: the vast majority of people support climate action, but think that others don’t. A global study found that 89% of those polled wanted a stronger response to climate change. When asked how many of their fellow citizens wanted the same thing, they consistently guessed a far lower percentage.
This has political consequences. ‘I will if you will’ is a very human instinct, which can leave everyone waiting for each other to move first. When politicians underestimate public opinion, climate policy is rolled out hesitantly. Some scrap it entirely in a futile bid for votes. Neither approach is necessary when there is such a significant majority in favour.
The best response to this problem is to tell more stories about climate solutions and break through the silence, and so I was delighted to hear about The 89% Project. It’s been brewing for a few months and launches to the public today, with a week of news stories exploring the perception gap and the silent majority who support climate action.
The 89% Project is a global media collaboration coordinated by Covering Climate Now. This week of stories will be followed by a year long effort from journalists and newsrooms around the world, with another focused week in October ahead of the COP. I’m taking part, and if you’re writing about climate, you can too. I’m also looking forward to the stories that come out of it, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for them this week.
News has a big role to play in overcoming the perception gap. Bad news dominates climate coverage. Climate denial still rears its empty head. The ongoing roll-out of climate solutions often isn’t newsworthy at all, and so journalists have to be deliberate in their coverage. That’s why The 89% Project is needed, to raise awareness within the industry and reflect public opinion better.
What kind of stories do we need to tell? We need to tell people that the transition is well underway, that the technologies are working, that emissions are falling in many places. (Just this week I did a talk where not a single person in the room knew that emissions in the UK are declining, despite that being the case for 40 years.) We need stories about community energy, green jobs, milestones and success stories. The natural disasters and reversals will keep coming, but we can’t let them obscure the underlying reality: the climate crisis is urgent. Proven solutions are available. And more people want them than you might think.
- This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.
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