Guests from a wide range of organizations filled Richcraft Hall Nov. 29 to learn more about the unveiling of Re.Climate, a new centre for climate change communication and engagement at Carleton University.
Re.Climate will provide training and tools to those interested in communicating information about the climate crisis, including a resource and training hub, strategic research services and an engagement lab.
It will also highlight the desire to build a shared future through climate action, Chris Russill, co-academic director of the centre and an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, wrote in an email to the Charlatan.
“We also want to illustrate that our differences are our strength, that different ways of knowing can come together in support of climate action, not be polarized into competitions for attention or polarizing forms of debate,” he said.
Barbara Leckie, co-academic director of the centre, said a multidisciplinary approach that includes communication and engagement centres such as these is needed to tackle climate change.
“In addition to being a scientific fact, climate change is a story,” Leckie said in a speech. “It is through stories that climate change becomes real … How the stories are told matters.”
Cara Pike, executive director of the centre, said communication, alongside scientific knowledge, will help motivate societal change in reacting to the climate crisis.
“We want to generate a social mandate where the majority of Canadians are not just caring about climate change, but taking action, supporting strong climate leaders, demanding strong climate policies and programs and taking steps in their own lives to reduce climate pollution and preparing for climate impacts,” Pike said.
The centre, which is housed in Carleton’s Sustainable Energy Research Centre, was formed through a collaboration between the university, climate communicators, practitioners, strategists and activists across Canada.
Students will also be able to interact with the centre through campus-based and online programming.
This programming will include webinars and opportunities to help with research and activism surrounding climate action. Students will be able to meet Carleton alumni doing similar work in the government and non-profit sector.
“The student generation is all talking about climate change but doesn’t always have the language, the frames, the stories that will lead to action and so we like being located [at Carleton] to bring that here,” Leckie said.
Re.Climate is supported by organizations such as its French counterpart, Communauté de pratique en communication climatique, which will help the centre provide programming to Quebec, and U.S.-based climate change non-profit Climate Access.
In the future, Re.Climate hopes to expand its reach to more diverse organizations across Canada while building off community feedback.
“People respond better to risks and responses when they’re not prescribed, but rather engaged in a dialogue,” Pike said. “As part of that, that really means incorporating local as well as Indigenous knowledge into decision-making, and doing that as early, if not from the outset, of developing climate policies.”
As the group grows, the centre will begin hosting webinars in the winter and is open to collaboration with professors and students to bring the topic of climate change into their courses.
Featured image by Daria Maystruk.
