Monmouth University America Mislead Climate Change Discussion Post
Part one, Listening, Reflection and Committment:
Talk to 3 people with whom you have never before discussed climate change, they can be anyone, even complete strangers that you grab on the street. You are encouraged to say this is an assignment for your college class. The conversation must take place in real time, either by telephone, Zoom/FaceTime or some other video conference mode, or physically face to face.
Your goal in these 3 conversations is to establish what each of the people know about the 5 truths about climate change laid out in the “America Mislead” document: its real, its bad, experts agree, it’s us (human beings), there are solutions, and how often they discuss climate change. In this conversation you are supposed to be listening not dispelling misconceptions, unless you are asked what you have learned. You can begin with open ended questions like “what do you know about climate change?” “what causes climate change?”, “how often do you talk about climate change with friends and family?” “how often do you consume climate change news articles?” ” what do you know about organized climate denial?” and then follow up with more specific questions.
After each conversation you should take 10 min and jot down your reflections on the conversation. What surprised you? What did you handle well? Did you miss any opportunities to understand the persons perspective better? How could you improve the conversation from the perspective of understanding the other persons experience, view point and emotional positions? Were the politics of the other party revealed? Did you have to state your politics for the other person to open up?
After you have had all 3 conversations review the instructions for part 2 of the project and make a commitment to yourself to a climate communication plan for the rest of the semester. (see below)
Your discussion post on September 24th should a) have a meaningful title
b) summarize your listening sessions in one to two well structured paragraphs.
c) also summarize your reflections on the conversations in one to two well-structured paragraphs and:
d) outline your communication commitment plan for the rest of the semester (also 1-2 well structured paragraphs).
e) It should include comments on what you heard about both the science and politics of climate change.
Discussion responses should recognize and comment on at least one thing the writer did well or was sensitive about in the conversations or reflections, and comment constructively on some aspect of the commitment plan.
the article is attached, Americas mislead
