Communicating the climate emergency: imagination, emotion, action

Abstract

In order to persuade voters to demand the just decarbonization of their economies, climate communicators should engage the imagination to produce a complex of three emotions: fear of climate breakdown, outrage that powerful actors are blocking the passage of effective climate policy, and desire for a safer world. These emotions help voters identify themselves with victims of climate change, see fossil-fuel barons and climate-denying politicians as political antagonists, and understand themselves as courageous people who can take collective action to preserve the living world.