Climate Justice Narrative

AUTHOR

Afrin Sopariwala

PUBLICATION

Communications Hub, Fuse Washington | August 2016

EXCERPTS

The Power of Narrative

Narrative is a values-based story about our core beliefs. Powerful narratives, used repeatedly over time, can change how people view the world and shape cultural common sense. Values and story are essential elements of narrative that move people. Stories are a powerful part of the human experience. In fact, our brains evolved to process information in story form. A story framework allows us to unite our messages and achieve repetition of our values. Repetition is key in today’s world of digital-chaos and over-information. Further, a story shows us the path to achieving the world we want, while making us believe it is possible.

Whether your issue is directly climate related, or intersectionally connected to climate justice, this toolkit can help you create messaging that will keep our work unified and collectively moving forward.

How to Use This Tool

As communities of color and communities with low-income levels and wealth, our voices and stories have been ignored, unrepresented, and missing in the mainstream environmental narrative. Considering climate change is an issue of economic and racial injustice, it is critical that the solutions and vision come from the communities most affected and that our stories and voices are heard. Over the last several years, many communities of color and grassroots groups in Washington State have done great work on environmental issues. However, a strong, unified narrative has been missing. This toolkit aims to fill that gap.

LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR

As a grassroots activist and public speaker, I know the importance of well-crafted messages to a campaign or action. Messages that are simple to understand, tailored to the audience, and grounded in the values and principles of the movement will have a deep impact on the audience. With that in mind, this toolkit hopes to be a simple and easy to use guide to crafting effective messaging strategy for climate justice campaigns in Washington State.

Climate justice is a complicated subject to discuss because of its deep root causes, threatening impacts, and powerful enemies. Tackling the problem on its surface creates superficial solutions. True solutions originate from the hearts and spirit of the people who see all life on the planet as interconnected and interdependent. Use this toolkit as a starting point. While I hope to paint a compelling picture of the climate justice narrative, this toolkit is not an exhaustive list of facts, solutions, or policies

for tackling the climate crisis. Instead, it offers the core elements of a story and tools to craft a messaging strategy that is unified and rooted in our values.

The messages and vision featured in this toolkit stem from my personal experiences as a climate justice activist and a woman of color, as well as my many conversations, interviews, meetings, and workshops with powerful, inspiring leaders in our movement in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

I hope this tool helps people working on different but intersecting issues to craft powerful messaging. Our movements for justice and a better future are the same. Thank you for reading and doing your part in our united journey towards a better world.

With heart and spirit,

~ Afrin Sopariwala