“The folks who are most impacted or most vulnerable are not at the planning table,” said Jacqueline Patterson, director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at the NAACP. She said low-income minority communities may have poor-quality housing, live in flood plains, lack infrastructure, and have few grocery stores nearby. During weather-related disasters, women become more likely to experience domestic abuse and sexual violence.

When weather-related disasters happen, authorities don’t always communicate with low-income housing residents, Patterson said. She recalled one flood in Mississippi where people returned to homes that ”were contaminated with mold and other toxins.”

In Alabama, Patterson said, a black family was turned away by a nearby church during a tornado and returned home. As a result, almost all of the family died.

Environmental organizations can be part of the solution to climate-related social problems by building genuine, sincere relationships with low-income and minority communities. “A relationship takes time and takes investment,” said Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine, chieftess and head-of-state of the Gullah/Geechee Nation in the southeastern United States.

For minority communities, Patterson said, contacts from majority organizations can feel very “transactional.” “There is not enough attention to just building relationships,” she said.

Goodwine offered advice for minority community leaders who want to build connections with environmental organizations. “One of the key elements is being vigilant about seeing what people are working on besides your own circle of people. You can start to reach out to groups that don’t even know you exist.”

Approaching people by speaking about topics that interest them already is also valuable. Community activists may not think the issues they care about are connected to climate change. For example, said Ann Baughman, associate director of Freshwater Future, the Detroit activists she has met care about improving safety, beautifying the city, getting rid of vacant lots, and taking care of trash. Planting rain gardens can beautify Detroit while helping the city adapt to climate change.

Photo Credit: buckshot.jones via Compfight cc

Freshwater Future’s staff went through a one-day training on environmental justice once they realized they needed to reach out to the urban communities in the Great Lakes region which are likely to be hit hard by global warming’s weather and flooding. The training was led by Judy Hatcher, executive director of the Pesticide Action Network.

Local low-income and/or minority communities may be very familiar with the signs of global warming in their own backyards – or on their shores. “We literally live in a hurricane zone,” said Goodwine. “We became knowledgeable for how to watch for different changes in the environment.”

Goodwine observed trees falling along the shore and herbs not growing correctly. “It made me be more inquisitive as to erosion,” she said. This motivated her to learn more about sea level rise and climate change.

“I take examples from my daily life and what has happened and utilize it in inter-generational training,” Goodwine explained. Before she began talking about sea level rise with the Gullah/Geechee Nation, she said, her community thought of sea level rise as a problem which affected people in other countries.

The Gullah/Geechee Nation is working to prevent erosion and preserve water quality by planting oyster beds in shoreline areas where people are unlikely to walk. “We have been evaluating areas where oysters grew over the generations,” she said. “Where the shore is more firm, we bag the oyster shells. The more that we have these oyster shells planted into our waterways, the more we have a barrier. There are a number of creatures that feed from the oyster beds. Other sea creatures lay their eggs in the oyster beds so they can have a safe haven.”

Photo Credit: Basenisa via Compfightcc

Cara Pike, director of Climate Access, said hands-on activities like planting oysters can help bring concepts of climate change, sea level rise, and erosion prevention into perspective for people who are new to these subjects.

Localized messaging matters to Goodwine as well. “We are place-based people. Staying there is always part of people’s ongoing life identity in this region. That’s the thing that galvanizes people who have been there for generations.”

Goodwine said she would like to see scientists share their resources by doing community-based environmental work and hiring staff from underrepresented groups.

Environmental organizations can also partner with local leaders. ”We come in mostly as a way to provide some resources,” Baughman said. Freshwater Future links local organizations to small grants, professional expertise, and regional policy activism.

Reaching out to underrepresented communities “can be uncomfortable, it can be a little scary, but you have to do it,” Baughman said. “Start building authentic relationships. That trust has to be built on something real.”

Today, experts from Harvard University and Boston University explored journalists’ rights in a panel called “Newsgathering and the Law: Hot Topics for Citizen Journalists in Massachusetts.” They provided many practical legal tips for writers who work outside of traditional media.

The panel was part of a conference on citizen journalism, “Filling the News Gap in Cambridge and Beyond: Citizen Journalism and Grassroots Media,” which took place at the Cambridge Public Library.

Traditional news organizations in the United States have extensive legal resources that independent bloggers and journalists lack, said Jeffrey Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project (DMLP) at Harvard University. In response to this need for legal advice, the DMLP has developed an online legal guide.

The panelists delved into strategies for requesting public records, attending civil and criminal trials, making video and audio recordings in public places, and handling concerns about defamation.

“Records really drive our investigative reporting,” said Joe Bergantino, director of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) at Boston University. “It’s one thing to get someone to tell you something. It’s another thing to have a document that proves what they’re saying.”

NECIR sends out public records requests about a wide range of subjects – from sewage discharges to college sexual assaults.

Bergantino calls organizations weekly after sending them requests for information. He also contacts alternate sources and uses leaked documents. “Sometimes it’s a painful process,” he said.

Bergantino recommends that journalists ask for electronic data rather than print data to save time. But often, staff send data in print so they can cross out confidential information. Legally, organizations are required to tell journalists why they are removing the information.

“Sometimes, we get documents where it’s mostly Sharpie on the page,” said Hermes.

Organizations are allowed to charge journalists money for providing data, but must spell out the line items and use reasonable cost estimates if they plan to charge over $10, Bergantino said. However, organizations cannot charge money for answering questions and are under no obligation to provide general information to reporters.

Both civil and criminal trials are usually open to journalists and bloggers, Hermes said. Courts may make exceptions to this rule under special circumstances. A journalist or blogger may stand up and object to the closure of a trial.

In Massachusetts, videotaping police without their consent has led to arrests, said Christopher Bavitz, assistant director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard University. These arrests happened because a Massachusetts law prohibits wiretapping. However, a court decided that public videotaping of police was a legitimate activity in this state.

The legal rights of journalists and bloggers vary from state to state. In some states, Hermes said, bloggers and independent journalists have less protection from defamation lawsuits than newspaper reporters do.

For more information about the legal rights and responsibilities of bloggers and journalists in the United States, visit the websites of the Digital Media Law Project and the Online Media Legal Network.

Media focus on environmental issues is somewhat like a will-o’-the-wisp. (Source: Kikasz via Compfight cc)

Why does this happen? Thomas Hayden has some ideas about why media focus on environmental topics waxes and wanes. He mapped out the coverage of environmental topics in The New York Times and found a gradual upward trend over the decades, punctuated by wild fluctuations.

These fluctuations – the jagged peaks on his graph – happen to coincide with our collective moments of excitement about environmentalism, which I have renamed:

• “hippies and whales”
• “tropical rainforests”
• “temperate rainforests”
• “climate change science”
• “climate change movie”
• “climate change reality” 

Although journalists’ interest in environmental issues may be growing over time, it is based on short-term events and catastrophes.

Do other people forget about environmentalism as often as journalists do? It’s hard to say. But an article on fads and the environment suggests social trends need to build on deeper underlying values in society to succeed.

This is an important point. If you want to build a successful environmental trend or meme, you need to speak to what already matters to people – their existing cultures and priorities.

Should environmentalists try to catch people’s attention with a series of trends and hot topics? Maybe that is not enough.

Like dieting, environmental change has to be more than a fad to succeed. If environmentalists want to achieve long-term, successful social change, that will require making structural changes to our everyday lifestyles so positive choices will lead to rewards. These rewards do not all have to be financial; they can be social. They can even involve saving time or simplifying our lives. 

Maybe environmentalists need to augment those will-o’-the-wisps of media coverage with solid structural changes behind the scenes.

Zuk’s title was not the only provocative part of the presentation. A slide describing her recent book showed the actress Raquel Welch in a suede outfit, looking like a cartoon character or superhero. Throughout the talk, Zuk critiqued stereotypes and ideals about life in the Stone Age.

Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (1966) (Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education)

“It’s futile to choose a particular time in the past for human harmony,” Zuk said. “The Stone Age may have no more significance than any other point in the past. Why not long to be aquatic, since life arose in the sea?”

Was life really better under the sea? (Source: Wikipedia)

“We’ve never been a seamless match with our environment,” Zuk said. “It’s more like a broken zipper. Nature is a tinkerer, not an engineer.”

Although she acknowledged living surrounded by computers, cars and processed foods presents new challenges for humans, Zuk said we are continuing to adapt. Sometimes, we adapt rapidly. A three percent increase in reproductive fitness can make a gene widespread in 300 to 350 generations. For example, some humans have adapted to digesting milk because it gives us survival advantages.

“There’s never this cosmic moment when a frog or a monkey or an insect looks down at its body and says, ‘I don’t need to evolve any more,’” Zuk said wryly. “Nobody heaves a sigh of genetic relief and then stops.”

“Humans are not the pinnacle of any evolutionary ladder,” Zuk said, showing several  popular cartoons which depict a progression of evolution with a modern human man at the end.

Humans are not the summit of an evolutionary ladder, although we sometimes think we are. (Source: The Funny Times)

Zuk does believe some of the Paleo diet and exercise recommendations may be good for the human body, though. “I’m not a dietitian,” she said. But she believes eating minimally processed food and being physically active are good ideas. “You don’t need to be emulating your ancestors.”

“I did not say we could all live off Cheetos and Diet Coke,” she concluded.

A recent Scientific American blog post described how non-scientists in the United States misunderstand the scientific meanings of words like “theory,” “significant,” “hypothesis” and “natural.” A post on the Science 2.0 website provides a longer list of words that are often misunderstood.

What’s wrong with hoping the public will understand scientific language someday? Nothing. But we live in a society where scientists are a specialized group, often socially distant from many of the people who misunderstand them. If scientists want to eradicate misunderstandings and strengthen public awareness of the value of science, better communication and more social interaction is the best solution.

There are tips available online for scientists who want to do a good job of communicating their research and ideas in the classroom. I’ve edited some of these tips myself. When I was working at the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL), I edited two book sections showing how scientists can respond to misunderstandings immediately when talking with students. Here’s a shortened excerpt from one of the sections:

Problems of Terminology

1. Confusing the technical meanings and the ordinary meanings of words.
Some scientific terms have technical meanings that are very different from their common sense meanings.

2. Using words that have technical meanings and not realizing it.
Some ordinary English words are used as technical terms, as explained above, but experienced scientists (such as graduate students and lecturers) are so used to using these words that they often forget that these words have special meanings. So the scientists don’t define the terms and then are surprised when the students don’t know what they mean.

3. Getting confused when using similar but not identical terms.
Certain pairs of terms seem to be difficult to distinguish – for example, “gene” and “allele,” as well as “chromosome” and “chromatid.” To make it worse, some of these terms are synonyms in common speech, such as “inhibition” and “repression.” A good way to clear up confusion is to compare and contrast; compare what the two terms have in common and contrast their differences.

Students sometimes misunderstand terms related to genes and DNA. (Source: stock.xchng)

A second section covers the various types of misunderstandings that can occur.

Preconceived Notions

Preconceived notions are popular conceptions rooted in everyday experiences. For example, many people believe that water flowing underground must flow in streams because the water they see at the earth’s surface flows in streams. Preconceived notions plague students’ views of heat, energy, and gravity…

Nonscientific Beliefs

Nonscientific beliefs include views learned by students from sources other than scientific education, such as religious or mythical teachings…

Conceptual Misunderstandings

Conceptual misunderstandings arise when students are taught scientific information in a way that does not provoke them to confront paradoxes and conflicts resulting from their own preconceived notions and nonscientific beliefs. To deal with their confusion, students construct faulty models that usually are so weak that the students themselves are insecure about the concepts.

Vernacular Misconceptions

Vernacular misconceptions arise from the use of words that mean one thing in everyday life and another in a scientific context (i.e., “work”). A geology professor noted that students have difficulty with the idea that glaciers retreat, because they picture the glacier stopping, turning around, and moving in the opposite direction. Substitution of the word “melt” for “retreat” helps reinforce the correct interpretation that the front end of the glacier simply melts faster than the ice advances.

Students may not understand that glaciers retreat by melting rather than turning around and moving backward. (Source: stock.xchng)

Factual Misconceptions

Factual misconceptions are falsities often learned at an early age and retained unchallenged into adulthood. If you think about it, the idea that “lightning never strikes twice in the same place” is clearly nonsense, but that notion may be buried somewhere in your belief system.

Correcting science misconceptions requires a sophisticated understanding of both communication and science. Investing more resources in science education can help improve public science literacy. But scientists may also need to consider using alternate words for concepts that most people misunderstand.

I spent a Sunday night last month reading about the 20 dirtiest cities in the United States instead of watching the Oscars. One of these cities is the home of the Gowanus Canal, a Superfund site. I wrote a blog post about the Gowanus Canal earlier this year. Here is a quote from one of my sources, a journalist who was brave enough to ride through the canal on a boat.

The Gowanus Canal is, for lack of a better word, disgusting. As soon as you enter the canal, the water changes from rolling blue waves to a stagnant, milky-green muck. Pools of oil bubble to the surface and sit there like huge paint chips. Scum and bits of garbage float around and congregate against the canal walls. It is seriously, seriously gross.

Last week, one of my freelance contracts included writing a blog post about military suicides. Listening to the Director of Psychological Health at the Maine National Guard describe the emotional wounds of combat was extremely challenging. However, his colorful language added character to the blog post and illuminated the mindset of soldiers who seek therapy.

Journalists who cover subjects such as wars, crimes, natural disasters, pollution, and human rights violations can experience vicarious trauma that affects them profoundly. Over time, it may even lead them to become cynical.

What Are the Signs of Vicarious Trauma?

According to Wikipedia, the symptoms of secondary or vicarious trauma are similar to the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These signs may include:

…social withdrawal; emotional lability; aggression; greater sensitivity to violence; somatic symptoms; sleep difficulties; intrusive imagery; cynicism; sexual difficulties; difficulty managing boundaries…; and core beliefs and resulting difficulty in relationships reflecting problems with security, trust, esteem, intimacy, and control.

How Can Writers and Journalists Protect Themselves from Vicarious Trauma?

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has produced a website with a set of guidelines for workers responding to traumatic emergencies. These guidelines cover many situations. Although the tips are not specific to writers or journalists, many of the points about emergency response staff apply to people in other careers as well.

• Relying on social support can reduce the impact of traumatic events, according to an article from The New York Times. 
• Removing oneself from the source of the traumatic information temporarily can relieve symptoms, according to a brochure for emergency response staff from the SAMHSA.
• Seeking out spiritual and self-care resources can help emergency response staff recover from traumatic experiences at work. Mindfulness meditation is one strategy the Veterans’ Administration recommends.
• Taking inventory of other sources of stress in one’s life and working to minimize their severity can reduce the impact of traumatic news reporting.
• Developing a routine of exercise, progressive muscle relaxation, and/or meditation can help one calm down while working with survivors of trauma. Some health professionals recommend exercise as a means of treating PTSD. 
  
• Maintaining emotional detachment from survivors’ stories may be necessary as well. This can be challenging for writers who are interviewing people who have experienced catastrophes.
• Journaling can also be helpful for maintaining one’s health and stability when dealing with difficult news content.
• Humor is a coping strategy which can work well for stress reduction.

I have also found that taking breaks between projects and listening to music while writing make it easier for me to cover topics like environmental pollution, suicide and crime.

North Dakota’s natural gas flares are visible from the night sky and rival major cities in their brightness. Sant circulated the following photo of the night landscape of North America via social media and email. The response was electric. Writers picked up the story.

A photo from Ceres’s campaign to stop natural gas flares in North Dakota.

Sant showed the results of this campaign at New England Women in Energy and the Environment‘s March 14 panel discussion, Social Media Success in the Energy and Environmental Sectors. He also described how he uses podcasts, videos and infographics to make data attractive for social media distribution.

Sarah Finnie Robinson, founding partner at Practically Green, talked about her exploration of the nuances of behavior change. Working with an enthusiastic group of interns and staff, she develops social software that companies and individuals can use to alter their environmental behavior.

Practically Green is building on the current wave of interest in gamification – making activities more like computer games – and integrating that approach with social media. The resulting product makes conserving water and other resources less like doing a chore and more like using Facebook.

“You’re not alone,” one of Robinson’s slides said. Robinson wants her software to engage people in communication, not just give them tasks to do in isolation. Based on the rapid expansion of demand for her product, this approach is certainly working.

Cindy Jolicoeur, vice president of Marketing Drive, used a different tactic in her work with the Mass Save energy efficiency program. She leveraged consumer interest in sharing information about deals and taking advantage of discounts to build the fan base for the Mass Save Facebook page from around 2,000 to over 15,000. These likes came as a result of targeted promotions and advertising across multiple media. Consumers developed a relationship with Mass Save and used the page to ask questions about energy efficiency.

“People want to connect with people,” said Cindy Hoots, corporate social responsibility account director at Cone Communications. She encouraged the audience to be informal on social media. Being able to respond on the fly is crucial, she said. She recommended keeping an unofficial FAQ on hand to use in response to stakeholder comments.

“Not all these stakeholders are friendly,” Hoots said. “Some can be a thorn in your side. Others may have an activist bent.”

Building relationships with stakeholders is a complex process, Hoots said. First, one needs to identify who they are. Second, one needs to understand their values and priorities. Third, one needs to learn how to reach them. And that’s just the first phase of action. One also needs to prioritize influencers, reach out to them, and offer them resources they want.

Hoots recommended two online tools for identifying influencers: Traackr and SocMetrics. These sites can give one basic information about the behavior of influencers and help one develop a plan for building relationships.

There are many ways communicators can engage stakeholders and build support for sustainable actions. This discussion demonstrated how Twitter, Hootsuite, Facebook, and other social media tools can support energy and environmental organizations in reaching their goals successfully. Sometimes, all it takes is a surprising picture.

Emily Badger, a TED essayist, says there are many advantages to sharing resources. She mentions library books, laundromats, and public transit as urban success stories.

I live in one of the satellite towns outside Boston. Here, there are a number of practical obstacles which make it hard for me to participate in the sharing economy Badger and Margeson describe. Many of these are problems which could be resolved by social entrepreneurs and transit planners.

1. In the Boston area, rents tend to be relatively high in neighborhoods that have subway service. This gives people an incentive to move further outside the city and beyond the areas served by the MBTA. There is not much public transit available outside of the Route 95/128 corridor. Commuter train service is limited on weekends outside of Boston. 
2. There are two ways I can participate in the sharing economy when I buy groceries. I can either buy in bulk through a grocery co-op or pick my own fruits and vegetables at a farm. Even though I want to support local businesses, both of these alternatives cost more than buying imported groceries at the local supermarket.
3. In this area, auto repairs, gasoline, health insurance, medical services, utilities, household basics, furniture, beauty services, Internet access and phone service are all provided by private companies which do not participate in the sharing economy. None of these products and services are available through local timebanks, although a few household and beauty products are available through a bulk buying club.

To some extent, this means my participation in the sharing economy is limited to small material purchases and electronic resources – things I can buy at secondhand stores, download, or share with a neighbor. For example, I can borrow e-books online. I can use sites like SwapaCD to exchange music discs. Or I can visit the local library.

Some people in my neighborhood engage in DIY activities to make ends meet – or simply because they enjoy them. One of my neighbors, an auto mechanic, gave me three lobsters the day after I moved in. He owns lobster traps and a boat and sometimes shares his catch. He also has given me tomatoes. Although I can’t participate in the sharing economy here the same way I could in a more urban area, I can fish, hunt or garden. I can also repair things instead of replacing them.

There are many expenses the sharing economy doesn’t touch. But outside of urban areas, DIY activities and neighborhood resource sharing can help fill the gaps. I’d like to see social entrepreneurs start to develop creative approaches to providing basic resources through the sharing economy.

In three words, my response is: “Customize your messages.”

Today’s media environment is a crowded place, dense with conflicting demands for our attention. In this climate, the messages that rise to the top are the ones with the greatest relevance and the most effective targeting.

Know your audiences. Read the news publications they read – even if you disagree with them. Understand the jargon they use at work and the casual language they use on the weekends. Find out what they do for fun. Become familiar with their values. Try to think the way they think.

One of the best ways to learn how to customize messages for an audience is through cultural immersion. Go and visit your audiences in person. Go out to dinner with them. Get to know their priorities. Learn how to establish credibility with their organizations. Work with them and talk with them as much as possible.

Then, once you know your audiences, use techniques like community-based social marketing. Find out what constraints prevent them from taking environmental actions. Address these challenges through concise and direct communication. When you talk about benefits, tailor your language to your audiences.

Don’t rely on messages about preserving the environment or saving money. These popular messages may not resonate with your audiences at all. To develop messages that work, you need to know your audiences and understand them as well as people in a small town understand their next-door neighbors.

Get to know your audiences’ cultural preferences as well as you know your neighbors’. (Source: Someecards.com)