Food and Climate Communication

Banner: The cause of heat is what we eat!

The cause of heat is what we eat!

What can be seen on the banner?

The banner consists of two parts. The first part addresses the problem and causal relationship between animal-based food consumption and global warming in the form of a combination of three communication approaches, namely (humour, cartoon and storytelling). In this part, we personified the wurst in the form of a living cartoon character. In the first scene of the story, there is a person who is eating a delicious innocently looking wurst sandwich not aware of its contribution to climate change. In later scenes, the real face of the wurst becomes a huge wild creature that swallows large amounts of crops to feed itself, thus depleting agricultural resources disproportionate to its size pointing to the fact that meat production takes up disproportionate amounts of crops to produce less amount of animal-based food. In the last scene, the Wurst is producing greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming, with Kulmbach being represented as a melting house.

The second part is suggesting one of the solutions to global warming, which is a planetary health diet. In this part, we used a visual image of what the shopping cart should look like. In the shopping cart visualized, we used mainly various kinds of fruits and vegetables, legumes, and grains to promote more plant-based diets. To a lesser extent, dairy and meat products are featured in our shopping cart image.

What is special about the communication approach?

• Humour: To break the taboos when discussing the association of extensive meat consumption with global warming, we decided to use humour as one of our approaches. It helps us engage the public in the conversation and stimulates behavioural change. This approach motivates the audience to engage in the cause after exposing them to the facts of the scientific consensus more effectively than authoritative approaches (Kaltenbacher & Drews, 2020).
• Visuals: Images should not only focus on problems and give people the sense that the issue is far from their lives, and they cannot do anything to solve them. Instead, visuals should focus on solutions and try to refer to behavioural changes (Manzo, 2010). As we pointed out the problem of global warming in the cartoon, we bring the solution with an image so that the viewer can relate to what to do in daily life to help solve the problem.
• Storytelling: It transforms complicated scientific information into language that can be more easily understood by the general population as we aim to appeal not only to scientific communities but also to the non-specialist audience (Barkemeyer et al. 2016).
• Cartoon: Visuality is an important and powerful tool in climate communication, and cartoons are an effective means of communication in terms of creatively visualizing the effects of climate change. Cartoons ‘don't have to be funny’, they can also be defined as non-verbal storytelling (Manzo, 2012). The reason why we use cartoons as one of the main climate communication tools is to draw the public's attention with striking pictures and to explain the effects of their diet on climate change.

Reflection:

• Humour: it is an approach that has a big potential to engage the audience and stimulate their curiosity and interest in the discussed case, especially if the topic is a taboo or a social norm like extensive meat consumption, and we are aiming to break it. On the other hand, using humour when discussing such a critical scientific issue carries the risk of jeopardizing the credibility or not properly conveying the urgency to act (Kaltenbacher & Drews, 2020).
• Visuals: In the visual approach, a shopping cart has been used to engage the audience in climate change in a way to create behavioural change. The mitigation strategies, it has been seen as the strongest aspect of climate change communication, the behavioural change, so that people can relate the problem and the solution in their own environment and start acting. (Manzo, 2010)
• Storytelling: Storytelling is a channel through which information on climate change and mitigation is facilitated in a logical and simplified manner. Stories play a major role in changing beliefs, acquiring and retaining information, moreover, they stimulate behavioural changes (Wardekker and Lorenz 2019:276).
• Cartoon: In this approach, sausage, a cultural symbol widely consumed by local people, is used as a metaphor to create or increase awareness of the relationship between meat consumption and climate change. This can get people to reconsider their eating habits and adopt a more sustainable diet. However, considering that the literacy levels of the audience may be different, the cartoon may be misunderstood or misinterpreted (Manzo, 2012).

Key information on the banner:

Communication Approach: Humour, cartoon, storytelling and visuals

Message: We are tackling the problem of climate change, specifically (global warming). We shed light on the connection between meat consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases, which in turn increase global warming.  We are advocating a planetary health diet, specifically reducing meat consumption as a behavioural change to mitigate climate change.

Target group/ local reference: Our target group is the community of Kulmbach in general, with specific emphasis on the younger population. Wurst (Sausages) is one of the culturally popular fast food meals consumed by the local community. We used wurst as a symbol for animal-based foods in our approach.

References

Barkemeyer R, Dessai S, Monge-Sanz B, Renzi BG, Napolitano G (2016) Linguistic analysis of IPCC summaries for policymakers and associated coverage. Nat Clim Chang 6(3), pp. 311–316.

Bloomfield, E.F., Manktelow, C. Climate communication and storytelling. Climatic Change 167, 34(2021).

Manzo, K. (2010). Beyond polar bears? Re-envisioning climate change. Meteorological Applications, 17, pp. 196-208.

Manzo, K. (2012). Earthworks: The geopolitical visions of climate change cartoons. Political Geography 31(2012), pp. 481-494.

Miriam Kaltenbacher & Stefan Drews (2020) An Inconvenient Joke? A Review of Humor in Climate Change Communication, Environmental Communication, 14(6), pp. 717-729.

Wardekker A, Lorenz S (2019) The visual framing of climate change impacts and adaptation in the IPCC Assessment Reports. Clim Chang 156(1), pp. 273–292.

Banner: Climate change is happening here and now

Climate change is happening here and now

What can be seen on the banner?

The banner includes different visuals combined with Germany-specific statistics surrounding climate change and meat consumption. In the top-left corner, there is a cartoon of two people, an older man, and a child with dialogue between them. These characters represent two Kulmbach residents, the older generation that has always eaten meat and the younger child who knows that eating less meat can be beneficial. We wanted to incorporate them to make it clear that we are not telling people to cut out meat completely. Instead, we want to help people understand that any change, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction. We thought this was particularly important for our target audience because of the strong cultural traditions and norms surrounding meat consumption.

The photograph of the river Muehlbach that runs through the center of Kulmbach does not show the direct impacts of climate change, however, the text over it states that flooding in Germany will become more common due to climate change. This allows the viewer to imagine their river flooding and connect it to their diet. We used arrows to show the direct impacts of meat consumption on both health and climate change. Studies have shown that visuals showing the impact of climate change can move viewers more and solutions (Climate visuals, 2021). Lastly, the image of the cow taken in Germany, gives a face to the meat we are asking residents to consume less of and may connect to the reader emotionally.

These approaches have the potential to change the behavior of Kulmbach residents through its connection to, hedonic, egoistic, biospheric, and altruistic values. For example, the mention of temperature changes can threaten hedonic values, increases in floods can threaten biospheric values, health impacts of eating meat threaten egotistical values, and a child's future can threaten altruistic values. 

What is special about the communication approach?

To effectively communicate climate change and its solutions, we chose to use a combination of framing and visual communication approaches. More specifically, we focused on local framing and local visuals combined with text to communicate that climate change is in Kulmbach now and that readers can make a personal change that might help mitigate it. Here we are addressing the 3 dimensions that play a role in non-action: spatial, temporal, and public spirit/egoism (Kuckartz, 2010).

Communicating climate change and its solutions can be difficult, especially as foreigners to the population we are trying to communicate with. In this banner, we chose to use information and pictures from Germany and the region to connect with the Kulmbach residence. Creating a local frame can help people identify the risks and solutions of climate change. However, it can be limiting in that some cultures might be a bit reserved and reluctant to change. Overall, it is one of the most effective methods in our target population that has a high meat consumption tendency. Local frames bring climate change reality closer to home which can help influence individual change of attitude and behavior (Degeling & Koolen, 2022 p. 253).

Reflection

One drawback of our combination of visuals with the local frame is that we were unable to find images of climate change directly impacting Kulmbach. However, using text, we implied potential flooding and climate change risk in Kulmbach. Overall, we chose to use visuals because studies have shown that they can help motivate environmentally friendly behaviour (León et al., 2022 p. 2). Lastly, knowledge about climate change does not always inspire action, and therefore we try to offer a solution to eat less meat that reduces carbon emissions and disease risks while simultaneously addressing the three dimensions of non-action.

Key information on the banner:

Communication Approach: Visuals, cartoons, statistics and locality framing

Message: The core message of this banner is that our diet can not only affect our health, but also that of the planet. It hopes to empower Kulmbach residents to reduce their meat consumption. Given the prevalence of NCDs related to diet and diet-related carbon emission in Germany, the banner targets meat consumption of Kulmbach residents. Because 77% of Germans say that they know a lot or a moderate amount about climate change, and the assumption that this is representative of Kulmbach residents, our banner does not aim to inform but rather motivate behavior change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021 p. 5). 

Target group/ local reference: To communicate this, we had to understand our audience. Specifically, we are targeting students, parents, and grandparents with this banner because these groups often cook for themselves and have autonomy when it comes to their diet. While we recognize that there are strong social and cultural norms involving meat consumption in Germany and Kulmbach specifically, we hope that our approach is subtle enough to influence a change in behavior without villainizing meat consumption completely.

References

Climate Visuals. (2021, March 18). Collections | Capture. https://climatevisuals.org/collections/

Degeling, D., & Koolen, R. (2022). Communicating Climate Change to a Local but Diverse Audience: On the Positive Impact of Locality Framing. Environmental Communication, 16(2), pp. 243-261.

Kuckartz, U. (2010). Nicht hier, nicht jetzt, nicht ich. In:Welzer H. et al. (Hrsg.) KlimaKulturen. Frankfurt am Main, pp. 144-160. 

Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., Marlon, J., & Maibach, E. (2021). Global Warming’s Six Americas: A review and recommendations for climate change communication. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 42, pp. 97-103.

León, B., Negredo, S., & Erviti, M. C. (2022). Social Engagement with climate change: principles for effective visual representation on social media. Climate Policy, May, pp. 1–17.

Murray, C. J., Ikuta, K. S., Sharara, F., Swetschinski, L., Aguilar, G. R., Gray, A., ... & Naghavi, M. (2022). Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis. The Lancet, 399(10325), pp. 629-655.

Banner: Milk for Thought

Milk for thought

What can be seen on the banner?

On the banner, a boy and a cow can be seen talking. Each of them tells a story. The stories cannot be seen on the banner, but a QR code leads to them, and you can read the stories here:

Story number 1: The perspective of the cow

My story begins at the end of it all... I wake up dazed by a blinking red light, I close my eyes and I can observe my life passing by since my first steps next to my mom in a beautiful farm, we had the world at our own because I remember being able to run for hours and enjoy the delicious pasture that surrounded me. My human gave us the necessary care to grow big and strong, he took care of my mom, so she wouldn't lack anything and grow like us, my little human called Frank always comes to see me and play with me, we are inseparable and best friends, I know that my little human will always protect me. Two years passed when I grew big and strong, I heard a loud noise coming out of the main door of the farm and I get ready to arrive, I see several humans checking all the cows that were there, they were taking our stockings, and we only heard murmuring among them when suddenly one chooses me to take me with him. Where are they taking me? To another bigger farm? How exciting! In the distance, I hear my little human crying and begging not to be taken...

What's not good news? The big human takes me to a grey metallic conveyor and there are more cows like me, I only see my little Frank running and trying to catch me crying and screaming until one of the humans grabs him and doesn't let him get there. When we arrived at our destination, everything was so grey and depressing, there was no space to run, just being piled up one with another. I just wanted to go back to my farm with my family, when suddenly I hear in the distance the voice of Frank... is it you or am I hallucinating?... It can't be! It's him! I'm approaching him when I'm stopped by a wall full of spikes, it hurts so much trying to get through there I'm bleeding, how do I get out of here? I see Frank running to get a tool to cut the barbed wire that prevented me from leaving, when suddenly a deafening and screeching alarm goes off, suddenly a white light focuses us and Frank manages to cut the wire, we run away at full speed, but I see that many humans with guns start to chase us, The humans start shooting with their guns without caring that a little boy is with me, I don't want them to hurt him, I proceed to ram him, so they don't break him, we are so close to getting out of that horrible place, but I see that one of them tries to hurt him, I run at full speed, but the gun manages to break me, I observe in the distance how Frank manages to slip away and hide. Little Frank I managed to save you, but you managed to free me, I turned around and saw a red-light flashing.

Story number 2: The human friend's perspective

Growing up I saw a lot of violence in the milk industry, my best friend - a cow was taken away from me for slaughter. It was heart-breaking to know that the cow can live up to 20 years (PETA, 2020), yet I have never seen a cow that lived more than five. This experience led me to a way in my future to gain more knowledge about the dairy industry and contribute to a change. First, I learned about animal welfare. How female cows are depressed, and they are forced to produce milk, there is also not much space available for them. They cannot go out, everyday one of the cows is being slaughtered because they "served their time" and each cow feels that they could be next. Second, I learned how much the milk industry connects to climate change. What is climate change? It is the change of the weather in one region over a long period of time. Global warming means that each year our planet Earth is getting warmer, but we, as citizens of the earth, can stop these changes. Since these changes due to climate change and global warming affect our lives and the lives of every living thing
on the plant. For example, the biggest milk producers are not required to make their emissions available to the public eye and or to reduce their impact on climate change to stabilize global warming to 1.5 ̊ C (Sharma, 2020). Meaning, milk producers are allowed to continue to
harm our planet. To put it in a more scientific way: the dairy industry contributes to the rise of greenhouse gases emission through emissions of the following gases: CO2 (carbon dioxide), N20 (nitrous oxide) and CH4 (methane) (Clay et al. 2019). Those GHGs are coming from the extensive use of energy and water, production of crops for livestock feeding etc (Clay et al. 2019). This is only a small part of why the dairy industry has a negative impact on our lives and the lives of the future generations. Furthermore, I came to realize that we as a society need to shift our choices to milk-alternatives. Plant-based milk such as oat or almond milk is cruelty-free, you can do it by yourself at home, and it is climate-friendly. I tried it myself and loved it. Plant-based milk is way healthier than cow's milk, so you do not have to worry about calcium or protein deficiency.

Win-win for all!

Meta narrative of the stories

According to Sangaland & Bloomfield (2018) story No. 1 can be described as bizarre because the story is being told by a cow and the cow is the main character. It is a sad story because it keeps the reader in different emotions throughout the story, it is set in the past because Frank is a child and in the second story it will be set in the present when Frank is an adult, and it is
Moral because at the end it gives you a feeling of reflection on the conditions that these animals are in; the second story is a type V because it is in the present because is being told by the boy as an adult, is a happy story as he learned from the past how the industry treat animals and in which conditions they live, he is working in make a better place and promoting plant-based diet as a solution, its realistic because it mentions some scientific date about what is happening with climate change emissions and moral because it gives you a moment of reflection to adopt a plant-based diet to reduce the emissions and contribute to mitigate climate change.

What is special about the communication approach?

Through stories, people could be more invested in the issue. According to Meston (2021) children do not often understand the facts and through storytelling they can understand the world around them more thoroughly and with empathy. Therefore, telling a sad story about the cow and the loss of a dear friend can result in deep emotions within a child. As a result, a child can possibly change their behaviour in the future and be more compassionate about animals. Despite the fact the first story is a bizarre one, and hence it has been told from a cow, it can be perceived as a real one. The events that happened in the story are partially not true, but they give an emotional overview of a cow's experience. This experience shows that the emotions of a cow are very similar to those of a human being. Through stories about climate change, a personal connection can be established (Matthews, 2021). Furthermore, Oziewicz (2022) is certain that it is the young generation who will bring changes to a sustainable future because the adults are more concerned about financial growth and the young people are more passionate and curious. Thus, connecting important issues through storytelling can be a powerful tool for a sustainable future (Oziewicz, 2022). Moreover, Oziewicz (2022) argues that our minds are more fixed on narrative stories rather than statistics. Therefore, according to the stories, a boy had experienced a devastating loss of a friend, and it led him to learn more about dairy production, which led him on the other hand to climate change issues. The second story indicates that everyone can learn about climate change and educate themselves to make climate-friendly choices.

Reflection

According to Olano (2020) through storytelling everyone can pass the message about climate change in their social environment. It is crucial, however, to think about what kind of story to tell: if it is about inevitability and humanity's doom or is it about hope and possible action (Olano, 2020). Storytelling is used to understand communication and influence people
(Moezzi et al., 2017). Moreover, Lockwood (2021) argues that the stories can come from people who experienced the climate change consequences. Therefore, the narratives will be used to move people to act (Lockwood, 2021). Using a storytelling method leads to interaction between nature, humanity, and technology, where various ways can be included, such as different frames from humanities, social sciences, and perspectives of participants (Moezzi et al., 2017). Moezzi et al. (2017) assured that not only can stories reveal hidden aspects of the content, but they also emphasize "known" parts that are not acknowledged enough. Therefore, through the emotional element of the stories, logical aspects are being
embraced as well (Moezzi et al., 2017).

Key information on the banner:

Communication Approach: Storytelling and narratives

Message: Milk industry has a great impact on climate change, but also it shows the cruelty behind the production of these products and the conditions of the animals inside this industry. We need to shift our food choices to more climate-friendly alternatives.

Target group/ local reference: Children & teenagers

References

Clay, N., Garnett, T., & Lorimer, J. (2019). Dairy intensification: Drivers, impacts and alternatives. Ambio, 49(1), pp. 35–48.

Lockwood, D. (2021, December 20). Another tool in the fight against climate change: storytelling. MIT Technology Review.
(https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/23/1041331/climate-change-storytelling/).

Matthews, B. (2021, August 27). How to effectively communicate about climate change. Empower Agency. (https://empower.agency/how-to-effectively-communicate-about-climate-change/).

Meston, A. (2021, September 13). Tell me a story – why climate change communication
needs to embrace our childlike curiosity. International Science Council.  (https://council.science/current/blog/tell-me-a-story-why-climate-change-communication-needs-to-embrace-our-childlike-curiosity/).

Moezzi, M., Janda, K. B., & Rotmann, S. (2017). Using stories, narratives, and storytelling in energy and climate change research. Energy Research & Social Science, 31, pp. 1–10.

Olano, M. (2020, February 18). Communicating the Climate Crisis. Climate-XChange. (https://climate-xchange.org/communicating-the-climate-crisis/).

Oziewicz, M. (2022, January 14). Why Children’s Stories Are a Powerful Tool to Fight Climate Change. YES! Magazine.
(https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories).

Sangalang, A., & Bloomfield, E. F. (2018). Mother Goose and Mother Nature: Designing Stories to Communicate Information About Climate Change. Communication Studies, 69(5), pp. 583–604.

Sharma, S. (2020, June 15). Milking the Planet. IATP. (https://www.iatp.org/milking-planet).
The Dairy Industry. (2020, December 21). PETA. (https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/cows/dairy-industry/)

Banner: Saving the Environment with a Chuckle

Saving the Environment with a Chuckle

What can be seen on the banner?

The banner prepared by us tries to bring to life a hypothetical situation for the character Jon Snow, who is usually associated with freezing temperatures, experiencing the impact of global warming for the first time. The “message from the King” is a representation of the warnings by environmental scientists regarding climate change that need to be taken seriously. The banner is a way of easing the message to people that while global warming and climate change seem like insurmountable problems, we can still do our part by taking small steps, for instance here, by altering our diets to incorporate more plant foods. The banner provides comical relief to a grave topic, the main reason for which is to motivate rather than scare people from acting.

Our objective here is to reach as many people as possible, in general, but we specifically aim to target people from the younger generation with the reference to Jon Snow, who is a popular character in the TV show Game of Thrones. Since Game of Thrones is popular among a wide age range, the banner could potentially attract the attention of anyone who is aware of the reference (Schoenbauer, 2019). Additionally, mothers usually tend to play an important role in the nutrition of kids. In a way, this banner could indirectly attract mothers to the central message of promoting plant-based diets. We hope to motivate people who grew up on traditional German diets, which often contain meat, to consider more vegetarian and vegan options since they serve as better alternatives for both the health and the environment.

What is special about the communication approach?

Climate change is a very real problem, backed up by scientific research and several scientists’ opinions. Yet, all it takes for a sceptic to change their mind is something as simple as political affiliation or popular opinion over the internet (Trinastic, 2016). Eco-anxiety, or the anxiety due to the current affair of climate change, can also lead to feelings of denial among people due to the fear of the irreversible changes in the environment because of our own actions (Eco-Anxiety, 2020). Climate change is an important, but an equally heavy topic to deal with. Thus, while communicating about climate change, it is important to keep in mind not only “the content of the message but also the tone of voice and the way of communicating” (Kaltenbacher and Drews 2020). Hence, the communication approach that we chose to use for our banner is a combination of comics and humour, intending to make the conversation about climate change easier in public spaces.

The reasons for choosing our communication approaches were simple. Cartoons and comics induce “visual engagement” among the audience, even if they do not provide excessive scientific information (Manzo, 2012). While cartoons don’t necessarily need to be funny, having a humorous aspect to them makes them entertaining and can hold the attention of the audience. Comics and humour are a light-hearted way of approaching climate change. Some people tend to find the conversation about climate change too intimidating. As a result, it can be hard to get the message across, especially to people who tend not to engage with the topic of climate change too much. Humour can help “foster greater involvement” because it makes the topic more approachable to the audience (Kaltenbacher and Drews, 2020).

Reflection

It is, however, important to note that taking this approach might reduce the urgency to mitigate climate change among locals. It is vital to make sure that the central message of the comic still reaches the audience. This approach also might not be appreciated by or suitable for all ages. Therefore, the target audience needs to be recognized before using either of these approaches (Kaltenbacher and Drews, 2020).

With our banner, we want to bring to attention the need to change our eating patterns to develop sustainable food systems and reduce the GHG emissions released by livestock farming (Paris et al., 2022).  Comics inherently tend to attract the attention of most people. That is one of the reasons why they continue to be a part of even serious mediums of communication, such as newspapers (Bellis, 2005). They are short and concise, which makes it easy to get the message across. Humour makes it easy to deal with the nervousness of serious topics such as climate change. Using both these approaches makes our banner not only attractive to a range of people, from teenagers to adults, but it also gives a simple personal solution without coming off as aggressive or scary. Thus, we give the idea of climate change communication an entertaining and interesting twist to attempt to garner the attention of a wide audience.

Key information on the banner:

Communication Approach: Visuals, comics

Message: The core message of this banner is that while global warming and climate change seem like insurmountable problems, we can still do our part by taking small steps, for instance here, by altering our diets to incorporate more plant foods.

Target group/ local reference: The banner targets as many people as possible, in general, but we specifically aim to target people from the younger generation.

References

Schoenbauer, A. (2019). Insights Are Coming: Winning the Game of Thrones Fan. Available online at https://www.numerator.com/resources/blog/insights-are-coming-winning-game-thrones-fan, updated on 7/20/2022, checked on 7/20/2022.

Bellis, M. (2005). The Colorful History of Comic Books and Newspaper Cartoon Strips. In ThoughtCo, 2005. Available online at https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-comic-books-1991480, checked on 7/20/2022.

Eco-Anxiety (2020). What is Eco-Anxiety? Available online at https://www.ecoanxiety.com/what-is-eco-anxiety/, updated on 2/13/2020, checked on 7/20/2022.

Trinastic, J. (2016). Understanding climate change skeptics | Eyes on Environment. Available online at https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/eyes-on-environment/understanding_climate_change_skeptics/, updated on 12/10/2019, checked on 7/20/2022.

Kaltenbacher, M. & Drews, S. (2020). An Inconvenient Joke? A Review of Humor in Climate Change Communication. In Environmental Communication 14 (6), pp. 717–729.

Manzo, K. (2012). Earthworks: The geopolitical visions of climate change cartoons. In Political Geography 31 (8), pp. 481–494.

Paris, J. M. G.; Falkenberg, T.; Nöthlings, U.; Heinzel, C.; Borgemeister, C.; Escobar, N. (2022). Changing dietary patterns is necessary to improve the sustainability of Western diets from a One Health perspective. In The Science of the total environment 811, pp. 151437.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to the Public Health Nutrition chair for providing us with the fake food.