Price, Pixley and Lustgarten

This week’s readings and discussions revolved around the question of how we can talk about environmental issues in order to be effective in addressing climate change. What we all seem to want to know is how we can approach climate the right way to make legitimate change. Abrahm Lustgarten, Tara Pixley, and Jenny Price each had their own emphases on how they specifically approach the issue but shared many opinions as to what our priorities should be moving forwards.

Pixley, as a visual journalist, had the approach that was both newest and most intriguing to me. She spoke about the key elements of climate visuals that have the greatest impact on readers and viewers. These elements were primarily referencing a Climate Outreach report from 2016 based on discussion groups and an online survey with participants from both Europe and the United States. This guide points visual journalists towards imagery of unstaged people in stories we aren’t yet familiar with, showing climate impacts and causes while also remaining conscious of our audiences and presenting local issues. Pixley went on to describe solutions-based reporting and reporting on inspiring personal stories close to home as her preferred methods for tackling climate stories in a way that promotes hope and action. What she and the study cautioned against is the usage of protest imagery because of its political and alienating nature.

I think the bias readers may have against protest imagery of environmentalists can be directly linked to Price’s discussion in her book “Stop Saving the Planet” as to why people hate environmentalists. On a broad scale mainstream environmentalism has many problems including the two credos Price lists of green virtue and whole planetude. Green virtue refers to the equivalence of environmentalism and moral goodness, a holier-than-thou attitude that seems almost intentionally alienating. Whole planetude boils down to the idea that in making environmental changes any small thing in any setting works because at least we’re doing something. Combined these ideas have led us to a movement that is willing to accept solutions to symptoms of our systemic issues rather than pushing for the massive changes that are actually needed.

As to what we can actually do, given that the previous and current iterations of environmentalism have been alienating and ineffective, each of our speakers had similar answers. Each of them emphasized the importance of journalism in telling the climate stories. As Pixley said, climate change is THE issue of our time, and while I may not identify as a journalist, I think that as an artist there is a similar potential for storytelling my field needs to mobilize for good. In addition to storytelling, Price and Lustgarten both encouraged us to engage in civic action. Since we cannot solve a global and systemic issue on an individual basis, they suggested we instead focus on voting for better legislation and working as a collective. All three of our speakers also highlighted the importance of being continuously informed and seeking out both knowledge and stories that inspire us so that we can remain not only knowledgeable but also motivated.