20080508_CL

Source: Climate Resistance, YouTube

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfDb4K4GUU

Date: 08/05/2008

Event: Caroline Lucas: Green rhetoric of fear and disaster is "deeply unhelpful"

Credit: Climate Resistance

People:

• Caroline Lucas: UK Green Party Leader and MEP

Caroline Lucas: The first thing that Claire said is something that I agree with very strongly. Basically, she was saying that all of this language about the rhetoric of fear and disaster and tipping points is deeply scary and is deeply unhelpful. And I couldn't agree more. I think that actually that the Green movement as a whole has actually, you know, missed a trick here, that we're so busy trying to terrify people into action over climate change, because we just think that if we tell people it's so, so scary they're going to change what they're doing.

That, patently, doesn't work, it doesn't work to try and terrify people into action and I think we've got to get much better, as a movement, about saying that the changes that we need, in order to tackle climate change are actually pretty positive changes in their own right, you know. Who would be against more public transport, greater fuel efficiency, warmer homes because you've got more insulation, for example? We've got a much stronger, more positive story to tell, and I think we've got to get much better at saying that.