Good-natured comedy to enrich climate communication

Abstract

This report explores the use of good-natured comedy to diversify the modes of comedy that can be used in climate communication beyond satire to others modes that are possibly more supportive of sustained climate action. Student’s self-assessment on a class project involving this type of comedy were collected through an on-line survey to generate data to explore their feelings of hope and their views of their own growth as climate communicators. Research findings suggest that student participation in creating good-natured comedy helps students positively process negative emotions regarding global warming, sustain hope, and grow as communicators of climate. These findings are from a practice-focussed study that shares primarily the self-reported results by students of a project offered over one semester. These findings show promise in the exploration of comedy for students to process emotions that allow joy, fun and hope to sustain their commitment to grow as climate communicators.

Keywords:

• Comedy
• climate communication
• hope
• environmental stewardship
• youth engagement
• humour
• practice-based research

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the support from Inside the Greenhouse faculty, staff, and students who supported this work through many contributions, especially Ami Nacu-Schmidt, our graphic designer. We thank Juliana Forbes for her thoughtful editing of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beth Osnes

Beth Osnes, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado and co-director of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative for creative climate communication (www.insidethegreenhouse.net). She recently toured an original musical Shine to facilitate local youth voices on energy and climate in resilience planning. Recent books include Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement, and Theatre and Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development. She is featured in the award-winning documentary Mother: Caring for 7 Billion (www.motherthefilm.com).

Maxwell Boykoff

Maxwell Boykoff is the Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy (in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies program. Max has ongoing interests in cultural politics and environmental governance, science and environmental communications, science-policy interactions, political economy and the environment and climate adaptation. He has produced many peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and books in these subjects. Max earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of California-Santa Cruz and Bachelor of Sciences in Psychology from The Ohio State University.

Patrick Chandler

Patrick Chandler is a graduate student in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research is focused on the methodologies and impacts of combining art and science to communicate about environmental issues, and he hopes to publish a guide for communities and organisations on that subject. Patrick also works as an Education Consultant for the Washed Ashore Project and has ten years’ experience developing environmental education, stewardship and science programs including curricula. Previously, Patrick served as the International Coastal Cleanup Coordinator for Alaska and was the Special Programs Coordinator for the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.