Rebecca Huntley - How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference

Beyond the headlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps no other issue today is as confronting as our warming earth. But while scientists double down on the shocking figures, we still find ourselves unable to discuss climate change meaningfully among friends and neighbours—or even to grapple with it ourselves. So why is it so hard to talk about climate change?  

In her new book How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference, leading social researcher Rebecca Huntley explains why the key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change.

This is a vital and unmissable event! Rebecca chats with Lisa Forrest via Zoom.   

Event tickets are just $5. Or you can select an Event+Book combo ticket for $30 - a saving of over 20% on the combined ticket and RRP book value ($37.99), reflecting Better Read Than Dead's ongoing climate action committment of 20% off the RRP for climate change books. 

The Zoom meeting details form part of your ticket, emailed to you after registration. 

About the Book

Beyond COVID-19, perhaps no other issue today is as confronting as our warming earth. But while scientists double down on the shocking figures, we still find ourselves unable to discuss climate change meaningfully among friends and neighbours—or even to grapple with it ourselves. So why is it so hard to talk about climate change? 

In her new book How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference, leading social researcher Rebecca Huntley explains why the key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change. 

Whether you're already alarmed and engaged with the issue, concerned but disengaged, a passive sceptic or an active denier, understanding our emotional reactions to climate change —why it makes us anxious, fearful, angry or detached —is critical to coping on an individual level and convincing each other to act. 

Huntley writes: ‘The aim of this book is unashamedly an activist one. I want you to read it and become better equipped to talk about the climate with the people around you and encourage them to act. And be able to sustain that over time, as news and events associated with climate change get more confusing, emotionally disturbing and politically divisive.’

Praise

‘Explains whether and how we will choose to solve the climate problem. Immensely important analysis in a great read.’ —Professor Ross Garnaut.

‘Finally, an answer to the paralysing fear we sometimes feel. Rebecca Huntley shows us a way forward — by engaging our hearts as well as our heads.’  – Richard Glover.

About the Author

Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia's most experienced social researchers and former director of The Mind and Mood Report, the longest running measure of the nation's attitudes and trends. 

She holds degrees in law and film studies and a PhD in gender studies, and is a mum to three young children. It was realising she is part of the problem older generation that caused her change of heart and to dedicate herself to researching our attitudes to climate change. 

She is a member of Al Gore's Climate Reality Corps, carries out social research for NGOs such as The Wilderness Society and WWF, and writes and presents for the ABC.

About the Moderator

Lisa Forrest first became a household name when she burst onto the international swimming scene in 1978 as a 14 year old and she captained the Australian swimming team to the 1980 Moscow Olympics - one of a small band of high profile athletes that led the campaign to defy Malcolm Fraser's Federal Government in its attempt to support the US-led boycott of those Games.  

After retiring from the sport, she has become a well-respected commentator of sport, she was the first woman to host her own national sports program, Saturday Afternoon Football in 1986 on ABCTV. Not content to stay in the sports 'box' she again broke new ground moving into general reporting via The Midday Show with Ray Martin. She has since hosted television shows such as Everybody on ABC TV and Evenings on 702 ABC Sydney 702.