Some of the tips that CAG members learnt included:
1. Feeling confident: this may require practice and knowing your subject well
2. Speaking: clearly, try not to let nervousness spoil delivery
3. Organise the talk: know what you want to say, breaking down the talk into logical sections.
4. Content: tailor your message to your audience. What will motivate each particular audience? You don't need to get bogged down with science. Draw from your own life experiences, or recent happenings.
5. Preparing the room: Arrive in good time so you are not flustered. Arrange chairs so they are close to the front, ideally in a horseshoe shape.
6. Questions and discussion: It is usually best to ask people to wait until the end for questions. And if time allows get people to discuss their ideas.
7. Troublemakers: True troublemakers are rare. Do not get into an argument and keep cool. You may have to be strong and ask people to wait until discussion time to express an opinion.
8. Feedback: Ask a friend in the audience to give you some constructive criticism after the talk to see if you can improve your delivery or material.
Three mistakes to avoid:
• Unclear speaking, too quiet, mumbling or gabbling
• Getting bogged down in the details of science and technicalities.
• Speaking too much about causes and impacts and too little on the solutions. Aim at 50:50 problems to solutions
A template talk on Climate Change as suggested by COIN
A 30-minute talk could include the following content and time lines - this can be adapted to audience needs.
Introduction and Connections: 4 minutes
Start by thanking for the invitation to speak and say how long the talk will be and that you will give an opportunity for questions/discussion at the end.
Explain very briefly who you are and give a short warm up to set the tone of the talk drawing from your personal experiences. "I became interested in ...when".
What is Climate Change? 5 minutes
This should be tailored to fit your audience, although climate change is commonly mentioned many people do not understand the basic science.
• Explain how the overall warming of the atmosphere can have different local effects all over the world; give an example, preferably local.
• Explain that "climate change" is a better term that "global warming".
• Explain the greenhouse effect as simply as you can.
• Explain about greenhouse gases and how they have built up to such a dangerous level.
• Don't go into too much detail and stress that this is well-established information with overwhelming scientific agreement.
Impacts 5 minutes
What dos this mean to our lives and world? Resist the temptation to overwhelm the audience with the bad news, but pick 5 or 6 impacts that might interest your particular audience. Could include: extreme weather events; flooding and sea level rise; impact on wildlife; health; economic impacts; food and water; global politics and conflict.
The need to take action - Motivation for change 5 minutes
What will work well with your audience? Are their main concerns about Bangladesh or polar bears, over consumption, social injustice or building a better world? Your experiences are important motivators. Motivating the deniers is not an easy task as many people are waiting for somebody else to do something!
So what can we do? 3 minutes
The bottom line is to reduce our carbon emissions. To do this we need to dramatically reduce the rate at which we burn oil, gas and coal. We can use more efficient motors, boilers, lighting and insulate our homes. Alternatively use less polluting sources of energy, solar, wind or tidal. Individuals can make a difference. Little things add up, changing to energy efficient light bulbs, walking or cycling.
Who needs to make the changes 6 minutes
Change needs to be at 4 levels, international, government and business, community and personal. Be enthusiastic about ideas for change as it is up to all of us. Thanks to a huge amount of campaigning the UK Government has passed the Climate Change Act, committing the country to an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emission by 2050. Now we need to make these cuts happen.
Conclusion and discussion 3 minutes
The last few minutes can be thrown open to discussion. In the next. ...minutes
I hope we can achieve the following.......
Further information can be obtained from Coin, ClimateX or the CAG Project.
www.coinet.org.uk
www.climatex.org.uk
or telephone the CAG project on 07793 647190 or email CAG Project