How To Reach More People And Save Lives In The Climate Crisis

Forbes

28-04-2025

'I think people care about human stories. I think that first of all, no matter where you are from, your story, other people can relate to it. They can relate to your resilience, they can relate to the environment where you live, and they can relate to, you know, losing a lot of things no matter what. And so for me, as an artist, a musician and filmmaker, I use my art to tell these human stories.' That's how Inna Modja, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, described how to build cultural bridges around the climate crisis.
Modja made this point in a session at The Earth Day Women's Summit last week on how to communicate more effectively to mobilize more people to address the climate crisis, which I moderated. The panel included actor/producer Rachelle Begley, content producer/social influencer Hayden Begley and Chelsea Henderson, the Director of Content for RepublicEn.org ('conservatives for climate change'), who wrote the new book 'Glacial: The inside story of climate politics.'
It's a safety issue. One of the challenges in the polarized culture today, is literally keeping communities safe from extreme weather events that are being triggered by the climate crisis – including hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods and droughts. Because some people are only listening to or watching media outlets that do not take the climate crisis seriously, those people may not hear the warnings to prepare or even evacuate in time to stay out of harm's way.
Mother Nature does not ask your political affiliation before she wipes out your house, business, school, hospital, or entire community in a hurricane, tornado, flood or wildfire. Just ask the people of Houston, Texas or North Carolina, or Los Angeles who lost everything in massive and unexpected hurricanes, floods and/or wildfires.
And the risks are increasing daily. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts that these extreme weather events will become yet more ferocious, more frequent, more destructive and more costly. Insurance companies are pulling out of extreme weather-prone area like Florida and California, and/or raising their rates to unaffordable levels. The Trump administration recently cut critical NOAA and The National Weather Service staff and funding, which means that the life-saving, reliable data NOAA and NWS provide to local meteorologists across the country that helps them warn their residents in time to prepare and/or evacuate, may not reach people in time.
So, the need to reach a broader array of people with ways to stay safe and take action to avert the climate crisis is urgent.
And, importantly:
Get out of your own silo: We can't understand other people if we only listen to people who agree with us, so Henderson added that, 'We can't depolarize if we just sit in our own echo chambers.' She explained that, 'There's going to be a friend who's going to say, you know what? I'm really impressed with the way you're walking the talk and you might influence them.'
The Earth Day Women's Summit, produced by Electric Ladies Podcast and Global Green, was one day of the five-day EarthX2025 Congress of Conferences in Dallas, Texas on April 21-25, 2025.