So they launched the university course “Let’s Talk About Climate Change” in fall 2022. The course includes a group meal – students and professors together chatting about anything and everything.

“The learning environment is dramatically changed when you have students eating together,” said Wirzba, a Christian theology professor in Duke’s Divinity School and a senior fellow with the Kenan Institute for Ethics. “You learn so much more when you know where the person is coming from.”

Wirzba’s ability to connect people on difficult topics is one reason he was selected last year to direct research for the university’s Office of Climate and Sustainability. In that role, he brings scholars together to work on broad climate issues and to get them thinking about their roles in this changing world.

He and many of his Duke colleagues employ a series of strategies to foster productive, civil discussions with the end goal of both educating and bringing myriad viewpoints into the public conversation.

“Our work at Duke is more crucial than ever to advance a resilient, flourishing, sustainable world for all,” said Toddi Steelman, Duke’s vice president and vice provost for climate and sustainability. “To achieve our goals, discourse is essential to hear diverse perspectives and work together. The climate challenges we face will not disappear on their own, and the first step is to listen to people and communities.”

While many Americans favor policies that address climate challenges, the issue doesn’t rise to the top of most people’s lists. A 2023 Pew Research Center poll found that just 37 percent of Americans felt climate should be the nation’s top priority. That placed it 17th on a list of 21 topics. Strengthening the economy was by far the most popular choice, with 75 percent of survey respondents saying that should be the nation’s top policy priority.

To move the needle on climate issues, Wirzba and others say it’s important to make the issue relatable rather than massive and abstract.

“One of the reasons it’s difficult to talk about something like climate change is because it’s enormous,” Wirzba said. “It not only touches every aspect of existence, but it’s also just monumentally bad. So one of the keys is making personal connections with people.”

In the classroom, that personal connection might happen over a slice of pizza or during a routine class discussion. He encourages students to share how climate issues affect them directly. Even students from vastly different backgrounds can occasionally find common ground when a lofty topic comes down to earth.

“When you have a student in class from Pakistan who tells you they have to move out of their house because it’s about to be flooded, or a student from the Philippines where there was a tsunami, or a student from California whose family was evacuated because of wildfires, you realize this isn’t abstract,” he said. “It’s a great way to break through some of the suspicion people have that this isn’t a very big deal.”

Talk less, listen more

Nicolette Cagle knows her way around a sensitive conversation. An ecologist by training, Cagle is a senior lecturer in ecology and environmental education at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. She is a certified environmental educator, trained to teach environmental issues to children and adults.

Cagle is contributing to an effort to extend a climate resilience curriculum for K-12 school kids in Carteret County into Durham County. In that work, she and colleagues take different approaches based on feedback they receive from their communities. To work productively on public climate issues, listening – rather than talking – is particularly important, she said.

“It’s not about winning a debate; it’s about really learning,” she said. “If a person has economic concerns related to climate missions or job growth, you should ask more about that and understand their positions. Sometimes, the solution on a climate change issue doesn’t require everyone to agree on the cause. Building a resilient community doesn’t necessarily mean everyone has to agree.”

In these conversations, Cagle goes heavy on personal stories and light on data, saying fact-filled charts and graphs are less compelling than the human drama that climate challenges can create. Many people believe data can be manipulated to support a point of view, she said.

“When we tell stories, we activate emotions, which allows information to flow a different way,” she said. “It’s not a cognitive process, so the bias shifts. People may think data is made up or is not real, but when someone tells you a story about something they experienced, it’s usually natural for us to believe it.”

Be a good scientist

Ashley Ward talks climate on just about every level a person can. An expert on extreme heat, she advises congressional staffers, talks with industry leaders, writes commentaries and talks directly to the public through regular appearances on a local radio show.

But it took her a while to realize that not everyone comes to climate conversations with the same motivations. Many are primarily concerned with the economic impact of climate action and don’t think too as much about the bigger, global consequences.

Ward directs the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Technology, and that lesson guides much of her communications strategy.

“We like to think everyone acts for the greater good, but the truth is, a lot of people do not have that communal view of things,” she said. “That’s not to say that’s a bad thing; that’s just how people are. And if you don’t learn how to talk to those people, we leave a lot of people out of the solutions.”

Among American audiences, Ward finds the economic argument the most compelling and couches her messages in those terms. She stays away from the apocalyptic language found in so much climate storytelling; the worst-case scenario is so dramatic and daunting, many people just shut down and lose interest. Optimism matters.

“I think you have to help people envision a different future that is positive,” she said. “It sounds Pollyanna to say, but we should be talking about solutions to climate change by saying, ‘We should make this transition because it’s better for us.’ ”

Interestingly, Americans appear fairly evenly split on whether U.S. climate policies help or hurt the economy. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, 34% of respondents felt policies aimed at reducing climate challenges were good for the economy, while another 34% felt the opposite. (A solid 30 percent of other respondents said policies were having no economic impact.)

Scientists also need to meet people where they are and not bristle at criticism, Ward said. It’s easy to get frustrated with people who say they don’t believe in climate change or science more broadly, but reacting poorly will end a conversation forever.

“Be a good scientist in that moment,” she said. “Ask what is it about the science that makes it hard for you to buy into? You almost never run into someone who flat-out denies climate change anymore. That is very rare. What you do run into people who want to debate the cause of climate change. Don’t get into an argument about the cause.”

Instead, move the conversation toward common ground and solutions, understanding there are myriad points of view.

“Younger people are more likely to talk about mitigation, like stopping fossil fuel use, while older people are more interested in adaptation: how are we going to live with this new normal?” Ward said. “You’re not going to have the same conversation with everybody. The truth is, we have to have all these conversations as often as we can.”

No PowerPoints

When Wirzba, the divinity professor, gets out of the classroom, you can often find him speaking to Christian congregations and community groups. He is routinely invited by churches to discuss his areas of scholarly interest – particularly the intersections of food, environment and spirituality.

Climate change is often the elephant in the room. He talks about it without ever using those actual words, knowing they can trigger a reaction from which there’s no returning to productive conversation. It’s important, he says, to meet people where they are.

Wirzba grew up on a family farm in the foothills of the western Canadian Rocky Mountains. His family grew grain and raised cattle and Wirzba still speaks fondly of the fragrant scent of sweetgrass in the air. He has a deep love of the land and agriculture and how food can nourish the soul. So he talks about those things – rather than climate specifically.

But if you listen closely enough, maybe you’ll hear it.

“Everyone eats, so I try to open up about what it means to eat well,” he said. “I talk about people’s own personal connections to agricultural systems and then talk about how farmers are facing real challenges in this time of extreme weather. Every farmer talks about weather. They may not talk about climate change, but they all talk about the weather.”

”Every farmer talks about weather. They may not talk about climate change, but they all talk about the weather.”

Norman Wirzba

In these settings, Wirzba has no script, and he’ll never use a PowerPoint presentation. He’s too busy making eye contact with the members of his audience, choosing his words carefully and watching how they land. He monitors how people react to his message and massages his words accordingly.

“You can get some indication whether people are with you, and an idea of how hard to push; it’s highly improvisational,” he said. “You find a way to talk about climate realities without ever saying the words ‘climate change.’ ”