Communicating the climate and nature emergency so it matters to everyone

The climate and nature emergency will affect every aspect of life and this is especially true for our food system. Given the risks it poses to the communities we work with, how can we communicate the climate and nature emergency so it becomes everybody's business and empower people to take action?

This webinar aimed to answer that question by hearing ideas from 4 panellists with expertise in this area. We heard about how to communicate climate change through a values-based approach; how we can (and must) connect the dots between climate, social and racial justice; and how we can tackle the climate and nature emergency by building back better from Covid-19.

Our expert panellists were:

• Tom Crompton, Director of the Common Cause Foundation
• Ellis Howard, Actor, writer and campaigner with lived experience of poverty
• Judy Ling Wong, President of the Black Environment Network
• Ben Reynolds, Deputy Executive Director at Sustain

This webinar was organised as part of the Food Learning Forum, a peer-learning network made up of programme managers of Lottery-funded projects related to food. Funded by the National Lottery, the Forum aims to draw together expertise from both within the organisations and from external facilitators as appropriate and share this with the wider network. It is coordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and has been running since October 2019. 

Watch the webinar in full above and take a look at the list of articles and reports shared by speakers and attendees during the session too.

List of links/articles shared at the session

• Articles on the values-based approach presented by Tom Crompton from Common Cause Foundation
  • Perception Gap
  • Work with arts and cultural organisations in Manchester
• Articles and reports mentioned by Judy
  • Weston Communicating climate programme, hosted by the Media Trust. Apply by the 16th February 2021
  • Doc Society
  • Climate Reframe - amplifying BAME voices in the UK environment movement
  • UK Citizens want Governments to do more on climate change
  • Black Environment Network resources and publications on multicultural environmental participation free to download on the BEN website
  • People of colour need to be included in Bristol's environment movement
  • The Green and Black Project
  • Growing Underground
  • Vertical farms
• Articles and reports mentioned by Ellis Howard
  • A letter to communities by Eve Tuck
• Articles and reports mentioned by Ben Reynolds
  • Putting good food jobs at the heart of economic recovery
  • Recording of the Sustain annual conference which had more indepth discussion on how we can build back better.
• Articles and reports shared by attendees
  • Brighton and Hove Food Partnership food and climate infographic for use (please credit if using)
  • Brighton and Hove Food Partnership food waste campaign
  • Grow2Know, a non-profit in North Kensginton focused on empowering young people to get involved with horticulture. Set up by Tayshan Hayden-Smith
  • The May Project, empowering marginalised groups to address poverty, disempowerment and access to resources and influence.
  • Charlton Manor, a primary school that connects children with food growing, bee keeping, chicken rearing etc
  • Example of a powerful communications technique from Appetite For Change, a North Minneapolis nonprofit organisation that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth and social change
  • Naomi Klein on Artificial Intelligence