1/I recently posed this question, on how to engage people on climate who may be skeptical, and wow did Energy/Climate Twitter come through. I wanted to highlight some great responses and what I’ve learned over the years on engaging skeptical audiences.
2/What I’ve learned:
-be personal, tell *your* story
-listen, empathy goes a long way
-provide solutions and opportunities
So stick with me til the end and I’ll highlight my journey and with a good ending that keeps me motivated.
-be personal, tell *your* story
-listen, empathy goes a long way
-provide solutions and opportunities
So stick with me til the end and I’ll highlight my journey and with a good ending that keeps me motivated.
3/For my story, where I start and also explains why I regularly speak to skeptical audiences. In my hometown, Riesel, TX, Pop. 900, where the 1 GW Sandy Creek Coal Plant is both our largest employer and responsible for 80% of our tax receipts.
chron.com/news/houston-t…
chron.com/news/houston-t…
4/But, surprise! Economic perks, yes, but the coal plant also brought with it major issues of local pollution that impacts health and ag, the other big industry.
So from an early age I saw that energy development comes with tradeoffs.
wacotrib.com/business/repor…
So from an early age I saw that energy development comes with tradeoffs.
wacotrib.com/business/repor…
5/Next for college, I went to @utulsa, a fantastic, small liberal arts school in OK that I give so much credit to setting me on a path to success. But it’s also a school where the largest majors, donors, and employers are all from the oil industry.
6/So when I graduated in 2012, I followed with most of my friends and joined the Shale Boom. Having front row seats to the innovation and dynamism that was the Permian Basin at that time was a thrilling experience.
7/But by 2015, I soured on the industry and quit. So how did this 25-year old, from a coal town, a strong petroleum college, making a frankly bonkers oil salary, walk away from that to set out on a totally uncertain career path?
8/Two things made a difference for me, and when you tell *your personal story*, it resonates, like @estee_nj says. So that’s what I do. And for me it’s about economic opportunity and health and safety in my community.
9/What drives investment and career opportunities, for people and communities? Growth. I’m 30 years old, I’m going to work until the 2060s. I looked at charts like this (from oil companies) and asked myself, do I want to spend most of my career in an industry in decline? 
10/And if this is true for my career it is true for the communities I’m part of. As @IlanGur points out, whether you believe it or not the world is increasingly compelled. Delay could be devastating for my communities, while action presents opportunity.
11/Beyond economic opportunity is health and safety for my community. In 2015, my first ever viral tweet (ha!) took off for an unfortunate reason. Houston was underwater.
12/And unfortunately the 2015 event was just the tip of the iceberg. Since then Houston has been hit again and again, most famously by Harvey, the largest rain event in US history. People know something is different now.
washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/0…
washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/0…
13/So this was the choice that faced me in 2015: do I keep my cushy job, hope to eek out a career even though it was headed for decline? Or do I do something new and exciting that helps solve the problem that has led to my community getting flooded again and again?
14/For me it was an easy choice, and keeping my talks personal goes a long way in connecting with an audience. But as @KHayhoe points out, you’ve got to also provide viable solutions to engage people.
15/So I always end on, what can you do, and why is this actually not a problem, but a huge opportunity? The clean energy economy is growing so fast this is actually easy to do. From that same oil company report:
16/I’ll let you in on a secret: O&G professionals are some of the most talented, ethical, hardest working people I’ve ever known. They can have *so* much to contribute to the energy transition, and there are so many opportunities.
17/We started @FervoEnergy because geothermal is a natural transition for O&G to clean energy, but there is also offshore wind, CCUS, CAES, waste disposal, methane capture, not to mention skills in project management, finance, maintenance, risk management, and so much more.
18/And for my hometown. 3 years after the coal plant started it was already out-of-the-money. The transition happens fast and really hurt my community. But you know what we have? A ton of sun and a lot of recently built, unused transmission. Opportunity.
wacotrib.com/business/jury-…
wacotrib.com/business/jury-…
19/So take it from this former oil guy, who talks all the time to diverse audiences about climate. Don’t demonize. Don’t condescend. Be open, honest, empathetic, personal, and most of all focus on the opportunities and solutions.
20/And here is my happy ending, from the same talk that prompted my question months ago. Afterward someone came up to me and said they were inspired by my story. At 62, they were too close to retirement in their oil job to do anything different, but…
21/he was going to call his daughter right now, who was wrestling with the choice of her job decision after her geology grad school, and advise her to not take the oil job, opposite of what he’d said before. There was too much opportunity elsewhere.
22/Little wins like this keep me going. We are not going to solve the climate crisis by leaving communities or industries behind. We are going to do it by harnessing all the human capital we can to rapidly accelerate the clean energy transition.
23/So to end, thanks for everyone’s thoughts on communication. I'm still learning and practicing and it made a big difference. And keep talking about climate all the time, it makes a difference, and do so openly, honestly, and with empathy. END
