The Perfect Problem: Part One

This is Part One of a five-part series exploring how our cognitive biases, communication mediums and cultural norms obstruct us from seeing the threat of human-induced climate change clearly. Sometimes known as the ‘Dragons of Inaction’, these factors are climate change’s ally, and our foe. Yip, “we could not [have designed] a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology” than climate change.

While the golden rule of communicating climate change is to stay positive, sometimes you just have to start off by laying out the reality. 

Thanks 

A big shout out to US-based Ian Webster for kindly providing us with his illustrations. We’d also like to thank Stuart Capstick, of Cardiff University, and Dan Kahan, of Yale University, for providing us with feedback. They’re both experts in this field. To Stuart, we integrated your suggestions where we could. The research material you’ve pointed us to will help as we prepare to tackle the Climate Trunk.

This was our first infographic collaboration and we enjoyed it. We think breaking complex info into visual form is useful, so if there’s anything out there that’s been bugging you about our e-nvironment that you think could best be communicated through design, please let us know.

We’d love to hear from you.