The Understanding Gap

Recently I have ended up thinking a lot about the “theory of change” that’s guiding where I channel my attention and energy at this fraught time in the world.  Essentially, why do I do the work that I do now?  Why do I think that is so important to be communicating the science and context of the climate and ecological emergency? This post is an attempt to formalise and express my answers to those questions. 

When trying to solve a problem, it helps to understand it: it usually helps a lot. If we try to act on a problem we don’t understand enough, not only do we increase our chances of failure, we run the risk of making the problem much, much worse. We don’t always need to understand a problem entirely to be able to have a positive impact on it, but a grounding in the system we are dealing with is arguably essential when life is at stake. It’s why medics usually spend years learning about the human body before they’re allowed to prescribe treatments. 

I’d wager most of us have a better scientific understanding of the human body’s systems and what can go wrong with them than we have for the Earth’s systems and the existential threats posed by their imbalance.  Alongside everything we learn more passively throughout our lives, we are likely to have been encouraged, or even required, to learn about the former. I had lessons about every human organ at school, I had to take entire exams about the inner workings of the body… but about the climate? The only vaguely relevant thing I can recall was a video tape we were played in a Geography class about how we needed to sort out our energy system... because we were probably going to run out of coal in a few decades*. 

If you’re going through school these days you probably do learn a bit more than I did about climate and nature in the 2000s, but most adults - including those leading business and government right now  - have probably never been expected to. Most of us haven’t had much opportunity to engage with it, and many of us won’t have felt much need to. This has contributed to a massive gulf between how much we actually understand about the predicament we are in and how much we need to understand to empower us to take effective actions in response. And given that we now need all hands on deck to respond as the Climate and Nature Emergency escalates, it’s a bit like we’re trying to run a hospital without having trained the medical staff. 

This is how I see the route from a default position of uncertainty and inaction to the position we need as many people as possible to be in: taking informed and effective climate action.   Cultivating understanding is the essential first step, but is not the only important factor. Of course, the reality is more complicated than this, and no two people will have identical journeys - this is simply my attempt distill the theory of change that motivates my own action in trying to address the “understanding gap” 

This ‘understanding gap’ is the main reason I now focus my energies on Climate and Nature communication and training, starting with the foundations. And what I see as those foundations aren’t just ‘the science’, but also our more emotional connection to that scientific knowledge. To be able to make an informed choice about what to do in our job roles or personal lives, not very many of us need to know the precise concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the temperature of the ocean, the rate of species extinctions… but we all do need a sense of how urgent our situation is, how fast it’s changing, and how connected the different components of the Emergency are.  To be motivated to do the inevitably difficult work of creating a fairer, greener, more liveable future than one we are currently hurtling towards, we also need to feel how much it really matters that we do. And to be effective in those actions, we need the confidence that we know the systems we are working within well enough to see where we can each make a meaningful difference. Embedding all of those things - that holistic knowing and feeling - into Climate & Nature communication or training is no small task.  But for most audiences, it wouldn’t be fair to assume that either of those core elements of understanding are already there.  

In a world where we need to mount a rapid emergency response, it can be really tempting to leap towards action without having properly addressed the understanding gap. Our situation can (understandably!) feel too urgent to spend time on learning and thinking like this… but I would argue that it’s too urgent not to cultivate understanding before expecting - or even allowing - ourselves to participate in potentially life-saving interventions.  ​

*at the time I was actually very worried about the prospect of us running out of coal!



A note on another gap… the one between understanding and action. I am in no way underestimating the significance of this gap and am acutely aware of how frustrating it can be to drive change even once you feel sufficiently informed and motivated to do so. There is so much we need to do, and it’s precisely because of this that we need as many people as possible to understand the problems we face - not just so that we can each take effective action in the areas we are best equipped to, but also to create a broader environment that enables that action, where we don’t find our paths blocked by others who haven’t had the opportunity to understand why those actions are so essential.  I’m often asked to write training sessions that address both of these gaps, essentially taking people from not-knowing-and-not-acting to being fully activated, able to immediately set themselves specific, actionable, meaningful goals (often with an extremely short time set aside to do so). I wish I had the power to do this but rather than claiming that’s possible without there being other equally important inputs (good support being absolutely key), I am committed to making sure I can address the understanding gap in the most engaging, empowering and motivating ways I can.