The Climate Majority Project: Mobilising the Silent Majority with Liam Kavanagh
This conversation is part of a series of bi-monthly community calls hosted in the Life Itself online community if you would like to join future calls join us in our Whatsapp Community.
In this conversation Liam Kavanagh presents the Climate Majority Project, a UK-based organisation focused on mobilising the majority of people concerned about climate change in response to the ecological emergency.
The Conversation
Traditional activism is not fully engaging the population, so the Climate Majority Project aims to create a space for those who want to act differently, with the same urgency as Extinction Rebellion but without the aggressive cultural tone.
The project aims to create a visible rallying point for a diverse group of people to form a united front in climate action. Liam refers to the importance of addressing the "silent majority," those who feel underrepresented by the current climate movement, and reaching them through credible, inclusive, and action-oriented methods.
Liam also highlights the need to handle negative news about climate change carefully and suggests creating an environment where people feel empowered to take relevant actions collectively.
They emphasise the importance of providing a sense of shared endeavour and coherence to motivate people to take part in climate action.
Overall, the Climate Majority Project seeks to create a mobilisation effort akin to historical wartime efforts but initiated at the grassroots level, appealing to a broad spectrum of society and promoting meaningful responses to the ecological emergency.
In the discussion we cover:
- 00:00:00 Introduction to Climate Majority Project
- 00:02:49 Alternative to traditional climate action
- 00:05:40 Climate action and metamodernism
- 00:06:20 Leadership in climate action & how negative messaging can work with people with high levels of agency
- 00:08:48 Addressing the silent majority
- 00:10:54 Activating the silent majority
- 00:13:44 Question: Top down or bottom up?
- 00:16:34 Question: What do you do once you mobilise the majority?
- 00:21:32 Question: What are the concrete actions to connect people?
- 00:23:18 Question: How do you open up for more heartfelt conversations in your community?
- 00:27:12 Question: How does metamodernism weave into CMP?
- 00:32:00 Question: How does the bigger picture inform CMP?
You can learn about the Climate Majority Project here: https://climatemajorityproject.com/
About Liam Kavanagh
Liam Kavanagh is a Cognitive & Social Scientist devoted to using his understanding of human motivation, ideology, and economics to aid more effective responses to the climate crisis. He has worked on three continents over 20 years doing applied social research, co-founded Life Itself, a community for responding to the poly-crisis, and written a book on how Western ideology contributes to climate change inaction.
