Creatives Have Been Called Up to Slay Climate Change

The IPCC has identified 61 behaviors that could change the world, and it's time to answer their call

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Creativity has been called up. From creative directors to apprentice designers: All are needed. Storytellers, magic-makers, crafters and grafters, ideators and copywriters.

Moments like these come rarely. For many generations, they may not come at all. But this time, it will be different, we will be different. Because we have been called.

The world’s greatest experts in climate change, the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have spent eight years searching for answers to our climate crisis. What will save us? What will make a difference? What does humanity have to fight back against this monster we’ve unleashed upon our own children?

They found us.

I’ve synthesized their huge report on mitigating climate change. In the precise and emotion-free language of science, they state that “behavior and sociocultural” changes could rapidly save 5% of all demand-side carbon emissions. Essential changes to lifestyles and behavior could result in a “40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

The IPCC doesn’t get out of bed for less than a gigaton of carbon. These percentages mean that mass behavior change and new cultural norms could save enough carbon to change the course of history.

But bubbling just below these numbers is a roiling panic. Climate change is no longer a fairy tale. We can no longer pull the duvets over our heads to ignore the looming monster beneath our beds.

Humanity has unwittingly unleashed a beast, and once it reaches its final form, havoc will be wreaked for generations to come. Our children won’t stand a chance. If we don’t act, they will never forgive us.

Creatives are the last, best hope for changing this climate story.

If you can sell shampoo, you can sell sustainability. If you can spark desire for perfume, you can make plant-based foods desirable. If you can normalize daily lattes, you can normalize being less wasteful.

The IPCC has identified 61 behaviors that could change the world. The most impactful ones aren’t going to be an easy sell:

  • Travel on public transport, walk and bike and take fewer flights.
  • Eat more plants and less meat and don’t waste food.
  • Refurbish our homes for efficiency and install solar.

These biggest wins are a hard brief but the only one that matters. We have the insight and creativity to flip them from dutiful sacrifices into a high-desire lifestyle.

That’s exactly what the IPCC is asking us to do. And if you don’t have a client asking you for these messages? Find one.

The IPCC report tells us that “narratives enable people to imagine and make sense of the future.” That new story is already unfolding.

People are walking towards the climate monster, fist balled and weapons at the ready. They are the slayers—the youth activists, the few bold politicians, the indigenous protectors, the tech wizards, the eco-entrepreneurs and the people. Everyone is starting to do what’s needed.

We need to tell that story. We need to join it.

But we all know from stories that saving the world never comes without sacrifice.

As the industry of influence, the biggest carbon impact of creativity is the work we do for those we serve. It’s in the products we promote, the industries for which we weave a public license to operate, the desires we normalize and the truisms we embed.

There is no way to remain neutral. So ask yourself: Are you serving the problem or the solution?

Creatives are being offered a heroic mission by the IPCC. Each of us will need to choose: What do we want to be remembered for? Will we use our talent for good or languish in a forgotten bucket of content that proved irrelevant or, worse, that sought to delay action or excuse “business as usual?”

I think we’ll do the right thing and answer the IPCC’s call.

We are creatives. We are game-changing, rule-breaking, reality-writing dragon slayers. And if we put our minds to it, we can summon billions to action.

Climate change doesn’t stand a chance against us.