From Confusion to Clarity on Climate Change

Having conversations about complex topics like climate change can be hard. What information can we trust? Do we know enough to express an opinion or make a good decision?

Digging into climate change

For quite a while, I looked at presentations, read articles, and listened to podcasts. But I was frustrated. There were so many climate-related terms that it was hard to know exactly what they meant.

When I looked on social media to find out from the specialists, I found myself further overloaded with even more jargon and detailed information, which often increased my confusion. The specialists’ in-depth knowledge went way beyond what I needed.

I was getting nowhere fast.

Time to call environmental educator, Shawna McKinley

I wanted to develop my understanding of climate change, which is a significant issue now and will be more so for future generations. I decided to talk to my good friend Shawna McKinley, an environmental educator, about sustainability and climate change.  

Shawna has been my go-to sustainability specialist ever since we discussed hybrid events and their relationship to sustainability in 2014 when I asked her to deliver a virtual presentation for a conference I was producing in Abu Dhabi.

After one Zoom call with her, I knew I was on the right path to increasing my knowledge of this complex subject area. Several calls later, I had gained good insights into the critical issues of sustainability and climate change.

During one of our numerous conversations, the idea of co-creating an eBook came up. Surely, other people would benefit from Shawna’s wisdom.

Setting the scene for our eBook

Because of Shawna’s knowledge, I knew we could easily find ourselves in a maze of information. After all, sustainability and climate change are complex subject areas.

In fact, some people hesitate to talk about these issues for fear of being judged. That sounds crazy, but unfortunately, climate change is an issue that creates strong emotions.  

To keep us on point, we agreed a series of FAQs would be the best way forward.

I asked a series of questions, recorded our conversations, and curated the key highlights, which were later published.

Climate Change and Net Zero - FAQs for busy people

Our eBook results from our many chats, making transcriptions, and editing the content.  

In our eBook, you will find the questions I posed to Shawna and the answers she provided. We hope this summary of our dialogue will help you cut through the jargon.

This eBook provides basic information about climate change to help you feel more comfortable talking about it. By talking, we hope you will find support and feel empowered to take action based on your roles and your communities.

This book was created as the unexpected result of two friends chatting about a frustrating climate-related situation you may be able to relate to.

It would have been easy to write a lot on the subject, but we kept our audience in mind and aimed specifically at them.

Busy professionals, especially event professionals, need information, and they need it quickly.

This eBook is free, and we don’t need your email address

Our aim is to share this eBook far and wide, and have removed all obstacles to you accessing it.

We want to help progress conversations on these critical issues.

Please share far and wide. That’s all we ask.