As part of the series of pre event content, we interviewed Solitaire 
Townsend, Managing Director of Futerra Communications.
Soli (as she likes to be known) founded Futerra in 2001. Its mantra is simple:
- Creative and Strategic Communications for Sustainable Development
In this interview, we cover off three broad areas
- To explain Futerra’s involvement in the Commonwealth People’s Forum
- To better understand the issues around Climate security
- To understand why communication is so important and what can be done.
Click to download the low bandwidth file here or press play below:
You can download a transcript of the interview in Word or PDF here.
What do you think?
- Are the media too scientific about Climate change and communication thereof?
- Is communication really that important? Won’t people take more action if it hits their pocket rather than their conscience?
Note to self: I will be shutting down this computer as soon as this post is uploaded! Time to do my bit!
When Soli mentions that envirnmentalist use scientific language, it just confirms what most technical people enjoy to baffle others. Is there a way for environmentalists to tone down the language and use plain English. Perhaps the message will be clear to the politicians/economists/businessmen who are sometimes bent on doing what they know best- deplete the environment. Let us work together using Civil society and those politicians that double up as environmentalist to come up with new ideas to put the message across in simple language. Why not call sequestration… emission removal or something closer?
It was fascinating to interview Solitaire. In my view, organisations that don’t manage carbon emissions will be ostricised by society at large. Futerra were quite visionary at the point of inception. Over time, their thinking in the communications field will become a defacto standard for everyone else to follow!
Thank you for this artcile. I want to go back to basics. Mnay of us are not aware that we contribute to carbon emissions. It was not until the other day when a notice at the bottom of a yahoo email caught my eye. It was asking people to be aware of their carbon footprints and take action to reduce emissions. At the same time I also recalled a frined in the UK informing me that they never leave lights or switches on unless it’s very necessary. To make matters worse, a friend of mine had a function recently at the beach and by the end of the day we left litter everywhere. When I asked her to introudce a dustbin and collect the garbage she said others would pick it up in the morning, it’s their job. This same friend also burns her carbage including plastic papers. She argued that even those companies that collect garbage from doorsteps also burn them so what’s the difference? We have a long way to go but learning has to begin at home if carbon footprints have to reduced altogether. On my part I switch off all lights and sockets. I never throw trash. But let’s use language that we can all undertsand. Carbon footprints sound like ghost footsteps. How are we supposed to understand this?
I want to thank Marren Akatsa for her article on the need to use a common language or at least to make everybody understand the threat we are all in with carbon emmision.
Despite the high technology around, serious issues taht concern every body are not communicated or at least simplified to the language of a common man. The best example is information on HIV/ AIDs in the world now; everybody has heard about the virus and others have practically seen family members or close friends suffer from the same. They may not know other intricate details of the behaviour of the virus and other terminologies such as CD4 count etc, but the awarenss has been brought to everybody doorsteps.
I live in a pastoral community of the Karamojong of north-eastern uganda and HIV/ AIDs in known. It has been given the name ‘lodiim’ which means ‘very thin’ depicting how the virus behaves when it has advanced and leads to AIDs.
If I talk to my community about carbon emmision, it is like speaking Arabic or chinese to them. let us make issues of glabal waming be simplified every where: in schools, public gatherings, in churches etc and using posters, music dance and drama.
Let us learn what from what the christian faith has done, translating prayers and the bible virtually to every language. I will be interested to be one of those people to bring messages of global warming/ carbon emission to my people of Karamoja in the most simplest form.
Then as for Gov’ts let the messages of global warming not become conference oriented and empty talk without action. Talking without taking action in form of budget allocation to address glabal warming is like faith without works.
Let us simplyfy the message as we work to see ‘a heaven on earth’.
Communication of relevant, appropriate and developmental information is not only important but a pre-requisite for directional/guided, faster social and economic development.Communication comes to address a second killer disease to AIDS/HIV which is Ignorance. Ignorance is key to environmental abuse and the strategy that is simplified to address and interface our community withrelevant, appropriate and guided developmental knowledge is through Technologies that Communicate Information(ICTs). From the articles above, I do appreciate and agree with the quoted statements below;
Mari says “When Soli mentions that envirnmentalist use scientific language, it just confirms what most technical people enjoy to baffle others” Please visit our Notice board concept graphical website www.lotsbusinesslinks.com to appreciate the simplicity of information access/communication.
“Perhaps the message will be clear to the politicians/economists/businessmen who are sometimes bent on doing what they know best- deplete the environment”.
“Let us work together using Civil society and those politicians that double up as environmentalist to come up with new ideas to put the message across in simple language”
Marren Akatsa-Bukachi confirms to the fact and says that “Many of us are not aware that we contribute to carbon emissions”, he further says that “a notice at the bottom of a yahoo email caught my eye”, “We have a long way to go but learning has to begin at home….”, “But let’s use language that we can all undertsand”
Nachuge Becky Faith above says “Despite the high technology around, serious issues taht concern every body are not communicated or at least simplified to the language of a common man”, “If I talk to my community about carbon emmision, it is like speaking Arabic or chinese to them. let us make issues of glabal waming be simplified every where: in schools, public gatherings, in churches etc and using posters, music dance and drama”, “I will be interested to be one of those people to bring messages of global warming/ carbon emission to my people of Karamoja in the most simplest form”
Please do acces one of the our School Internet Pages and appreciate the platform we have created to interact with the groups you have mentioned above and the community members.Type the following link into your browser, http://www.lotsbusinesslinks.com/World/Africa/Uganda/Uganda/institutions/SouthernPrimary/Nakasero%20Primary%20School.html
The Innovators of this website are getting closer and making a positive attempt to close the information gap.Please join us to speak the language and understanding of the masses which is nothing but COMMUNICATION.
climate change as a present reality in my opinion must go beyond mere debates. I was shared my thoughts on climate change with a journalist friend of mine and she gave me afew arguments on the matter that i found pretty interesting and one of them is that as we tackle this climate change issue, the pressure is coming from the already developed world that has already advanced in all sphere. we must therefore consider that the climate change agenda has signifcant implications on the developing world. take for instance industialization that is a high priority for our government but note here that industrialsation means energy consumption that has the direct consequence of emissions, it means that vast tracts of land will be cleared to make way for more and more industries (hence the industrial park). the great challenge for our economies is striking a balance between the economic, social and environmental aspects. progress in alternative green energy sources is also slow and as a matter of fact, it will be a while before we get a commercial solution to for example fuel/oil.
however i agree with all the above that the message must get across in its simplest form, knowledge empowers us to act but we must invest the greatest part of our resources in acting afterall, we learn better by being practical. uganda already has a ‘workshop’ disease, it would as such be unfortunate to see funds set aside to address climate change issues being wasted in endless expensive woekshops.
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