Building Community Climate Change Mobilization Through The Use of The War Metaphor? Researching a Grand Strategy For Climate Change Resilience, a Presentation and Facilitated Discussion

Adam R. Zemans Executive Director, Environment Las Americas PhD Candidate, Nova Southeastern University Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Presentation Title: Building Community Climate Change Mobilization Through The Use of The War Metaphor? Researching a Grand Strategy For Climate Change Resilience, a Presentation and Facilitated Discussion Abstract Are Conflict Resolution Studies scholar-practitioners losing the “war” against climate change? Could a war metaphor help to build an “army” for sustainability mobilization in order to adapt to and mitigate the worst negative impacts of climate change? After presenting on the work of the Maine Governor’s Office on Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF)’s Community Resilience Partnership, the presenter poses this question to the audience in a facilitated conversation that serves as research in the development of a Grand Strategy for Climate Change Resilience. On the one hand, the role of a war metaphor as a tool in climate communications allows us to frame both the problem and the mechanisms of action to solve the problem. The metaphor tends to mobilize resources. For instance, Mangat and Dalby (2018) leverage a war metaphor to discuss the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement. Moreover, in Flusberg et al. (2017) research regarding framing, the authors find that metaphors shape attitudes toward climate change; the use of a war metaphor resulted in more urgency and risk perception. People exhibited increased conservation behavior. Furthermore, as Mangat and Dalby (2018) articulate, climate change is a complex concept with multiple factors interacting together. The divestment movement makes the process of climate action simpler by naming an enemy. Destruction of this enemy requires radical change inside existing systems, especially political and economic systems. On the other hand, Yoder (2018, para. 29 and 46) emphasizes that “war” denotes conflict and “inevitably [makes] enemies of other people”, “stokes partisanship”, “widens any divide while simultaneously obscuring grounds for agreement.” Furthermore, Roberts (2013) underlines that in war enormous quantities of resources are required. But some cities in the United States declared climate change emergencies have not required big government interventions. In sum, the use of a war metaphor as a tool in climate change resilience mobilization has costs and benefits and, like any rhetorical tool, must be used with specific goals and contexts in mind as well as a sound plan. Keywords: Climate Change Communications War Metaphor Climate Change Resilience Climate Change Adaptation Citizen Science Community Science Sustainability Science Citizen Stewardship Climate Change Governance References Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2017). Metaphors for the war (or race) against climate change. Environmental Communication, 11(6), 769-783. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1289111 Mangat, R., Dalby, S., Kapuscinski, A. R., & Moore, M. L. (2018). Climate and wartalk: Metaphors, imagination, transformation. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 6. Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article/doi/10.1525/elementa.313/112823/Climate-and-wartalk-Metaphors-imagination Roberts, D. (2013, May 02). What would ‘wartime mobilization’ to fight climate change look like?. Grist Magazine. https://grist.org/climate-energy/what-would-wartime-mobilization-to-fight-climate-change-look-like/ Yoder, D. (2018, December 05). War of words. Grist Magazine. https://grist.org/climate/the-war-on-climate-the-climate-fight-are-we-approaching-the-problem-all-wrong/ Presenter Information: Adam R. Zemans is deeply committed to helping cultivate leadership, cooperation and dialogue toward protecting coasts and lakes and promoting stewardship in the face of unprecedented environmental impacts, particularly related to climate change and its comprehensive collateral effects. Adam views governments, more than anything, as a learning communities that are entrusted with gathering and disseminating a variety of data at a pace and level of quality that exceeds the speed and force of those impacts. Adam is a strong believer, teacher and student of Citizen Science, Sustainability Science and coastal and lake stewardship as integral parts of the “Sustainability Revolution.” Adam is a PhD Candidate in Conflict Resolution Studies at Nova Southeastern University, with a dissertation focus on collaborative stakeholder risk and vulnerability assessment in the face of climate change impacts in Maine’s watersheds and on its coasts. He is in the process of relaunching the not-for-profit organization that he founded in 2005 in Bolivia, South America, Environment las Americas. Until February of 2023, Adam served as Executive Director of the United States’ oldest and one of its largest citizen lake monitoring organizations, based in Maine, USA. Previous experience includes leading a multi-track diplomacy organization based out of Virginia. In 2006, Adam transformed Environment Las Americas’ programming to center on transdisciplinary climate change science, policy and diplomacy. Adam holds a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law Center; a Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California with an organizational leadership focus and military social work sub concentration; a Masters in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University; and a Masters in Sociology from York University, Toronto, Canada. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College and Harry S. Truman Scholar (New York, 1989). He began his higher education on The National Audubon Society Expedition Institute. Adam is a Maryland-licensed attorney and lives in and loves Blue Hill, Maine.

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