1) Invite your team to a meeting, ask them to prepare by thinking of 3 ways that climate change has impacted them or something/someone they care about.

For example:

• “My aunty & uncle’s farm is running out of water due to the drought, and they can no longer feed their livestock or keep the gardens going”
• “The lack of cold last winter altered the cycle of our fruit trees and we got only very little, very small fruits from it.”
• “The repeated one in 100 year storms we’ve had has meant our water system is contaminated, and our town infrastructure is suffering. The local authority can’t afford to fix it.”
• “The beautiful coral reef I visited when I was 11 is now bleached and is unlikely to recover.”
• We’ve had a sharp increase in food prices due to a flood that was followed by a drought and then another flood. We have to import most of our food now. We can’t afford that.

2) At the beginning of the meeting, before discussing the impacts, identify as a group what your desired outcome from GDM is. Agree on what your goals for GDM are and who your target is.

For tips on identifying targets, click here.

3) Next, take turns to share the 3 ways that climate change has impacted you. Once you’ve done this, explain the following distinction about climate impacts:

“It is useful to think of climate impacts in terms of fitting within two categories: shock impacts and sliding impacts.

• Shocks are acute moments of disruption. Extreme weather events (hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, flooding) and wildfires are shock impacts. Shocks are usually high emotion events that get large amounts of media coverage, but they are usually tricky moments to campaign or talk about climate change around – as the needs of the impacted people take first priority.
• Slides are incremental by nature. They can be catastrophic, but they are not experienced as acute impacts. Drought, sea level rise, death of coral reefs, loss of glaciers, snowfields and ice caps, ecosystem decline, season change, desertification and deforestation are sliding impacts. Slides are generally easier to organise around because they operate over a longer-time frame, and the emotional intensity is usually lower.
• Some impacts are experienced as both a slide and a shock. For example, we are experiencing a long term decline of coral reefs due to the sliding increase of ocean temperatures and acidity, but this is punctuated by acute mass bleaching events that cause sudden bleaching and die off at a severe scale (such as in 2014 – 2016).

4) With this in mind, put a large piece of paper on the wall with all the impacts people named and invite people to put a dot next to each of the three impacts they believe the group should focus on. See which ones have the most dots, then decide which you will focus on for the Global Divestment Mobilisation (you may choose to focus on several impacts).

5) Once you have decided on your impact, now decide: What ways can you show how this impact is related to your target? How can you show the connection between these two pieces of the same story?

• Can you bring the impact to your target? For example, if an unusual early frost meant apple trees didn’t produce fruit, can you bring empty apple crates to your target’s door? Or debris from a recent storm?
• Can you bring your target to the site of impact? For example, if a flood destroyed a local bridge, can you put your target’s logo on it with a “Climate destruction sponsored by…” sign?
• Can your action go from the site of impact to your target (or vice versa)? For example, could you organize a bicycle ride from a local reservoir to your target? Could you go from the coal plant to the bank that sponsors it?
• How much are fossil fuel impacts costing your community? For example, if your community experienced abnormal flooding, how much did it cost to repair?
• Take a look at some action ideas to get inspired with creative ideas for your action.

Do a group brainstorm and then vote on your favourite ideas.

6) Shape your narrative:

Now that you know what impact you will focus on, show how it is connected to your target in an overarching narrative.
It is important that your group can confidently explain the connection between:

• The local impact(s) that you are talking about and how it is affecting you and others
• Climate change (the big picture that your impact is part of)
• Fossil fuels (the cause of your local and the global problem)
• How divesting from fossil fuels is a necessary response to the local impact and more widely, climate change.

Your narrative can be as simple as 1 or 2 paragraphs, that explains your action and the above points. Out of this narrative, identify your key messages.

7) Share your story:

If you feel comfortable and want to share your story online, here are a few options:

• Blog: You can write out your reflections and experience in a blog. You could write it from a community perspective and discuss the narrative that your group decided on. You can also write one from a more personal experience.

• You can use websites like Medium or other blogging sites. If your local divestment group as a Facebook group, you can also use a ‘note’ feature to create a post.
• Included photos is a good way to also help deliver your message
• Sharing your blog onto social media with your friends, family and community is a good way to build conversations and help people understand why divestment matters.

• Video: With the increase of mobile phones, more people are able to document and share their experiences with the world. You can share your reflections using mobile video. Sometimes the most powerful videos are the ones that aren’t very technical, but the ones that just speak truths from the heart.

• Here are some tips on filming videos.
• You can upload your video on your group’s Facebook page, on Instagram, or other social media platforms. Make sure when you share you use the hashtag #FossilFree

• Photo: Sometimes it’s hard to put into words your feelings. Your group could instead create some community art piece that reflects your thoughts and experiences. Or share a photo that shows how your community is dealing with the impacts of climate change.

• Here are some tips on taking good photos.
• You can share your photo on Facebook, Instagram or other social media networks. Use the hashtag #FossilFree so others can see it.

It’s important that you share your stories with your city and your community, but if you create something we would also love to know! Please email us at socialmedia [at] 350.org

Getting the science right:

Climate science can be complex and bewildering. Here are some recommended ways to talk about how your impact is connected to climate change:

1. Connect drought, water scarcity, wildfires and heatwaves to increased heat in the atmosphere: One of the clearest findings of climate science is that global warming amplifies the intensity, duration and frequency of extreme heat events. More CO2 in the atmosphere means dangerous heat extremes.
2. Connect coral bleaching, sea level rise & melting of the polar regions to warming of the oceans: Most of the extra heat energy being trapped in our atmosphere is being stored deep into our oceans. Sea levels are rising because water expands as it heats up. The warming of the oceans is driving mass global coral bleaching events, and contributing to the rapid melting of the polar regions.
3. Connect flooding and extreme weather events to a warmer, moister climate: Storms and extreme rainfall events have always happened, but with the added heat in the atmosphere and oceans due to greenhouse gas emissions, storms now occur with increasing accumulated energy and higher moisture loading. For every extra degree (Cº) of warming, the atmosphere holds about 7% more water vapour. Over the past 25 years alone, satellites have measured a 4% rise in atmospheric water vapor, matching the rapid warming of the atmosphere.  
4. Connect retreating glaciers, sea level rise and the loss of arctic ecosystems to the trend of melting ice: Due to warming of the oceans and atmosphere, the Earth’s bodies of ice are in decline – from glaciers to the Arctic & Antarctic. This is driving sea level rise, reducing the earth’s ability to reflect heat energy back out to space, and endangering unique ecosystems.
5. Connect the increased spread of disease, irregular growing seasons, changing boundaries of ecosystems, to shifting seasons & climatic zones: The warming of the atmosphere is changing the timing of seasons, the distribution of habitats and moving warmer climate zones toward the poles.

If you want more information, read more on the 350.org/science page, and check out Climate Signals