{"id":3029,"date":"2018-03-26T16:57:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T16:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2018-03-26T16:57:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T16:57:22","slug":"climate-change-emojis-could-help-save-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2018\/03\/26\/climate-change-emojis-could-help-save-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change Emojis Could Help Save the Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ScienceLine<\/em><\/a>
\nMarch 26, 2018<\/p>\n

Have you ever felt like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to explain to those who threw you away how detrimental you are to the environment? Well, even if you\u2019ve never had that specific urge, it\u2019s a feeling you can now express, like this:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

This smiling, slightly passive aggressive plastic bag is a member of a new set of emojis \u2014 dubbed\u00a0Climojis<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 that highlight the dangers and consequences of climate change. Spearheaded by a teacher in New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts and one of her former students, the Climoji Sticker Pack allows you to express anything from your disgust at plastic waste harming ocean life to generally feeling like a trash bag.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Their creators hope Climojis will help spark everyday conversations about climate change that many people would rather ignore. \u201cAt this point, it just seems like climate change is not a part of our daily discourse. It seems like it\u2019s being avoided because it\u2019s a distressing topic,\u201d says\u00a0Viniyata Pany<\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0a recent graduate of NYU\u2019s Interactive Telecommunications Program who developed the Climojis in collaboration with artist and teacher\u00a0Marina Zurkow<\/a>. \u201cWith the emojis, we were trying to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their project is part of the much bigger trend of emoji creation, which all sorts of marketers and activists are chasing online. And out of the 2.3 billion people who use the Internet worldwide, as many as\u00a092 percent\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0regularly send emojis.<\/p>\n

But while\u00a0emojis may have speedily hijacked\u00a0<\/a>the way we communicate online, they are not a new language. Instead, they\u2019re clarifying our emotions. Your smiles, voice inflections and sly winks all disappear when you\u2019re communicating on a screen, making it easy to misconstrue meaning in messages. Emojis fill in the void, revamping and illuminating text.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Climojis are the next line of petite pictures to enter this void. Launched in October through an NYU group called\u00a0Sustainable ITP<\/a>, the 27 colorful emojis have already been downloaded by more than 8,000 people.<\/p>\n

Their early success might seem surprising, since the climate change conversation in the United States is often\u00a0divisive<\/a>, alienating and almost completely devoid of humor. About 69 percent of Americans believe the earth is warming; but only 33 percent ever discuss the issue and just 25 percent say they hear about it weekly in the media, according to the\u00a0Yale Program on Climate Change Communication<\/a>. That gap is exactly what Pany and Zurkow set out to shrink. \u201cI\u2019m most interested in finding new, effective approaches to issues of climate chaos and disarming the polarizing conversation,\u201d says Zurkow.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some of the images are quite dark by emoji standards \u2013 a sad penguin or colorless rainbow are a far cry from the\u00a0dancer emoji.<\/a>\u00a0Climate change communication already has a history of attempting to\u00a0scare the world\u00a0<\/a>green with pictures of\u00a0starving polar bears<\/a>\u00a0and a planet doomed to fail. A series of recent\u00a0studies<\/a>\u00a0have suggested that these scary images run the risk of backfiring by deterring people from conversation and action to curb climate change. But Pany hopes that the cartoon-ish horror of the emojis will make people sit up and notice instead of disengaging. \u201cIt sort of shakes you a little bit,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And for every Climoji that frightens you, there\u2019s one that almost makes you giggle \u2014 like the trash bag crushing a house or the cow \u2013 ahem \u2013 excreting methane. You don\u2019t have to feel bad for laughing or sending a Climoji out of context; Pany says it\u2019s fine to send the drowning emoji when complaining about all the work you have to finish. That\u2019s how climate change could slide into the conversation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Humor as a vehicle for dialogue is currently\u00a0trending<\/a>\u00a0in the United States. Late-night comedians like John Oliver and Steven Colbert are\u00a0pros\u00a0<\/a>when it comes to breaching difficult climate conversations with humor, and recent\u00a0studies<\/a>\u00a0actually support the comedic approach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fresh, exciting way to rope people in, says\u00a0Max Boykoff<\/a>, who studies climate communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder. When fear doesn\u2019t work to bridge the divide, he says, humor might do the trick. \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing is innovative and positive towards engagement efforts,\u201d Boykoff adds.<\/p>\n

And while even comedy can be\u00a0divisive<\/a>, a Climoji keeps the conversation relatively light, despite opposing views, says\u00a0Vyvyan Evans<\/a>, a linguist based in the United Kingdom and author of the book\u00a0The Emoji Code<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to offend someone using emojis,\u201d he explains. \u201cBecause they\u2019re cartoon images, it\u2019s really hard to piss someone off.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are still risks, however. Casually throwing, say, a fire faucet into a conversation could trivialize the serious issues, says Boykoff. It could distract instead of enlighten. We\u2019ve already seen this diversion play out in the political arena, where memes and jokes have\u00a0taken over<\/a>\u00a0the conversation but compromise and reform remain\u00a0stagnant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a possibility always where you take something serious and trivialize it,\u201d says Boykoff. \u201cBut overall, I think it\u2019s worth the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Without time and a little research, it\u2019s unclear whether Climoji will change the conversation, says\u00a0Brigitte Nerlich<\/a>, an emeritus professor of science, language, and society at the University of Nottingham in the UK. If Climojis do become mainstream, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time an emoji sparked conversation or even controversy. There was a\u00a0diverse discourse<\/a>\u00a0in 2015 when the Apple update introduced the option of changing an emoji\u2019s skin tone. The following year, Apple sparked plenty of online discussion when they\u00a0banned<\/a>\u00a0the hand gun emoji in favor of a lime green squirt gun.<\/p>\n

Still, no one thinks the Climojis will work wonders all by themselves. \u201cIt\u2019s adding to the conversation,\u201d explains Pany. \u201cThey\u2019re humorous invitations to a difficult dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But 8,000 Climoji users in five months is, like the cow emoji, nothing to sniff at. The creators want to expand to 10,000 or 15,000 and then try to get picked up by Facebook or even\u00a0Unicode<\/a>, allowing anyone with an emoji keyboard direct access without having to download a separate app. The group is also working on a second batch of Climojis, with themes of climate justice and renewable energy, to be released this summer. Pany promises they\u2019ll be more green (and alive) than the current batch.<\/p>\n

So, the next time you feel like a trash bag, go ahead: express yourself by pasting a smiling plastic bag floating in the wind into a group chat. You might just get an Earth-changing conversation out of it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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