Going to COP19, it was easy to get swept away with the rhetoric. You meet with hundreds of people who already share the same views as you do. You bond instantly with someone because you know you will at least have something in common, an interest in climate change so great that you were willing to travel half way around the world to talk about it. The conference almost felt like a comic book convention, with everybody bonding over our shared ecological nerdiness. We loved, or disliked, specific characters, which at any one time seemed to be part of both a heroic and villainous plotline. Christiana Figueres, in her pint-sized mightiness, was also known as C-Fig, a pseudonym that could be seen equally as a term of endearment and disdain. And then there was Marcin Korolek, who throughout the deliberations remained stern, muttering clear and short sentences with very little emotion, only breaking a smile at the final meeting when decisions were made. He reminded me of Gru from Despicable Me, the bad guy at the beginning who you eventually learn has a heart of gold…or perhaps still coal, I have not made my mind up about him just yet.

These two figures were only one of many powerful people who have helped in creating a specific image and message about the climate change. Ban-Ki Moon attended the conference for a few days, his Yoda-like messaging about what was needed to be done by all parties was well-respected, but again seemed to only add to the thousands of voices all saying the same thing, but following through with very little action.

Civil society appears to have had too much and not enough information about climate change from these types of high-level discussions. It is easy to forget that what I and others attending the event know about global warming has taken months and even years, cultivating a specific mindset and developing our own ideas about what should be done to reduce emissions and adapt to the effects of global warming. Most of the world’s population does not have this luxury. Yet we continue to talk within these secret circles, these alienating covens, which make most of civil society feeling uninvited, or disinterested, in gathering knowledge or adding their own views.

Climate change negotiations appear to many as a type of church where the same sermon is being repeated over again, with the following asleep on the bleachers (or bean bags). Those who have sinned, the major global emitters, can simply pay their way out of hellfire, through carbon trading schemes or funding for developing countries, without actual good. Those who have not yet been converted are chastised as being ignorant or even evil. Many at COP19 were surprised to find during the second week a stall by a group of climate skeptics. This followed the actions of the organisers, who had originally had the introduction of the smartphone app describing climate change as a natural phenomenon that has occurred for millennia. The disregard for an agreement on what global warming is and how it can be dealt is complicated, but it cannot be easily ignored by advocating one particular view. We should instead seek to build stronger relationships that we currently vilify.

I intend to reach out to parenting and cultural groups as a way of expanding public knowledge about what is it at stake, and my team mates will be working tirelessly at home connecting with businesses, local environmental agencies. They will also make climate science more easily accessible. By doing so, we hope to help civil society feel empowered to making changes that go beyond recycling or using less fuel. These tasks remain important, but if we are serious about the scale of climate change, we need to properly address who is in power, placing increasing pressure on governments and corporations to make the necessary changes that are crucial to us all.

Climate change should not be seen as a cult, and it should not be dealt with by only the select few. Laws can be changed, people’s buying habits can be altered, and society’s attitudes can shift. But in order for these important advances to be made, we must reach out to everybody.

By Meghan Stuthridge