Pirate's Cove

What they really mean is at the table at some type of Christmas party

How to bring up climate change at the holiday dinner table without causing an argument

It would be an understatement to say that 2021 has been an eventful year. We’re heading into Christmas right off the back of a historic COP26 with climate change at the front of many people’s minds.

And in between other popular dinner table subjects, like politics, protests or the pandemic, you might find yourself wondering how to bring up your climate concerns.

We get it – environmental matters can often be divisive. Discussions can leave us disheartened, especially if the other party doesn’t share our convictions. We’ve all witnessed a dinner table political debate that has ended in disaster.

As a result, many of us are reluctant to initiate them.

While spending so much time around our families, it’s inevitable that the issues which matter to us will come up. So how do we broach these often contentious topics?

There is no right answer – avoiding them altogether is fine too – but getting a sense of how others approach the problem can provide some ideas on how to start the conversation.

The right answer is “leave your cult beliefs unsaid”

For young people, when their views don’t align with those in their family, discussions about climate change can be a particular source of tension.

Because young people have become more rigid than an 85 year old.

Nell, an 18 year old medical student, started to question where her food was coming from and the impact it was having in her early teens. After initially changing to a pescatarian diet, then vegetarian, reading more about the environmental impact of dairy eventually led to her becoming vegan.

“There was definitely an initial backlash and a lack of acceptance when I changed my diet in response to the climate crisis,” Nell says.

“My decision to eat plant-based, to my parents, possibly felt like I was rejecting their heritage and the way they were brought up, and shunning it. I wonder whether it ever felt to them that I was rejecting how they’d tried to raise me; bringing up feelings of doubt in their parenting skills, their own moral compasses, and their own social responsibility in regards to the crisis.”

Her parents probably didn’t give a crap. They probably just didn’t want to listen to all the Lectures and garbage. Nell can buy her own food, right? Nell is, like most of these youths, so far up her ass in her narcissism that she thinks any minor comment is a mountain.

It isn’t all just about presenting the facts. An open and frank discussion can go a long way to understanding why people have the responses that they do.

We know who’s going to be sitting at the kids table, because the adults just want to have an enjoyable dinner.

We’re hardwired to deal with stories, narratives that help us understand our place in the world. Telling these stories is an important part of getting the people we interact with on a daily basis to understand the importance of coming together to solve these big, global problems.

And wen you bring me stories, I’m going to ask you what changes you’ve made in your own life. When you deflect, I’m simply going to ignore you, because your a hypocrite and a cult member.