COP21 Mini Reflection: celebrity faces and voices important for sparking discussion on climate change

How do you get the general public to care about climate change? Scientists, policy wonks, and other climate experts alike seem to believe that everyone should find heated discussion on mitigation, climate finance, and compliance as riveting as they do. But try talking to your extended family about your work, like I attempted over Thanksgiving, and watch their eyes glaze over like the holiday ham (yes, my family does ham, not turkey, for Thanksgiving) sitting in the oven.

They don’t know who Christiana Figueres is or what UNFCCC stands for, nor do they really care. You know who they do know? They know Grammy-award winning musician Sean Paul and his infectious Jamaican beats. COP21 conference goers got to hear Sean Paul speak about his personal concerns regarding pollution and environmental degradation right after he gave a performance to close out the day on Thursday, December 11.

Sean Paul’s performance put a popular celebrity face, outside of popular politicians, on this year’s climate negotiations that can serve as a spring board to get the conversation going with people who don’t live and breathe the complex topics discussed at the COP. Since the ambitious goals outlined in whatever agreement comes out of the COP will require action and adjustment from everyone, not just the experts and academics, this kind of celebrity face is important to engage and get everyone interested in problems that affect us all.

I love Sean Paul’s music and the fact that he’s making an effort to promote education and involvement on huge environmental issues like air pollution and climate change. I think we need faces and voices like his to pull everyone in on a discussion that serves to benefit the entire planet and future generations.