The Life and Death of Bear 71
Can anthropomorphism serve as a wildlife conservation tool?
‘How do you get a reader to give a sh*t?’
There’s a great interview with science writer Ed Yong about his approach to effectively telling stories about wildlife conservation efforts, especially efforts that are failing. As Yong puts it, the main question we should ask ourselves as environmental communicators is this: “How do you get a reader to give a shit?
Yong explains the conundrum: “In a news ecosystem that is increasingly filled with tales of woe and doom for our own species let alone all the others, how do you get a reader to give a shit about a random group of 400-ish animals?”
The main strategy he suggests is to “establish that these animals are individuals, not numbers.” Yong deploys this strategy with skill in his essay for the Atlantic, “North Atlantic Right Whales are Dying in Horrific Ways,” telling the story of 6 individual whales killed by ship strikes and entanglement in fishing nets.
So-called “doom-and-gloom” conservation stories like this one are notoriously challenging to pull off. Whales, of course, are charismatic megafauna, but “save the whales” has been used so much it’s almost become cliché, suggests Yong. Despair is a common emotion woven…
