When it comes to running a campaign that will build power, persuade targets, and win, the first and most important step is to design for success. Here are nine essential considerations for how to design a campaign plan that “considers the evidence” at each step of the planning process. And remember: it’s not a plan unless it’s written down! Includes guidance on:

• Developing a guiding vision and set of values for the campaign
• Selecting the right targets to pressure and influence
• Integrating equity into every step of the planning
• Developing a strong audience-centered communications strategy
• And more!

Listen to the youth. This montage of some of the 400 short films submitted for annual youth filmmaking challenge is an urgent call for climate justice. Speaking in plain language and using simple-yet-creative graphics, these youth offer a fresh perspective on the climate crisis. Many of their messages are about what can be achieved through working together. Their honesty, directness and positivity have the potential to compel a wide variety of audiences to join them.             

A Sept. 11-14 poll of likely voters nationally has found strong demand for more media coverage of climate change and its impacts on events like extreme-weather hazards. Some highlights:

• Only 39% of voters hear about climate change at least once a week in the media compared to 45% who say they hear about natural disasters in that timeframe
• 59 percent say they follow climate change somewhat or very closely in the news (69% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, 51% of Independents)
• 77% say it is important for the news to attribute extreme weather events to climate change (48% very important)
• This includes 88% of Democrats (65% Very Important), 71% of Independents (40% Very Important), and 68% of Republicans (33% Very Important)
• 71% say they want to hear the news tell them if climate change is worsening an extreme weather event, including 66% of Republicans

This irreverent guide to activism in the time of pandemic offers a roundup of the most creative and effective social movement responses to COVID-19, filtered through seven of the most relevant tools from the Beautiful Trouble toolbox, with links to resources compiled especially for this moment. 

The volume of climate change coverage on the corporate broadcast nightly and Sunday morning news shows increased 68% from 2018 to 2019.

This report looks at how the media covers renewable energy with a specific focus on the extent to which it quotes women as spokespeople, references issues of equity, or talks about communities of color. The report also provides baseline data and metrics against which to measure the impact of the diversity of leaders advancing clean energy realities ("women as well as men, communiteis of color as well as white, male entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley") and to track their progress over time.

Social scientists have identified 5 main barriers to understanding climate change: distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. To overcome distance: bring climate impacts close to home, connect issues that matter to your audience, and invoke "legacy." To overcome doom: emphasize solutions and benefits and beware of the overuse of emotional appeals. To overcome dissonance: channel the power of social norms and appeal to group identity.

Analysis of the patterns behind high-performing progressive advocacy campaigns that demonstrated both policy/cultural impact uncovered a common set of strategic orientations and practices. Campaigns in this group tend to share power and decision-making with their supporters, and spend significant time organizing and aligning their wider networks of allies.

David Roberts at Vox compares several maps from the Yale Climate Opinion Maps tool and concludes that Americans' opinions and beliefs on climate change don't always add up. For instance, Americans' support for solutions often outweighs our belief in the underlying problem.

Most TV weathercasters think that climate change has influenced the weather and other conditions in their area over the past 50 years, and even more think climate change will influence the weather in their area over the next 50 years. 9 in 10 believe in human caused climate chagne,