Discuss climate change with family, in a respectful way, during holiday gatherings.

Ah Christmas. Food. Presents. Films. And those relatives you've managed to avoid for the past 364 days. How do you make it through the holidays when tensions run high? Especially when it comes to climate change - the topic of conversation that can divide a family.

The team at the Rainforest Alliance have put together some ready-made answers to help you manage any potential arguments and keep the peace at the dinner table.

Take Aunty Karen for example. She may think that snowfall this winter disproves global warming, but you can be quick to correct her. Explain that there’s a big difference between climate and weather, and that climate refers to long-term trends - and the overall trend is clearly and indisputably a warming one. It's not just the Global North feeling the effects either, as farmers in the tropics have been contending with impacts like droughts, floods, and crop-destroying pests for years.

Cousin Greg may think climate change has always happened and is normal, but again, this isn’t the case. While it’s true that there have been periods of global warming and cooling in Earth’s long history, the current increase in CO2 is happening at a much faster rate than ever before - and scientists believe it could have been the cause of the dinosaur extinction.

Uncle Stu may be skeptical of climate change, but you can set him straight with the facts. Nearly 100% of scientists are in agreement that climate change is real, and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that global warming will reach 1.C above pre-Industrial levels around 2030 - a full decade earlier than previously forecast.

The grandad who thinks he’s a farmer may say that plants and animals will adapt, but this isn’t necessarily true. While species are masters of adaptation, the rate of climate change is happening too quickly for them to keep up. Frogs are a great example - with their semi-permeable skin, unprotected eggs, and reliance on external temperatures to regulate their own, they are often among the first species to die off when ecosystems tip out of balance.

Finally, the ‘uncle’ who isn’t an uncle may think that climate change is good for us, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The human cost of climate change will be enormous, and the economic cost is staggering - the global economy could lose $23 trillion to climate change by 2050.

Miserable cousin Kate may think it’s too late to do anything about climate change, but it isn’t. Governments, businesses, and individuals can all take action now to keep warming within the 1.5C target set by the Paris Agreement.

So if you're worried about facing the family over the holidays, remember that you can be well-prepared to shut down any arguments about climate change, and keep the peace.

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