Planet Positive Publications (Mix Magazine)

Independent magazines sharing hopeful stories of climate action accompanied by powerful images and striking graphics suggest that environmentalists have got a lot to feel good about. Katie Treggiden explores whether they are driving change or merely letting the rest of us off the hook.

Walk into an independent magazine shop, such as MagCulture on London’s St John Street, and you might not be surprised to see titles covering a wide range of niche subjects from cake to cannabis. As MagCulture founder Jeremy Leslie says, “The baseline for a small magazine is a shared passion for a very specific subject.” But what might surprise you is a proliferation of publications dedicated to the climate crisis.

With a name lifted directly from a Donald Trump speech denying climate change, It’s Freezing in LA (or IFLA!) got the ball rolling in 2018. Its mission was to raise awareness of climate change, but to do so differently. “When we started, our approach challenged what people expected from climate change literature – it sat between science, art, and activism, making space for more people to understand and engage with the climate and ecological crisis,” says art editor and co-creative director Nina Carter. One creative decision was to avoid photography altogether, favouring hand-drawn illustration instead. “This added a more engaging, human, and personal touch, and positioned IFLA! away from the news sites’ obsession with disaster porn,” says Leslie, who has stocked the magazine since MagCulture opened its doors. “A vital role for these climate-focused indie mags is to present an alternative to the dry and academic tone of the specialist scientific world,” he adds. “They are by their nature more personal, expressive and open – and, with fewer constraints than mainstream magazines, they can afford to fly closer to the future.”

French ‘fanzine’ Climax certainly presents an alternative too. “We like to say we’re the first climate magazine never to use green on its cover,” says co-founder Lauren Boudard. “No pictures of the planet on fire, no polar bears stranded on melting ice and no dull charts showing rising temperatures.” Instead, the magazine uses a striking ‘pop’ graphic identity that combines bright colours, childlike doodles and counterculture references in an unstructured look that Climax art director, Rihab Hdidou, describes as “ignorant style.” And it’s not only their visual approach to storytelling that is different, but also their hopeful, even humorous, tone of voice. “At Climax, we believe that joy is a way to stop the system from crushing us and to reclaim our power,” says Boudard. “To quote actor and director Gérard Jugnot: ‘Laughter is like windscreen wipers, it doesn’t stop the rain, but you can keep going.’ The aim is to push back against the prevailing pessimism, as it achieves little beyond demoralising us.”

Imagine5 takes a more serious, but equally positive stance. “Fear can be a strong motivator to take action to save yourself, but if you want to build something new and better you need hope,” says Nicolai Hansson, director of storytelling. “We acknowledge the depth of the climate crisis, but you can do that and still share hope in our abilities to make changes. If we want to inspire people, we need to show them what that future might look like.”

Research by the Behavioural Insights Team, (commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Businesses, Energy and Industrial Strategy) backs up a hopeful approach. It found that positive messaging based on pride and future-optimism increases engagement and adherence to pro-environmental messages, especially when paired with a clear call to action and framed alongside ‘co-benefits’ such as health outcomes. And we know from neuroscience that fear makes us less creative and less imaginative – characteristics we need to even conceive of a better future.

But does all this hope and humour, coupled with glossy photography and striking graphic design, risk undermining what is after all a very serious message? Co-founder of futures agency FranklinTill, Caroline Till, thinks so. “Seduction can be a powerful tool – if we can show people that there is an alternative that is better, brighter, more beautiful and regenerative for the planet, it’s a win-win,” she says. “But there is a risk that people see sustainability as a lifestyle trend – something they can put on their coffee table and step away from – rather than the underlying context that informs everything they do.”

IFLA! tries to balance positivity with gravitas. “We sometimes talk about ‘hope in context’,” says editor Jackson Howarth. “It’s tempting to push back against ‘climate doom’ with unbridled climate good news, but good news stories often omit important context to preserve the feeling of a rare ‘win’. Both unbridled fear, and unbridled optimism can lead to complacency. Even when we’re bringing attention to difficult, painful issues, we keep an eye on what is being done to push back.”

The same Behavioural Insights Team’s report that found in favour of hopeful messaging also found that communications on their own tend to have a very modest impact on behaviour change, so can these hopeful magazines really make a difference? “Over the last decade we’ve seen a gentler approach leading people towards sustainability by the hand,” says Till. “What we need now is some sort of ‘mic drop moment’ because the urgency of the situation demands immediate and substantial action.”

The question is whether we can uncouple urgency from fear and self-preservation and instead give people the hope and agency they need to build something new and better and to do it now. Only time will tell, and that’s the one thing we’re running out of.