Are we telling the right stories?

Are we telling the right stories?

By Alex Robinson, 16th January 2025

The other day I wrote a post debunking a flurry of articles in the media that linked plant-based milk to depression and anxiety. It's one of those issues that makes people hot under the collar, so I was expecting some debate. But what unfolded was disheartening: instead of celebrating the fact that this news was nonsense, lots of vegans jumped in to explain why it would make sense.

Maybe, one said, they're "more in tune with what's happening in the world and rightfully depressed". Or as one commenter put it simply, "anxiety is generated from giving a sh%£".

It was a tough week to dismiss that theory: 2024 confirmed as the hottest year on record, wildfires raging in LA, Trump bearing down on the White House - as 2025 kicks off, there are plenty of reasons not to be cheerful.

But the answer to these challenges - and these feelings - isn't to retreat. It's to take action.

Telling the right stories

Engaging with climate action builds a sense of empowerment and purpose, especially when it's as part of a community. And there is a much more positive story available that we can all tell: one in which we have the solutions we need, where individual people and their communities are doing incredible things, where businesses are pushing to go further.

It's a story in which our actions all count, not only because lots of small things add up, but because each time we take a positive action for the environment we're voting for the world we want to see and helping to shift what's seen as 'normal'.

In 2025, this is our role at Hubbub: inspiring and enabling action that's good for the environment, and everyone. We'll be highlighting existing solutions, and creating new ones.

We'll be giving people simple things they can do to make a difference, and building collective will to act. We'll be collaborating with every kind of organisation, using our superpowers of engagement, communication and behaviour change to help us all go further, faster.

Here's a taste of what that might look like in practice in 2025:

• Launching a citywide reusable cup scheme
• Bringing a city together to take on electronic waste
• Funding, supporting and connecting community-led green spaces
• Supporting households to play their role in the net zero transition
• Trialling new innovations, from pay-what-you-want community meals to a new voting bin
• Countering the backlash against plant-based diets with easy switches and inclusive campaigns
• ...and much more.

This is a year to acknowledge the challenges, and then to crack on with the solutions.

If you want to be part of it, please do drop us a line.