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EDMONTON — Mentioning climate change can kill a conversation. But a new Alberta project is using the topic to start one — and is showing people from geologists to farmers to environmentalists that they have more in common than they thought.

“Climate change has become quite a polarized issue and it often falls down the line of identity,” said Amber Bennett of Climate Outreach, one of the organizers of the Alberta Narratives Project, which released its final report this month.

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“Communication has a big role to play because it can help broaden that and talk to people about what they care about rather than asking them to be different than who they are.”

Talk about global warming can raise temperatures anywhere. But in Alberta — where oil drives the economic bus and climate skepticism is strong — opinions may be held more firmly.

“Alberta is a different beast,” said organizer Julia-Maria Becker of the energy think-tank Pembina Institute.