“Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will.”
As Sir David Attenborough said in 2020, “Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will.” Historically, the conversation about climate change has been a debate between scientists, politicians, and activists. This makes it hard for people to understand the climate crisis, to feel impacted by it, and to know what to do about it. Earth system collapse is a global threat that requires global teamwork. We need more people in the same boat, rowing in the same direction. Because everyone learns differently, we need to communicate messages in different ways. Because everyone has different people that they listen to and trust, we need diverse voices sharing diverse stories of hope and action.
Stories help us make sense of the world, making distant or abstract concepts relatable and tangible. While numbers and facts help to quantify the scale of the climate crisis, stories can stir an emotional response. Stories rouse motivation, imagination, and personal values which drive the most powerful and permanent forms of social change.
I was recently involved in a storytelling project developed in collaboration between the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), Amsterdam Sustainability Institute, and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The project started with a vision from Sjoerd Klueving (Distinguished Fellow of the Anthropocene, VU Amsterdam) to use compelling stories of climate change and biodiversity loss to shift the hearts of leaders at the COP28 climate summit. Sjoerd organised a series of storytelling workshops in collaboration with Peter Paul Van Keempen of the IUCN (a psychologist specialising in behaviour change for nature conservation). Peter Paul and Sjoerd guided us through the story writing process, fueling us with a new appreciation for the power of stories to evoke lasting change. The rich diversity of our stories reflects the diversity of our authors: artists, scientists, students, a writer from the indigenous Tharu tribe, an influencer. Our stories share the common aim of touching hearts and urging shifts in beliefs and behaviours, for climate action now. The full collection (presented in a multi-media fluid-book, including videos of some of the authors reading their stories) can be found here.
I had the great privilege of representing our project and taking our stories to the international arena in Dubai for COP28. The conference is intense, and immense. The Expo City is spread over more than four square kilometers, split over two zones, Blue (~85,000 participants) and Green (~400,000 attendees). People jokingly compared step counts and laughed about ‘conference bootcamp’ as we jostled between talks and workshops. The restricted Blue Zone is where the national representatives negotiate international climate policies and agreements. It also hosts the World Climate Action Summit, a large conference with presentations, panel discussions, round tables, and cultural events. The outer Green Zone has free access and is designed to engage the wider public. It is a hub for innovation, collaboration and showcasing solutions to climate-related issues. I was proud to present our project on stage at the IUCN Pavilion, in the Blue Zone. The audience were enthusiastic, and the Head of Climate Change at the IUCN acknowledged the power of stories to communicate comprehensive and deep messages.
It was incredibly humbling to be with people from all over the world, many in their traditional dress, and all with different personal accounts of the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. The sea of people was a colourful mosaic of unique cultures, rich histories, and diverse worldviews. It was moving to feel connected by our humanity and shared hope for a peaceful and prosperous future. However, I was also starkly reminded that although global heating is a global crisis, its effects are not evenly felt around the world. Climate justice calls for wealthier countries to make financial contributions to those lower- and middle-income nations who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The need for finance is threefold. First, to address the loss and damage caused by extreme climate change and biodiversity loss. Second, to assist national transition to renewable energy, away from coal and fossil fuels. Third, to adapt to inevitable climate and ecological changes already set in motion.
Dubai itself is a towering, proud metropolis in the desert. As a wealthy ‘petro-state’, many saw it as a controversial host for the climate conference. One report counted 2400 lobbyists in Dubai to promote fossil fuels. COP President, Sultan Al Jaber, said COP28 had made “a bold choice to proactively engage with oil and gas companies”. Sultan Al Jaber is also the chair of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and many were concerned with his ability to lead the COP neutrally. Under the UNCCC framework as it stands, a host nation can designate a president of their choice. Many say the UNCCC needs new rules to limit the fossil fuel industry from influencing climate policy negotiations. Next year, COP29 will be hosted in gas-producing Azerbaijan. While this is already stirring similar controversy, we should be careful to not begin with distrust and skepticism.
The COP28 achieved a historic milestone by uniting nations in agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. Political scientists note that international policy change is inherently incremental and that the most substantive change will happen at a domestic level. They see this as a monumental statement of ‘the beginning of the end for fossil fuels’, putting the industry on clear notice that they will need to adapt to survive. Climate scientists say there are too many loopholes in the agreement. They say that a ‘phase down’ instead of ‘phase out’ is too little too late and will have devastating consequences for the survival of vulnerable cultures and species. All acknowledge that nations have varying interests and capabilities, and agree it is challenging to balance ambitious goals with pragmatic achievability. In the opening remarks of the closing plenary of COP28, Commissioner Hoekstra said it was a day of “solemn satisfaction and maybe of silent determination.”
The human experience is emotionally complex, and we can simultaneously hold outrage and optimism (which is also the name of a great climate podcast). Our ability to channel this emotion as fuel for action will largely define this chapter of Earth’s story.
I have found it useful to understand our planet Earth as a living body, with the same interconnected complexities and beautiful intelligence that we are fascinated by in our own bodies. When troubleshooting an issue with a machine, the repairer isolates and fixes the component that is faulty. Earth’s systems are much more complex and delicately balanced than this. Yes, our planet is heating at an alarming rate. Everyone agrees we need to reduce our CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions and bring the Earth’s fever down. The first step is to leave fossil fuels in the ground. With the human body, if the internal temperature rises a few degrees, organs begin shutting down. Similarly, if the global average temperature of the Earth rises 1.5 degrees, at least 70% of coral reefs would be lost, destroying fish habitats and the communities that rely on them for their food and livelihood. At 2 degrees, 99% of reefs are lost and the ice sheets collapse. In both scenarios, extreme weather events like floods and droughts will be more frequent and last longer, heavily impacting food production and displacing millions, if not billions of people by 2050. According to the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, an annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events – such as floods, storms, wildfires and extreme temperatures – between 2008 and 2016. As the Earth heats, its delicately balanced systems and natural cycles are beginning to collapse. As this happens, the life we know, love, and want for our children is becoming dramatically different.
This reality is scary, but we can’t afford to ignore it. Collectively accepting, and naming the issue, is a foundational step in collaboratively responding to it.
Even thinking in terms of ‘responding’, may be too narrow. Realising that we cannot sustain what we have, ‘sustainable’ practices are being replaced by ‘regenerative’ practices. These aim to reverse the negative ecological impact of human industry and regenerate nature. Instead of ‘fighting’ climate change in a violent reaction to our fear of the projected future, we can imagine the world we want to live in. See Phoebe Tickell’s Imagination Activism for more on the human superpower of imagination. Once we’re clear about the future we’re aiming for, we can work back to identify the deliberate steps we need to take to get there.
We also want to look widely at Earth’s complex ecological system. When your loved one is sick, bringing down the fever is important for their body’s systems to continue operating, but it is just as important to uncover and address the underlying systemic cause. Many of the systems and mindsets we have developed over generations are no longer serving us. Instead, they are making us, and our planet, unwell.
We have created a system that operates by extracting, producing, consuming, and defending what is ‘mine’. We have forgotten that nature can be in harmonious balance and has intrinsic value rather than being valued only by what it can be sold for. This system continues to operate because we have forgotten we are inextricably connected to other-than human beings and our living planet. We, human beings, sit within this web of life as part of nature. However, we have created a distorted reality where we see ourselves as above nature. Geologists call this era the anthropocene, an age where human activity has been the dominant influence on the climate and nature.
Acknowledging our power of influence, we can rewrite the stories we live by. We can widen our scope of who, and what, we hold as important. We can expand our timescale beyond the blink of our own generation to co-author stories with the wisdom of our ancestors, love for other-than-human beings, and commitment to future generations – who also deserve to live as part of a flourishing planet. We can live stories of our interconnectedness as nature, treasuring (bio)diversity, and replacing apathy, selfishness, and greed, with care, compassion, and generosity. By cultivating an inner shift in how we be, think, relate, collaborate, and act (in line with the Inner Development Goals) we will be better able to see ourselves, and our planet, back into wellbeing. As Einstein famously said, “we cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it”.
Words are powerful and we have a role in co-authoring the story of life on Earth. What stories do we want to give our future kin, and how do we want our chapter of the story to be remembered?
Blog post written by Ellie Domigan
