Hope, Alarm and Climate Change
Hope, Alarm and Climate Change
Spotlighting narratives that can create empathy, influence thinking and change behavior
Today I am hosting an inaugural event that will highlight talented writing and writers who have published compelling work addressing the climate crisis. The goal of the first Climate Narratives Prize is to increase attention on critical issues facing the planet and global society. It’s also meant to celebrate and honor people who have taken this responsibility seriously—and I hope inspire others to do the same.
The three top awardees ask important questions: Given the state of the planet, is it OK to have a child? With so much grim climate news, can we allow ourselves to feel optimistic? If we talk with people from around the world, can we gain new insights on how climate change is affecting their lives?
It’s questions like these that connected with readers when originally published—and resonated with the class of graduate students I co-taught and who both studied the nominated narratives and voted for the most compelling ones in the final session.
I want to share a couple of paragraphs of what I intend to say today as a table-setting for the live event. In general, I have not focused a great deal on climate issues in my dispatches here, but it’s worth noting how important this existential threat is for my ongoing work these days. Suffice to say, I hope more people recognize the importance of trying to finding answers for the dangers that beset our planet and people.
Were there not a climate crisis. Were there not urgency to respond. Were there not a question about the existential fate of the human species in the decades ahead…we would not be gathered here today. But here we are, challenged to contemplate the health of our shared planet and what it will take to respond to the consequences of rising CO2 levels, the decisions put in place centuries ago to seek dominion over nature, and the fact of rising temperatures, rising sea levels, increasingly frequent and increasingly extreme weather events, and growing conflict and fear among people and between nations.
In my view, this is the issue of our time, a time that has been called the “decisive decade” that will determine the trajectory of life for everyone in this room and everyone around the world. As a storyteller and a hopeful person by nature, I believe in the power of narratives and the potential of storytelling in multiple modes to capture the attention of our fellow humans. To tell stories that resonate, that create empathy, that can build global consciousness about a challenge that is global in nature—and not just in the moment of reading, watching or listening, but over time, to influence thinking, to change behavior—and ultimately, to create impact that gives us the chance for better futures.
The event today is titled “Hope, Alarm and Climate Change.” I’m glad that the stories selected as the inaugural winners offer diverse perspectives and both ask tough questions and seek hopeful responses. If you can take the time, I urge you to read each of the three top winners.
They include Meehan Crist’s “Is It OK to Have a Child?” published in the London Review of Books, David Montgomery’s “The Search for Environmental Hope,” published in The Washington Post Magazine, and Emily Raboteau’s “This Is How We Live Now: A year’s diary of reckoning with climate anxiety, conversation by conversation,” published in The Cut.
And if you can take the time to watch the live event from 11:30 to 1:30PM PT today, you’ll find me there hosting—with appearances from the winners and high-profile environmental advocates such as Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe. The topics are challenging, but the mood should be celebratory. Because while it’s possible to envision the future with dire expectations, the room will be filled with smart people who believe it’s still in our power to drive change and create a better world.
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This was an awful amount of reading and concentration after a day's work when one only wishes to sit, eat, and see the latest from Ukraine. Everyone is aware of climate change except donald trump who makes a snowball and calls it baloney. Few people talk about it at all except to say how hot it is . Those who really take it seriously are the ones whose homes have burnt down , been flooded, been blown apart by a whirlwind, have lost everything. But they are in the minority. The rest read about it, then go to the gym or go have their false fingernails glued on.
People could install solar panels, but how many do you see? They could go back to smaller cars, but of three cars one sees, two are SUVs, and usually, I have noticed, with but one occupant. How many people are like Jimmy Carter who wore sweaters in the White House to conserve heating fuel? And of course, we know wind turbines cause cancer !! : (
How great it may have been if plastic had never been discovered. Man lived without it since time began, yet , remember the movie Mrs. Robinson? A man told Dustin Hoffman to think "Plastic" -the up and coming money maker. Now the world is awash with plastic bags, toys,containers, flag poles, dishes, the computer on which I write. What does it say about environmental care when at every red light, people throw out cigarette butts galore, throw out trash, empty bottles along the highways, don't even throw away wipes or receipts from grocery carts? Can you expect these people to solve climate/environmental change or even ponder it?
There is a movement now to do nothing in your yard during the month of May; let the birds and bees flourish, keep the gas burning mowers, tractors in the garage, let the dandelions thrive along with weeds and what ever else shows up. But, oh boy. What will the Homeowners' Associations do; have a fit.What would the neighbors say ? That their home values would take a nose dive living next to people like that? Yes, people talk a good line, but suggest no solutions.
71% of the globe is covered with water and hold 96.5 percent of it. Why can't some bright person invent some new technological way to use that resource for energy? Why should farmers be unable to produce food because of droughts? 690 million people globally are hungry.
Why cannot some other genius discover a method by which carbon is withdrawn from the air and used to make steel, ink, paint, lubricants? It's like the old trite saying -if we can put a man on the
moon . . .
As for having children, sex is a basic need, like the need to eat, the need to use the restroom. Remember how we criticized China for only allowing a couple to have one child? We cannot control sex, ergo, there will always be children. There are government documents that show studies about Bigfoot, $10M was spent on training a cat, the Russians experimented on what they called human docking procedures. (sex in space) Spend time and money meaningfully.
In summary, I think climate can be controlled and children will remain a blessing.
The number of comments on this subject shows how much or little people think of climate change or ways of defeating it.
I wonder what's going on in the Ukraine?
What a wonderful event: there is no issue that is more relevant to our survival. Thank you for hosting this. I only wish my work schedule would allow me to watch.