Storytelling and Climate Activism

Event summary by Bianca Pasca

When it comes to issues of climate justice, the need for educating people about the problem means we often hear activists calling us to ‘listen to the science’. But facts and numbers may be hard to swallow if they don’t manage to speak to us on an emotional level—to make us understand the context and the urgency of the matter. We need to feel that we are characters in this story, who have a voice, and can shape the ending.

The Storytelling and Climate Activism event brings together two people experienced in crafting compelling narratives that speak truthfully and emotionally about the issues of climate change.

Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist, with a history of public activism dating back to the publication of his first book, The End of Nature, in 1989. He is a co-founder of 350.org, the first global grassroots climate-change movement. As the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, he has written nearly 20 books and won numerous prizes for his environmental work, including the 2014 Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes referred to as the ‘alternative Nobel’.

Megan Mayhew Bergman is an author, journalist, essayist and critic. She has written two short-story collections and has a novel forthcoming in the near future. She has worked for the ‘Climate Changed’ column about the American South for the Guardian in 2018/19. She teaches literature and environmental writing, also at Middlebury College, and serves there as the director of the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, as well. Her work has been recognised with awards like the Phil Reed Environmental Writing Award in 2020.
 
Opening the discussion, Megan quoted a Latin phrase she feels to be very important in the current context of the double crises of the climate crisis and systemic racism: Esse quam videri (“To be, rather than to seem”). She believes storytelling must be done from an incredibly sincere place, working on a very human level. Complexity and multiple perspectives have to be honoured in any story covering climate change. But narratives also have to be accessible, making the conversation easy to join.

Bill said he believes deep stories can be told from the numbers and science— that is the idea behind the 350.org project. The number refers to a number of parts per million of CO2  in the atmosphere (although we have now reached 415 parts per million) and speaks to the urgency of the matter, conveying feelings and telling the story of climate damage.

In his opening comments, he emphasised the importance of providing a platform for the voices not yet listened to by the mainstream, through projects like the 'Passing the Mic' section of the New Yorker, which Bill has been involved in writing. Bill spoke about how the climate movement has grown since he first published his first book, The End of Nature in 1989, a time when a lot of the articles about climate change were written by him and a small group of others.

Some people say that climate change is too complex a concept to be portrayed in a story. What do you think about this?

• Megan’s opinion is that it takes a lot of knowledge to be able to talk about big, deep systemic issues. Personally, she prefers to contribute at a very specific story level, where her knowledge and skills can be best put to use. She emphasized the importance of knowing how to craft a narrative by building both a rational and an emotional case, that is, presenting the science, but also why people should care about it. This is what sparks a desire to change behaviour.

• Bill, on the other hand, believes you don’t need to know that much, because it’s not a complicated story. For him, the main point is how humanity discovered the uses for burning fossil fuels. He said it is an archetypal story: the villain is the fossil fuel industry; the heroes are the millions of people working to help bring about change. He said it is most important to grasp the gist of the complex situation.

Conceptions of good and bad are based on very different world-views and values. Many people would say that ‘the villain’ is a lack of global governance, whereas others see the problem as capitalism and its focus on growth, leading to injustices. Yet another view might see radical environmentalism as the problem. So, what role do you think storytelling can play in bringing people with such different perspectives together to fight for climate justice?

• Bill remarked that journalistic investigation has revealed the that the fossil fuel industry has known about the effects of its actions—that is, climate change—even back in the 1980s. For example, Exxon had an experienced scientific staff who predicted rising sea levels, which led the company to begin building its drilling rigs higher to compensate. Instead of speaking up about these problems, the industry chose to sow doubt about the credibility of climate change science. For a long time, only scientists like former NASA climate researcher James Hansen spoke up, raising awareness. There would be fewer people denying the existence of climate issues today if CEOs of the fossil fuel companies hadn't denied the truth for so long.
  
• Talking about his experience of chaining himself at a petrol station, to expose Exxon’s lies, Bill pointed out that civil disobedience is a kind of storytelling which draws attention to important issues. So, storytelling is something that can be done both on the written page and through actions.
• Megan considered the idea from a political point of view: sadly, in the United States, climate change became politicised during the Reagan era, being seen as a ‘liberal buzz word’. This means that in some contexts, climate scientists have to find other ways of conveying the information in order for people to listen. For example, without direct mention of the climate crisis, they might talk of rising sea levels or changing weather patterns.

How can we tell stories that are inclusive without also pandering to the climate denial movement? In other words, how can we navigate the duality of the fact that the voices of people who are excluded from our stories can also be the voices that deny the existence of a climate crisis?

• Megan referred to a 2015 Pew Research survey, which found that the Latinx and POC population in the US are more likely to believe that climate change is a man-made phenomenon than white male evangelicals. The latter group of people are still at the top of most power structures in the South—climate denial is usually not the narrative of marginalized voices. In Megan’s view, it is important that training and opportunities are made available, to make the environmental writing and communication space accessible and open.

• Bill was also of the opinion that the problem lies with powerful people who don’t want to do anything about the problem; people who benefit from the status quo, rather than it being the less powerful not believing in the existence of the problem. Instead of trying to change the minds of about 30% of people who might never be persuaded, it is important that the 70% of people who are aware of the issues to be willing, active and vocal in the fight.

 
For the full seminar, head to our YouTube channel where this and every other talk from Trinity term's seminar series can be viewed: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOoksFYBCHqZWwVBU9qewZg