How a Vancouver advocate tells the story of climate change

Chloë Fraser enjoying the views on the Joffre Lakes Trail. Her accredited course at the University of British Columbia teaches participants about the power of stories to motivate engagement. Photo by Chantal Kirouac

By Patricia Lane &  Chloë Fraser

These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity.

Chloë Fraser wants us to tell better stories about climate change. This 23-year-old Vancouver writer was named a Starfish Canada Top 25 Environmentalist Under 25 for her accredited course at the University of British Columbia (UBC) teaching participants about the power of stories to motivate climate action.

Tell us about your project.

In the Spring of 2023, as part of UBC’s Student Directed Seminars program, I designed and offered students from all disciplines the course “Writing Climate Change: Storytelling and Action”. We reviewed climate literature and studied the history of environmental communication and marketing techniques.

Each of the participants explored how to use storytelling to inform their work and learned to communicate across their different disciplines. This proved both rich and challenging. Some knew the science but talked about it in ways that left others out. Social science students used words and concepts foreign to those in sciences or business. Working collaboratively, we came together to build an uplifting community.ent.