Sharing climate stories of hope not doom

Charlotte Taylor tells hopeful stories about the real impacts of climate change. The University of British Columbia student has been selected for a Climate Storytelling Fellowship. Photo submitted by Charlotte Taylor

By Patricia Lane & Charlotte Taylor

Charlotte Taylor tells hopeful stories about the real impacts of climate change. This 21-year-old University of British Columbia undergraduate student has been selected for a Climate Storytelling Fellowship as part of UBC’s 2024 Communicating Climate Hope conference. Charlotte co-ordinates the Climate Justice Study Collective at the UBC Centre for Climate Justice, provides administrative assistance and communications support to Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa’s Knowledge Justice Collective and serves as co-editor in chief for the UBC Journal for Climate Justice.

Tell us about the fellowship program.

We learn to tell hopeful stories about our changing climate to challenge the dominant narrative that we are doomed and there is nothing we can do about it. As a first step, we are learning skills and finding tools to help us tell better, more accurate, more hopeful stories. Next, we will tell our own story. Finally, we will integrate our own stories with those of others working toward a better future. These sessions culminate in a two-day Communicating Climate Hope conference in August, bringing faculty, students, community advocates and educators together to learn from each other. The conference will be simulcast in Tilburg, Netherlands and available on Zoom, as well as in-person.