By the end of this century, the world will be hotter than it is today. That was one of the predictions made in the sixth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is unlikely that you can imagine the severity of what is to come unless you have studied the climate models.
There is a small island off the east coast of South Malaita Island, part of the Solomon Islands. The inhabitants of Walande have left the island since 2002. Timothy's is the only house still standing. They don't care about Timothy's motives. One person says that he is obstinate. One person said that he wouldn't listen to them. Every morning his four young grandchildren take the canoe to the mainland, where they go to school, while Timothy spends the day adding rocks to the wall around his house. I can't see anything through the trees if I moved to the mainland. I won't be able to see it. I want to be able to see what's happening around me. He said that he was part of the place. The loneliness and loss caused by 1.1 degrees of warming is conveyed in his story.
Corporate greed is one of the causes of the environment crisis. It is a crisis ofmiscommunication. It has been too long since hard data buried environmentalists in an echo chamber. We will no longer communicate the climate crisis with facts and statistics as the crisis gets worse.
The power of motivation, imagination, and personal values is what drives the most powerful forms of social change. The images of Notre Dame cathedral went up in flames. Three minutes after the fire started, images of the incident were being broadcast around the world. It took three weeks for the mainstream media to report on the story of the Amazon forest burning in the same year. When the Amazon fires did not occur, why did the burning of Notre Dame warrant such swift responses? We attach personal significance to Notre Dame because it has a story we know and can relate to. The fact that the Amazon was on fire didn't make a difference to people's reaction.
It's possible to make sense of the world. Story structures match human neural maps, according to research. A mother breastfeeding, a hug from a friend, and a story all have something in common. The love drug is released by them all. According to a study by Paul Zak, participants who were given synthetic oxytocin donated 57 percent more to charity, and donated 56 percent more money than participants who did not. Hearing information in narrative form increases the likelihood of pro- social behavior.
Stories can be used for good. In 2005, the International Rice Research Institute used a radio soap opera to convince millions of rice farmers in Vietnam to stop using harmful pesticides. The farmers who listened to the series were less likely to spray their crops.
A video showing a sea turtle with a plastic straw in its nose compelled the US city of Seattle, Washington, British prime minister Theresa May, and multiple airlines and global companies to pledge to eliminate plastic straws.
Increased global connections will allow the spread of stories of people and animals on the frontier of the environmental crisis. Through various forms of art and media, it will be these stories that will convince us that the climate emergency is not something that will affect future generations.
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