Global Portraits from a Changing Climate: The Influence of Environmental Storytelling on the Climate Narrative

• Main Author: Welch, Alexandra
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: SIT Digital Collections 2024
• Subjects: Digital Humanities; Environmental Studies; Film and Media Studies; Human Geography; Visual Studies; Iceland
• Online Access: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/3312; https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/context/capstones/article/4357/viewcontent/Welch_Capstone_report_final.pdf

Environmental Storytelling can influence the climate narrative and serve as a catalyst to structurally alter how individuals think about the environment. The medium of the “Eco-film†allows viewers to create intimate connections with the natural world, and in turn alter how individuals engage and perceive issues like climate change. To combat climate denialism this project showcases different hopeful stories in a deliverable video collection, called “Global Portraits from a Changing Climateâ€. Two of these videos will be filmed in Germany, featuring the Waldrapp Team Research and Conservation project. One of the videos from Waldrapp Team will touch on the social side of species reintroduction, looking at how the “soul†of a bird inspired a host of art and culture. The other Waldrapp Team video will look at how climate change is threatening a 20-year reintroduction project, and the adaptation of a team determined to save this endangered species. The third video will be filmed in Zanzibar, looking at the resilience of female seaweed farmers whose livelihood and subsequent empowerment has been put at stake by rising ocean temperatures. The last video will be filmed in Iceland, looking at how the reintroduction of trees to a previous barren land has affected forest farmers, and what legacy these individuals may leave behind. This project aims to tie together themes of positionality, resilience, adaptation and culture. Making this deliverable project focus on multiple local scale narratives, enables the audience to draw key spatiotemporal comparisons among projects to recognize a global narrative. The creation of this deliverable has been insightful into the importance of media ethics, slow journalism, the dilemma of visibility and the importance of language. Overall, this study has shown that despite catastrophic changes to the natural world, people are making a difference, and that perhaps a compelling environmental narrative is part of what the world needs to support continued action.