Moving Stories Keep Us Moving Forward
Four takeaways from SF Climate Week. TL;DR we need to tell more good stories if we are to write a better future.
To put it mildly, living is overwhelming. Especially lately! So when SF Climate Week snuck up on me a few weeks back, I can’t say I was excited nor confident in my ability to get through it, much less glean value from it. I haven’t felt very resilient lately. But my low expectations and social anxieties were met with wonderfully generous people, panels and parties that replenished my dwindling cup. Among my favorite events was our own, co-hosted with the fabulous people at Adobe and Conservation International. We united a rad (read: energized, passionate, whip smart) group of changemakers (sustainability practitioners, engineers, storytellers) at Adobe’s vibrant San Francisco office, exchanging stories of wonder, hope, grief, solutions, and solidarity. We heard from renowned photographer Ami Vitale on battling sensationalism with integrity and hope, Kati Kallins and Brooke Hopper on how Adobe is developing and democratizing tools that empower impact, and Louise Wilson and Solitaire Townsend on the transformational power of story. And to get through this hard moment, and inevitably harder moments ahead, we need to tell more good stories if we are to write a better future.
Below are four takeaways that are keeping me going after SF Climate Week and that we can all – and arguably must – carry forward to keep moving forward.
Takeaway 1: Humans are both storytellers (homo narratus) and main characters (obnoxiously self-absorbed), so we need climate stories to center people.
We resonate with stories that show us glimpses of ourselves, and when we do, we go around telling them to others, and so forth. Ami told us decades of stories she’s documented of people living life and finding beauty everywhere from war zones to wildlife sanctuaries. In each story I felt her own loving reverence, wonder, outrage, hope, and despair. And it is well documented that emotion, specifically empathy, is a predictor of prosocial behavior. The best stories stick, and stories with a moral can inspire better behavior.
Inspiring empathy, though, requires establishing relatability. If we can’t imagine ourselves doing something, our egos won’t latch on for long enough to think differently about the way we live. And the world needs to see better behavior to turn around climate trends, and improve health outcomes and living standards for all species, all over the world, for generations to come – so let’s story tell how to do it with characters modeled after our audiences. It’s not NOT marketing 101.
Creative uses of new technologies can sew empathy farther than we thought possible. Conservation International is an Adobe for Nonprofits partner, and in 2016 they released a series of virtual reality (VR) films telling hyperlocal stories of indigenous people reversing environmental damage and promoting healing in their communities. Conservation International described VR, for its immersive nature, as “a powerful tool to connect audiences with distant locations and people they will most likely never see in person. And that connection is the key to creating empathy.”
Takeaway 2: Who claims the story matters, so listen and tell responsibly, and don’t take context for granted.
Credibility aside – because depending on our worldview and threshold for trust, we’re likely to believe stories, true or not – the context in which stories are written is vital to interpreting them, and in shaping our behavior in response to them. We are, after all, in the age of deepfakes, and it turns out that digital natives are not much better at recognizing fake news than older generations.
During the event, Ami shared her photojournalism work and recounted a particularly impactful image and story from Guinea Bissau. This image (below, left) celebrated the positive impact of education on girls' lives in the region.
It was disheartening to later learn that this same photograph was repurposed for the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which aimed to raise awareness about the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. While the intention behind the campaign was undoubtedly good, the decision to use Ami's image – altered with a teardrop and presented without its original context (below, right) – was a misrepresentation. This not only misrepresented the original subject and narrative of the photograph but also arguably detracted from the integrity of the campaign itself.
So please share your stories, with all the context you know, and ask for more about the stories you hear. You won’t always get to the truth, but you’ll get closer to it, and can act according to better information.
Takeaway 3: Creativity is constantly necessary for climate action, so we must activate as much of it as possible.
It’s an urgent and arduous ask, but we have more powerful tools than ever to manage our creative energy and outputs. I’ve been (as cautiously, sparingly, and eco-mindedly as possible) welcoming ChatGPT as a supportive friend who helps remove some of the barriers that I face in manifesting my creativity. There are countless other (less energy-intensive) tools that serve creatives, even those us who feel more comfortable with the adjective "creative" than the noun. And thank goodness for meeting recordings, auto-generated notes and other archival tools, which ensure more perspectives can be brought in to achieve the most considered outcome - which, in climate, often means meeting the needs of the most people (not to mention other species.)
Takeaway 4: Our climate story is long and hard, so buckle up (and bring your joy with you!)
We haven’t chosen to inherit this world, but we can choose the one that future generations inherit. Most of us won’t be around to experience that future, which makes weathering budget cuts, regulatory shitstorms, and presenting the business case for sustainability one more time an extra-tough ask. And it will get worse to be a sustainability professional and harder to be a human before it gets better – as “ESG” and “DEI” get silently erased from corporate comms, and we brace for more extreme temperatures and weather events – in the pursuit of, and even for some time once we reach, net zero. So, in this climate quest, what can we do but march along and make sure to look up along the way? It won’t always be pretty, but it feels important to enjoy the world we’re fighting tooth and nail to protect. Sometimes I forget to enjoy the beautiful central California coast I call home, instead glued to my screen, ruminating on images of the scorched remains of Los Angeles communities and wondering if I’ll ever be able to, or want to, buy a house in this state. Both have a place. But experiencing the world, particularly immersing myself in nature, generates an inner clarity. Perhaps I’m reflecting the beauty and order of Earth’s ecosystems, but there’s something so calibrating there for me, and I know for so many others. And whatever brings that peace, that joy, that presence – fills your cup, so to speak – we’ve got to bring along, in XL travel mugs, to keep us going on this path.
Some parting thoughts
In our collective climate story, it’s easy to get stuck on the recent startling stats we may or may not know what to do with. A happy way to get unstuck is to remember that our world affects us just as much as we affect our world. We are the world – and we need each other to share our burdens and triumphs, to create with us new hope and curiosity. And it’s important to remember to show up for each other as many days as we can. Because this story is ours and everyone’s and it will keep being written whether or not we individually keep going. And to bring ego back into it, we need you, and your commitment to the cause, to keep writing it well.