When we imagine our climate future, it’s easy to drift towards catastrophe, especially in view of this summer’s shocking examples of climate chaos—from floods and sinkholes to heat domes and unchecked wildfires. But while stories about impending doom are motivating for some people, they leave others feeling dispirited. If we’re already so far down the track to disaster, why stress about making changes in the present? So we also need positive visions of the future that we can work toward: stories about human thriving in more just, sustainable communities and societies.
The Climate Imagination Fellowship, a project of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, in partnership with the UN High-Level Climate Champions, TED Countdown, and the ClimateWorks Foundation, brings together science fiction writers from around the world to imagine those positive futures, but also to ground them in local complexities, and real scientific and technological insights. We’ll need thousands of stories, and many more climate actions, emanating from diverse communities in all kinds of different social, political, and physical geographies, in order to meet the challenges of the climate crisis.
Join the Climate Imagination Fellows, along with experts in global climate policy, local journalism, and the power of long-term thinking about the future to explore the stories we’re telling ourselves about the climate crisis today, and the kinds of narratives we’ll need to help chart a path toward a better future.
The event will be hosted live on Zoom, and is free and open to everyone—register today!
Speakers:
Nigel Topping
UN High-Level Climate Action Champion, United Kingdom
Bina Venkataraman
Editorial Page Editor, Boston Globe
Kim Stanley Robinson
Author, The Ministry for the Future
Ed Finn
Director, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
2021 Climate Imagination Fellows:
Vandana Singh
Hannah Onoguwe
Libia Brenda