More than 20 speakers will present at the Climate Storytellers' Summit, presented by “My Climate Story,” a public research project that encourages participants to consider global climate change on a personal scale. The diverse lineup of speakers includes a journalist, poet, data analyst, healthcare executive, dancer, author, anthropologist, photographer, professor, oral historian, indigenous rights advocate, high school and college students, retired park rangers and documentary filmmakers, among others. Each will share a five-minute presentation about ways that climate stories can disrupt business as usual, grapple with history and inspire hope. The event is conceived by University of Pennsylvania Professor Bethany Wiggin and moderated by UPenn scientist Michael Mann. 

To attend the live webinar, please register in advance via this Zoom link. 

High Meadows Environmental Institute will host a live watch party in 10 Guyot Hall, followed at 6pm by a reception featuring authors’ readings and the launch of the Princeton Climate Stories magazine.

A decade ago, the term “climate storytelling” was new. Today, it’s proliferating, used by practitioners and theorists to describe stories that connect global climate change with local people and places. Climate stories can disrupt stories of business as usual. They can grapple with history and inspire hope. They can imagine flourishing futures, even as they also deal in dystopian presents. They can present agentic pathways, sharing examples of individuals and communities working for and realizing the climate they want. Good climate storytellers work with climate science, and they also work across sectors: in the media and the arts and humanities, in Hollywood and elementary school classrooms, in the climate movement and in climate science. As climate storytelling gains steam — fueled by the urgent need to advance climate solutions that cut carbon and methane pollution and protect communities from extreme weather— we’ll gather climate storytellers across sectors to learn from one another and spark generative, collaborative conversations. 

View the full list of speakers here.