Climate change, will storytelling save the planet?

Imagine a world 4.4 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. This is one of the predictions contained in the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which contemplates a scenario in which emissions continue to rise or no immediate action is taken on the climate. Unless you have fully analyzed and understood climate models, it is unlikely that you can really visualize the situation and grasp the gravity.

Now imagine Timothy, who lives with his grandchildren on the island of Walande, a speck of land off the east coast of Malaita (itself part of the Solomon Islands), which has been heavily affected by climate change. Since 2002, the 1,200 inhabitants of Walande have been forced to abandon their homes and leave the island. There was only one house left: Timothy’s. When one asks his former neighbors what are the reasons that led him to stay, the answer is an indifferent shrug: “He’s stubborn“, said one person, “He doesn’t listen to usconfirmed another. Every morning his four grandchildren pushed the canoe out to dry land, where they went to school, while Timothy spent the day adding rocks to the wall around his house, trying to stop the water for a little longer. time: “If I move to the mainland, I won’t be able to see anything through the trees. I wouldn’t even see water. I want to stay here where I can enjoy the view. Because I belong here“, explained Timothy. His story effectively tells theto loneliness and the loss that anthropogenic warming of 1.1 degrees is already causing.

Beyond data

The environmental crisis is certainly generated by excess consumption, by ₂₂carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) and corporate greed, but it’s also a matter of bad communication. If for too long the data have locked environmentalists in a sounding board, from 2023 the use of storytellingto a more engaging narrative, could finally generate a united global response to the climate crisis. We could stop describing the emergency with facts and statistics and start telling stories like Timothy’s instead.

Unlike numbers or facts, stories are capable of eliciting an emotional reaction, harnessing the power of motivation, imagination and personal values, which drive the most powerful and permanent forms of social change. In 2019, for example, we all saw images of Notre-Dame cathedral in flames. Three minutes after the fire started, video of the incident was broadcast around the world, prompting an immediate response from world leaders. That same year, the Amazon rainforest also caught fire, giving off a cloud of smoke that spread over two thousand miles, burning the equivalent of 1.5 football fields of rainforest every minute; it took three weeks for the mainstream media to report the news. Why did the Notre-Dame fire lead to such a rapid global response, while those in the Amazon did not? Although it was only a (beautiful) set of stones, lead and wood, we attach personal significance to Notre-Dame. The cathedral has a history that we know and that involves us. This is what prompted people to react, while the Amazon was in flames and elicited no response.

The power of stories

There storytelling allows us to understand the world. Research conducted in numerous fields suggests that story structures correspond to human neural maps. What do a nursing mother, a hug from a friend and a story have in common? They release everyone oxytocin, also known as the love hormone. It’s a powerful substance: In a study by neuroscientist Paul Zak, participants given synthetic oxytocin donated 57 percent more to charity than those given a placebo. Similarly, listening to information in the form of stories determines one increased likelihood of prosocial behavior.

The power of stories can be used for good. For example, in 2005 the International Rice Research Institute used a radio soap opera, Homeland Storyto convince millions of farmers in Vietnam to stop spraying your crops with harmful insecticides. Farmers who listened to the program were found to be 31 per cent less willing to spray than those who were simply told not to.

In 2017, a creepy viral video telling the story of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose forced the US city of Seattle, then British Prime Minister Theresa May, several airlines and multinationals like Starbucks to commit to eliminate plastic straws. That is why, in 2023, greater global connectivity will facilitate dissemination of stories of people and animals grappling with the climate crisis. Through various forms of art and media, these stories will finally convince us that the climate emergency is not an intangible crisis affecting future generations, but a threat against which we all, individually and collectively, must fight now.

This article originally appeared on Wired UK.