we have seen amazing things — creatures of all types, glaciers, natural wonders, and the absolute vastness of planet earth. the whales, porpoises, sea lions, sea otters, and seals have dazzled us and the clear skies and calm seas have centered us. we have all discovered inspiring stories along the way.

we look forward to sharing the students’ reporting in the coming weeks, right here on planet forward.

(note: our 2022 storyfest winner from ithaca college, and a 2020 storyfest winner from carleton college, will travel later this summer — so we’ll have more reporting later, too!)

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editor’s note: lindblad expeditions, our planet forward storyfest competition partner, made this series possible by providing winners with an experiential learning opportunity aboard one of their ships. all editorial content is created independently. we thank lindblad expeditions for their continued support of our project. read all the stories from the expedition in our astonishing alaska series.

on nov. 12, planet forward wrapped up the series with a conversation between scholars and storytellers: “champions of climate justice: where do we go from here?” the panel focused on the climate justice movement and how to report stories on sustainability that captures a range of diverse voices and perspectives. 

dr. imani cheers, award-winning digital storyteller and associate professor at gw’s school of media and public affairs, led the discussion. joining her in conversation were dr. lemir teron, associate professor at the planet forward pillar school suny-esf; matt scott from project drawdown; and lexi hernandez, planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播 and senior at pillar school chapman university. the panel shared tips, perspectives, and best practices on how to keep climate justice as a central part of how we adapt to a changing environment. you can watch the complete discussion above, or over on our youtube channel.

you can see the videos from other fall events on our salon page.

well, when adobe first approached us about highlighting planet forward as a changemaker we were honored. but when they nominated planet forward for a session on the main stage at their renowned global creativity conference, adobe max, we were astonished and thrilled. 

in 2020, because of the pandemic, adobe max went online. and then they removed one of the biggest barriers to attending: the cost. this allowed the work we do with our network of educators and communicators to reach a broad audience — tens of thousands of live viewers!

“the future is creative storytelling,” ran on wednesday, oct. 27, at 1:30 pm et. this session features yours truly, as well as one of planet forward’s rock stars: former senior correspondent and 2020 storyfest winner deepti bansal gage, who is now gainfully employed as an environmental lawyer. you can now watch the event here!

adobe singled out planet forward for several reasons: our teaching, use of media, sustainability, and creativity. i’m incredibly honored by this — it shows how this project is distinctive, embodies fabulous experiential learning, and enhances the student experience in so many ways.  

get inspired. and see what we can learn from creativity

1. find a way to make people think beyond a scope they have considered before. 

filmmaker john sutter explored the timeline of climate change and rethinking our environmental memory. sutter has a project called baseline: the climate crisis beyond a human lifetime. sutter exposed that our environmental memory is only two to eight years long; thus, it is difficult for us to judge if the climate has drastically changed during our own lifetimes.   

2. write about the discussions of environmental issues with our leaders.

discussing the environment with our local leaders who are at the forefront of protecting our environment through lawmaking gives interesting insight into our cities and communities’ climate issues. during the climate summit kate gallego, the mayor of phoenix, arizona, spoke about what phoenix is doing to become a heat-ready city. hearing her relevant perspective on the heat issues held a lot of weight because she is working first-hand against the ramifications of climate change.    

3. tell the story of how environmental issues affect our children.  

readers care about the youth. this became clear by the emphasis on the phoenix heat index issue on school playgrounds. the community cares about children, they are more vulnerable, and did not cause climate change but live with the consequences. no one wants to hear about children getting burned on their own playground equipment. 

4. interview someone who, from a scientific and personal perspective, has lived through environmental changes. 

at the summit, broadcaster al roker talked about how he has personally witnessed climate change in his years of reporting on the weather. further, john sutter utilizes the personal perspective of children worldwide that are being heavily affected by climate change to tell their story. 

5. write the story of young scientists or activists to add a youthful perspective and activism. 

planet forward student contributors adora shortridge and william walker spoke at the summit about studying heat issues, specifically in phoenix, arizona. their young perspective and eagerness about climate change sparked interest in the group to care about the problems they were discussing.

music by juliush from pixabay

i’m also looking forward to new programming and opportunities for you here at planet forward! 

i’m delighted to announce planet forward’s seventh annual storyfest competition! we’ll recognize and reward the best, most compelling student-told stories that focus on ideas and innovations that address climate change, sustainability, environmental equity. stories qualify for storyfest if posted to planetforward.org between june 1, 2020, and march 26, 2021. 

prizes will be awarded in the following categories: 

• best science essay 

• most compelling character 

• most creativity in the art of storytelling

• best use of data

• best scalable innovation. 

the fan favorite will also be back, where the audience selects the winner! 

you can see contest details of each category on our storyfest page and please see the official rules for particulars of the contest. if you still have questions, the storyfest faqs should answer them. if not, feel free to reach out to storyfest@planetforward.org. for inspiration, see the great work of the storyfest 2020 winners. 

grand prize winners will receive $500 cash, which can be used to purchase production equipment or fund a future storytelling project. winners will also have 50 trees planted in their name in a us national forest by our planet forward partners, one tree planted. 

stories inform, inspire, and prompt action. they elevate ideas and introduce us to people who make a difference. 

we look forward to seeing your story …  to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .
 

this year’s competition wasn’t announced from the stage at the planet forward summit as usual, in the name of social distancing. but we still wanted to share with you the amazing stories entered by students from every region of the united states in our competition this year — and, of course, announce our grand prize winners.

you can watch our videos below to see the variety of stories, and students from universities across the country, and which outline their outstanding work. and, learn who our judges have selected as the best piece of student-created content for 2020.

without further delay, we are thrilled to announce our planet forward storyfest 2020 award winners in the videos below.

best-written article

and the winner is: greta hardy-mittell, carleton college. “a society for the birds”

best multimedia / podcast

and the winner is: avery van etten, northwestern university. “sea-level rise threatens the florida keys” (3-part series)

best photo essay

and the winner is: cate twining-ward, george washington university. “clinging onto chimps: why you should think of chimpanzees during the climate crisis”

best short or shareable video

and the winner is: jake meyers, university of arizona. “can urban farming feed the future?”

best video

and the winner is: sarah sem, george washington university. “what’s the beef with meatless burgers?”

fan favorite award

and the winner is: deepti bansal-gage, george washington university. “wait! before you squish that bug….”

thank you!

storyfest could not happen without the tremendous support from our sponsors, including: lindblad expeditions, discovery, comcast, the walton family foundation, national geographic, the food and agriculture organization of the un, the arizona state university global futures laboratory, 3 degrees, middlebury college and, of course, the george washington university.

also, please make sure to mark your calendars for our rescheduled 2020 planet forward summit, which will be held oct. 8-10 at the george washington university. we look forward to seeing you there.

when i saw the date, i couldn’t believe it. at the time i don’t think i imagined standing up on the very same stage 10 years later, with hundreds of amazing students, storytellers, supporters, in the audience — and thousands more online.

i also couldn’t believe how much we, as a project, have changed. planet forward has evolved over the past decade — for the better.

our network has grown — not just of expert storytellers, and the leaders at ngos and companies doing their part for the planet — but of students from diverse regions, schools and backgrounds. and we’ve seen these students grow, blossom into professionals, and take what they’ve learned from us to their jobs.

if not for you, our planet forward family, we would not be here, together, 10 years later, telling the important stories of innovations and the innovators behind them working to help save our planet.

it’s these stories that we highlight at our annual summit. and we reward the students who tell the best stories of the year with an extraordinary opportunity through the planet forward storyfest competition.

this year, that reward is an expedition to the legendary and unique ecosystems of the galápagos islands with planet forward and lindblad expeditions, where they will report on the unparalleled stories found there.

we are so proud of the students who were selected as winners this year. they represent five different schools, and span from west to east coasts. without further ado, the winners are:

• article:  peter jurich, university of wisconsin-madison. ‘gross’ and unpopular, but dumpster diving can help the planet
• multimedia / photo essay: vicki deng, reed college. the unseen heroes to our plastic waste
• podcast: guy ginsberg, the george washington university. resilience ep. 1 – how electric vehicles are making costa rica more resilient
• shareable / short video: terrius harris, university of mississippi. conservation meditation
• video: ellen wang, the george washington university. how we can get a handle on food waste
• fan favorite: haley knighten & christina trexler, university of arkansas. environmental steminism

were you inspired at our event this year? are you ready to join us? we need stories like these now, more than ever.

students: if you want to be a correspondent email editor@planetforward.org with your resume.

schools: interested in joining the planet forward 2022年世界杯亚洲预选赛结果 ? reach out to hannah@planetforward.org and we’ll get the conversation started on how we can work with you!

huge thanks to our partners and funders: lindblad expeditions, bayer, land o’lakes, inc., national geographic, discovery, comcast, un-fao, world food program usa, terracycle, gw office of sustainability, sweetgreen, patagonia, kleen kanteen, mrs. green’s world, island press, the george washington university school of media & public affairs, and the planet forward advisory council.

to everyone who joined us: thanks! we do this for you. check out the stories and adventures online and in our social media: facebook, instagram, and twitter.

the problem is, science has always been framed as a story of the big dogs. there’s a cultural misunderstanding that science belongs to the nobel type with a stiff white coat in a sterile lab. the cure for cancer is important stuff, but while they’re working on that, let’s pan the camera to joe who lives around the corner and just figured out how to power his house with a stream in the backyard. or susan from the town over, who rebounded a keystone frog population from close to extinction. not everyone will think these stories or people are interesting, but the ones that do will be inspired to create their own similar stories. enough of these types of stories have the potential to create an intertwining web of like-minded people with the same goal. is that better than a headline that grabs the attention of millions and then drifts into the cloud? maybe, maybe not. it’s comparing apples to oranges. but the story of an average person doing something phenomenal is much more relatable.

alaska was a place where local stories circulated almost as well as the ocean currents. yet, many alaskans live in complete isolation. the stories they share are all different but relatable because of their intense connection to the land. we can learn from this type of storytelling and reproduce it elsewhere by drawing this innate connection to “home” from people — even city dwellers. making science relatable through characters, scenes, and plot lines that are familiar and lovable can information accessible to even the most uninterested of crowds.