1. understand that climate change happens at a scale that is beyond human perception.

in a similar fashion to the covid-19 pandemic, climate change is an intangible enemy that we as humans can not perceive as a whole. we cannot touch or see it, nor can we solve it with one end-all-be-all quick fix. we can experience some of the hints of climate change, such as extreme weather events, but we will never know the full impact of how our actions impact the climate on a spatial and temporal scale beyond human limits. in his keynote, john sutter described his documentary project baseline that may bring a creative solution to this problem. by following five children over a span of 30 years, we will be able to see changes in climate before our eyes in the form of film.

2. know the needs and values of your audience.

to some people the climate crisis feels like a wave of impending doom and to others, it feels like white noise in the background of their lives. both of these feelings are valid. to tell the climate story, it is important to understand the specific communities and forums that you are trying to reach. everyone has different values and experiences, and it is important to keep those in mind as you are crafting your story.

3. bring people into the conversation instead of casting them out.

telling the climate story in a way that is positive and hopeful will promote change far more than negativity ever will. in his keynote, al roker talked about the story of climate change as one of hope and that people are capable of changing their minds about climate change when they are equipped with the correct tools. it is important to stress that it is not too late to make a difference!

4. interdisciplinary collaborations can lead to innovation and impact.

climate change is not just for climate scientists! the most effective storytelling happens when different people with different backgrounds work together. working with a variety of professionals such as journalists, advocates, artists, and more can bridge connections and create effective stories.

5. the environment needs you.

real changes happen when we take our unique skills and work together. it is important to understand that everyone has something meaningful to add when it comes to protecting our environment. we need to ensure that we listen and encourage diverse ideas from all communities. it takes all of us to make a difference!

speakers included new epa  administrator michael s. regan, nbc’s legendary broadcaster al roker, national geographic explorer and filmmaker john d. sutter, the mayor of phoenix — the hottest city in america — kate gallego, and gw’s own president thomas j. leblanc. student correspondents highlighted their work and we proudly announced the winners of the planet forward storyfest 2021 competition.

these interviews to come, shared here later this week.

in the meantime, read a summit summary in this story from gw today.

the audience built anticipation as we waited for one of the three to open the envelope with the winner inside. find a list of all of our storyfest grand prize winners here!

the conference closed with all of our grand prize winners on stage, receiving a warm welcome from the lieutenant governor of the state of alaska, the beginning of their excitement for their expedition to alaska with lindblad expeditions in june.

see the finalists and all the storyfest 2018 entries here.

ted roosevelt iv, susan eisenhower, nick akins, president and ceo of american electric power, and denise fairchild, president and ceo of emerald cities, took their seats on stage. they discussed the politics of climate change and asked: where does the responsibility lie?

in the current political age, rules and regulations on the energy sector are few and far between, so what incentive is there for energy companies to move towards a greener future?

nick akins answered by pointing out that their company shareholders care whether or not they are moving towards renewable energy, and that as a company they have a responsibility to the community.

ted roosevelt told us about barclays latest initiative to lend out green mortgages. having discovered that people who invest in green houses have better credit, barclays will be offering mortgages at a lower interest rates to owners of “green” houses, meaning newer houses that have been built from scratch to be energy efficient.

the conversation continued, interweaving ideas of nuclear energy, for which ted roosevelt and susan eisenhower were proponents, business, politics, and the future of renewable energy.

do we have the energy to lead? these panelists seemed to think we do. ​

up next: storyfest grand prize announcement >

he applied for national geographic’s early career grant, and went to patagonia to photograph the biodiversity of these ecosystems. upon arriving back to d.c., he presented his work to national geographic, and proposed another story about parasites. he realized an immense challenge in this story, for he would have to get people to get over “their visceral aversion to parasites” and pay attention long enough to learn the fascinating science behind these interactions.

ultimately, his result was something uncannily beautiful. his inspirations were film noir, graphic novels, and japanese animation. in other words, hard lighting, dramatic backgrounds, and selective attention to detail. from japanese animation he learned that “not all details are equal”: for a human character, anime emphasizes the eyes in order to make characters more expressive, more emotionally appealing. varma had to figure out exactly what details were important in telling the beautiful, fascinating story about parasites he had in mind. in his photo of a crab infected with a parasitic barnacle, the important details were the millions of specks coming out of the crab: parasitic barnacle larvae. he didn’t care about the texture of the crab, or its color, but rather draws the viewers attention to the millions of parasitic offspring coming out of it.

similarly, when he was photographing bees for a different story, he realized that he had to find a new, fresh perspective that was interesting and engaging. he needed to find a different story about bees that had not been done before. after much experimentation, he zeroed in on the figures of bees emerging from their cells. he did a time lapse of bees developing, the first 21 days of a bees life condensed into 60 seconds, and the results were astonishing. varma has an ability to turn such essential natural processes that are normally hidden, hard to see, and hard to grasp into recognizable and beautiful processes.

the last piece that he showed us shocked me with a sense of wonder. he translated a hummingbird. the photo shoot was set up so that the hummingbird would fly through an artificial wind chamber, with a fog machine blowing visible fog so that you could see the air stream around the hummingbird. then the video footage was slowed down 100x so that the rapid pace of hummingbird life was suddenly translated into human time. the result was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. i will remember the blinking of a hummingbird’s eye for the rest of my life.

up next: town hall: do we have the energy to lead? >

“i have always believed that tourism and conservation go hand-in-hand,” he said in the video. “i wanted to connect people with wild places — and i wanted them to understand the importance of these places.”

frank sesno then welcomed lindblad to the stage and they began with lindblad sharing some insight into what storyfest winners will be experiencing on the expedition to alaska with lindblad expeditions.

we’re constantly looking for ways through storytelling to broaden the exposure of these experiences — the beauty, wonder, and relevance, lindblad said.

sesno also asked whether he had witnessed any evidence of climate change himself.

lindblad shared that he’d just returned from the norwegian arctic — after not visiting since about 1976. on his original trip he said they wouldn’t have dreamed of going prior to late july because the sea ice would have been so thick. this march he traveled to see what it was like in the spring — so this was four months earlier in the year than his previous journey, 42 years ago. what did they find?

“just very thin sea ice, formed very recently. we were totally able to move freely,” he said. “and it’s been that way for years — though this was a particularly extreme year. and this is happening all over the arctic.”

up next: anand varma: the beauty and the bizarre >

he captures the potential of this form of media in order to show people what the inside of a melting glacier in iceland or the deteriorating reef ecosystems of the south pacific look like.

giving a viewer a 360 degree experience complete with sound effects and movement provides a powerful communication platform with which to evoke emotions from the viewer and thus make that viewer care about these problems.

the future of ar/vr is incredibly bright and is developing rapidly with the power to make huge impact in environmental storytelling.

up next: the explorer’s story: sven lindblad >

these techniques are so important because they translate science and data into easily consumable stories.

while the story, “greenland is melting away,” includes a written article, the important information that appeals to the viewer’s emotions is in the infographic that combines the footage of a drone and satellite. the viewer can see the researchers’ tents set up near the river, and then zoom out and see that it is not just this one river, but many rivers melting greenland from the inside out.

this is layered with data, relaying all of the surprising and important facts about how much water each river carries, and the impact these rivers have on the land mass of greenland and salinity of the surrounding ocean.

up next: reality revolution: how ar/vr can create empathy, urgency, and a new sense of place >

the following panel consisted of policinski, beth stewart, creative directory for discovery’s in house ad agency, felecia nave, former provost of prairie view a&m, and roric paulman, owner of paulman farms in nebraska. chris mooney of the washington post listened to their stories, and then presented his findings to the audience: what would he choose from these characters’ work to write a story about?

stewart and discovery are partnering with the world wildlife fund in order to double the amount of wild tigers by the year 2022. mooney identified three different stories, each for a cause of the declining tiger populations. the story about poaching considers the question, why haven’t we stopped this problem and what are the challenges facing the end of this problem? the second story hones in on conflict with humans. he suggested pursuing a character who realizes that conflict is not the only way to live with tigers and then chasing the story based around this character. the third story would focus in on habitat loss.

mooney was interested in one of policinski’s problems in particular: how is dialogue failing to occur between farmers and the rest of the population and what are some examples? this story would focus on this problem and how to find a solution.

regarding nave, mooney brought to light the problems facing communication of science. the public will not always understand the point of scientific research if there is no clear result, if they do not understand how it is benefiting them. he says that it is crucial to link the science education and investment to innovation, company, product, and economic development. without a solid outcome it is hard to relate science to a public audience.

paulman’s story also played the role of bridge building. mooney wanted to know what made paulman different that he was willing to engage in conversations about sustainable agriculture and the environment, whereas other farmers were not receptive to such conversation. what needs to be communicated to other farmers in order to bring this kind of conversation to the table, how do we get other farmers to care about this issue?

up next: climate fwd: how the new york times is transforming environmental reporting >

storyfest finalist and planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播  olivia urbanski, of loyola university chicago, talked about the video she made while studying abroad at ol pejeta conservatory featuring sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, who died on march 20, 2018.

harrison watson, of jackson state university in mississippi, and a storyfest 2017 finalist and amazon traveler, talked about the use of language in storytelling — how words can take us to a deeper place than images and sounds, and his interest in the intersection of religion and environment.

anna sumi a recent george washington university grad, spoke of her adventures to siberia in summer 2017, and the challenge of translating science. one major issue for these arctic urban areas is the melting permafrost, for their infrastructure is built according to the permafrost layer, and its degradation will disrupt the entire foundation of these cities.

alaine johnson of yale-national university of singapore, a 2018 planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播 and storyfest finalist, talked about her studies, which have her looking at how patterns of urbanization are effecting the way we are linked with the environment. using yoga as an example, she said the instructor is telling you to feel the earth beneath your feet — but it’s kind of hard to do that when it’s 22 stories below you. 

zack smith of suny-esf, and also storyfest 2017 finalist, spoke of the magic of sound, and the power that vibrations have to transport the listener to a place.

up next: what’s your sustainability story? >