We’ve known about climate change for decades. And yet, the response to this planetary crisis has been
slow, in large part because the stories that we tell about climate change are disconnected from most
people’s everyday experience. Often presented as either a science issue, emphasizing data and expert
knowledge, or about vanishing symbols like polar bears and ice caps, climate change stories do not
reflect everyday people as agents of change.

To create a powerful movement for climate change, we need new kinds of climate stories, stories that
connect climate science and symbols with our experiences, identities and relationships. And we’ll need new ways of telling those stories, ways that call up the creativity, the connection, and the purpose we need to act together on climate change.

With an emphasis on collaborative storytelling, art as activism and climate justice, this seminar brings
students together to explore these new kinds of climate stories. What happens when we weave our own
stories into the climate conversation? How does sharing these stories transform our understanding of
climate change, and where we see ourselves in the issue? How do these new understandings empower us as learners, educators and change-makers in the climate movement?

Over the quarter, students will use writing, visual art, performance and reflection to tell their own climate stories. We’ll learn about creative responses to the climate crisis happening here in Seattle, as well as from people’s movements for climate justice from around the world. We’ll also think critically about the relationship between storytelling, power, and resistance – and how storytelling creates new possibilities in a climate-changed world.