Turn the Tide on Climate Anxiety by Megan Kennedy-Woodard

Author:Megan Kennedy-Woodard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2022-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Narrative: the power of stories

VOICES

I recognized that one of my strengths drew from my experience of public speaking in high school. I realized that I have the ability to dilute climate terminology and spread it across my community. For me, it was easy to talk to friends about the climate crisis, instead of reading off a textbook definition that is generally presented within academia. I would often rephrase information and include my cultural and lived experiences and that helped a lot of people in my circles understand and engage with the climate crisis. The idea to reconnect personal narratives and personal experiences with others – it doesn’t matter what race or class you are, people are interested in my work because I am able to bring that emotional side of me and that really activates other people to bring their emotional side. It allows them to say, ‘Even though I have a different lived experience, I remember when I was a kid, we did this…maybe that has something to do with climate change.’ That really resonates with a lot of people and that validation and connection over narratives allow them to build their own frameworks for action. The people I have met in my lifetime are doing such great work, there are so many environmentalists out there. The future is defined by collective thoughts rather than individual thoughts and so whenever I see myself thinking of a negative future of the climate crisis, I check in with my community. When we have these conversations, we share these thoughts and stories but we end up leaving with hope. If you push to have those conversations, we could have much.

Isaias Hernandez (@QueerBrownVegan) – environmental educator

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