Communicating Climate Hope 2024
Countering eco-anxiety and climate doomism in research and practice – August 15-16, 2024
In March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the final installment of the AR6 Synthesis Report, issuing a stark warning: “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all” (p. 53). The AR6 demonstrates indisputably that the pace and scale of the mitigating actions we are currently taking are insufficient to guarantee this future and warns that some impacts of global warming are likely already irreversible. In the face of the increased visibility of climate change and the corresponding amplification of warnings from scientists, it is perhaps unsurprising that a discussion is emerging around the notions of eco-anxiety and climate doomism.
Though the increasing urgency of the climate crisis may inspire some to action, for many the result is the opposite. Negative eco-emotions (e.g. eco-anxiety, eco-grief, climate doomism) lead to feelings of hopelessness and a lack of agency in the face of the crisis, and leave individuals unable or unwilling to take action. The rise in negative eco-emotions reflects a disconnect between understanding the climate crisis and acting to affect positive change. Communication plays a key role in resolving this disconnect – factual information about the crisis must be accompanied by practical information regarding positive coping mechanisms. Here, we frame this challenge as identifying effective strategies for communicating climate hope.
“Communicating Climate Hope 2024” is a two-day distributed/hybrid conference, co-hosted and co-located at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada and Tilburg University (TiU) in the Netherlands, to be held August 15-16, 2024. The Communicating Climate Hope conference will bring together a diversity of experts in climate communication, including those who identify primarily as academic researchers, artists, community organizers, and climate activists. We welcome and encourage a creative range of contributions to the conference program, to include not only academic presentations, but also participatory workshops, artistic performances, and guided discussions. Please see the Call for Papers page for more information about participation and submission.
Prior to the August event, students at both host institutions are invited to participate in a Climate Storytelling Fellowship, in collaboration with the Climate Stories Project. Climate Story Fellows will learn the art and power of climate storytelling while developing skills as interviewers and content creators. Please see the Climate Storytelling Fellowship page for more information and to apply.
Given the scope of the climate crisis, we all have roles to play in building a more sustainable, just, and equitable world, and to do so, we must be in constructive and trusting conversation with one another. We aim for the Communicating Climate Hope 2024 conference to be a venue for starting such conversations.
UBC Vancouver is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. The land it is situated on what has always been a place of learning for the Musqueam, who for millennia have passed on their culture, history, and traditions from one generation to the next on this site.
Call for Papers
To read the call for papers and submit your abstract, click here.
Pre-conference Institute at UBC – August 14, 2024
The day before the conference, UBC will host a day-long interactive institute on climate communication and creativity through music and art. Please see this page for more details.