Storytelling: A Catalyst for Climate Action and Solutions

In this Citizen Science lunch session Cecilia Mañosa Nyblon (University of Exeter (UK)) shared her experience of public engagement within the Climate Action theme, followed by a discussion on how this experience could be useful for Citizen Science. ABOUT THE SESSION Despite having known of the climate crisis for decades and possessing ever growing mountains of data demonstrating its severity, the scale of action necessary to properly address it is still not being taken. The climate crisis is also a crisis of language, communication, and translation. Cecilia Mañosa Nyblon from the University of Exeter (UK) has established and leads an international interdisciplinary team of experts at the intersection of science, health, education, and the arts who has pioneered a new way of communicating climate science that really engages people intellectually and emotionally in the lead up to and at major international negotiations to feel the drive to respond to the call to action. Cecilia shared the legacies of the University of Exeter’s One Chance Left for COP26 (UK) and We Still Have a Chance for COP27 (Egypt), which reached over 28 million people worldwide, and plans for COP28 (UAE), and how we can use the power of storytelling to generate new climate narratives and build strategic partnerships to raise awareness of the urgent need for collective climate action among children, young people, policy makers and the public. In doing so, stories become a vehicle to humanise our climate and ecological crises and act as a driver for positive change to forge a sustainable, healthier, and socially just world. The stories have been translated into different languages and brought to life through the arts including theatrical performances, large-scale murals, music, recordings, poetry trails, live storytelling events, artwork created by children and artists, and digital visualisations. As such art may be seen as “…a process of opening up imaginative spaces where audiences can move more freely and reconsider the role of humans as responsible beings with personal agency and stakes in a changing world’’ (Galafassi et al., 2018). Cecilia Mañosa Nyblon is Education and Skills Partnership Development Manager at the University of Exeter. With a background in anthropology, archaeology, and education, Cecilia has held roles at the intersection of science and humanities in Uruguay, USA, Panama, and UK. She advocates and champions interdisciplinary collaborations on local / global levels and established and leads the University of Exeter successful pioneering COP26, COP27 and COP28 projects at the interface of science, humanities, and the arts to help accelerate positive behaviour change to create a more sustainable, healthier, and socially just world. She is an active member of the Planetary Health Alliance European Hub and Healthcare Ocean