The challenge of climate change is clearly evident in the minds of children. In a classroom, 10-year-old students respond to a question about the concept of climate change: "The sea is rising and will drown everything" and "Fires are burning all the forests." These responses reflect fear and concern about an uncertain future.
Firsthand Experience of the Climate Crisis
Having spent nearly 30 years in climate communications, I have witnessed an increase in children's awareness of the climate crisis. They can visualize images of burned forests, submerged cities, and endangered species. However, when I ask them what we can do, the responses are limited to things like "solar panels" and "recycling."
Read more: Most Americans believe that artificial intelligence harms the environment
This reality highlights a lack of imagination in providing fundamental solutions to the climate crisis. Since the 1980s, when the greenhouse effect and global warming became public knowledge, most of the information presented to people has focused on the effects and catastrophic consequences of climate change, with less emphasis on solutions.
The Need for Effective Storytelling
The climate movement, to which I also belong, has fueled the crisis in its communications. Most messages shared by leading forces are a constant repetition of these facts: climate change is real, humans are to blame, and its consequences are catastrophic. This type of narrative is widely retold among teenagers.
We need a different story. Stories help us understand emotions and envision a new world. Despite having enough information about innovative technologies like heat pumps and electric vehicles, what we lack is an emotional framework for change. We need to know how to desire and believe in a different and better future.
Storytelling can change everything. Our ability to enter stories and experience the world of characters as our own is known as "narrative transportation." This experience can have a profound impact on our attitudes and behaviors.
Currently, politicians and activists are trying to harness this power to build public narratives around renewable energy. However, these narratives often reduce to messaging and do not reach the depth of myth-making.
We need a narrative shift in climate stories that goes beyond threats and ventures into the adventure of solving this crisis. Stories from challenging decades where billions find new ways to provide energy, produce food, and protect each other from climate change.
Cultural creators have already recognized this, and I have been invited to help television and film writers, social media creators, and brands incorporate climate solutions into their stories. These stories should be engaging and impactful, not just scientific lectures.
I firmly believe that climate solutions are the most important story of this century. When I return to that same classroom and ask the two questions again, I hope that the answers to the second question will be much more diverse and creative.
Read more: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released weather forecasts for the remainder of 2026 · Discovery of five baby orangutans in a forest in India indicates animal trafficking
