December 23, 2024 The author, left, and filmmaker Sumit Rezwan Shahriar, at COP29 My journey from New York City to Baku, Azerbaijan, host of this year’s UN climate change conference (COP29), took me over seven thousand miles of earth and sea. I arrived in Baku at night, where colorful, flame-shaped towers define the landscape of this city. Once a Soviet Republic and now an oil rich petrostate, Azerbaijan shares borders with Iran, Armenia and Russia. Over the next two weeks, more than 60,000 world leaders, experts and members of civil society exchanged ideas and information, while high-level negotiations with delegates from nearly 200 countries took place in secured rooms. I serve on the steering committee for UNFCCC Entertainment & Culture for Climate Action Film & TV ( ECCA ). As an educator, filmmaker and climate leader in the entertainment industry, I was keen to follow conversations around finance, human migration and the role that culture can play as a climate solution. I highlight these issues in my Climate School course, Climatic Change: Storytelling Arts, Zeitgeist and Our Future. Representing 11 countries and 10 U.S. states, we are an interdisciplinary classroom of passionate students from the Climate School, School of the Arts, architecture and international policy. We study complex geopolitical climate themes and explore unique storytelling approaches to climate solutions. We create stories that are urgently needed in the global entertainment and culture industries, including film, television, creative writing, theater and digital media. The author’s students in her class, “Climatic Change: Storytelling Arts, Zeitgeist and Our Future” When we think about climate, we cannot underestimate the power that stories have in evolving norms of behavior, values and belief systems. Narratives grow from story patterns, compelling characters and the ideas that emerge when audiences engage and share ideas. Research has shown […]
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