24 Feb The Role of Narrative in Bending the Curve on Climate Change
Jon Christensen (Editor, Boom: A Journal of California)
Wednesday, February 24, 2016 /2:00PM
Flying A Studios Room, University Center
More than two decades of experience and research on climate change communications has shown us plenty of ways to fail. What have we learned about how to succeed? What role can narrative play in bending the curve on climate change in the 21st century? Jon Christensen, senior editor of the UC-wide report “Bending the Curve: Ten Scalable Solutions for Carbon Neutrality and Climate Stability,” will discuss the genius of Governor Jerry Brown’s mixture of apocalyptic and pragmatic narratives, the inspiration of Pope Francis’s “Laudato Si’” encyclical, why communication is among the report’s top ten scalable solutions, how much more engaged research is needed to really figure out what works, and opportunities afforded by the UC pledge to become carbon neutral by 2025.
Jon Christensen teaches at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the Department of History, and the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a journalist-in-residence at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Editor of the Institute’s online magazine “Earth Today /Earth 2050,” and a senior fellow in UCLA’s cityLAB. He is a regular columnist at LA Observed and editor of Boom: A Journal of California, a quarterly magazine published by the University of California Press that brings scholars, researchers, journalists, writers, artists, photographers, policymakers, advocates, and the public into common conversations about California in the world. He is a partner and strategic adviser at Stamen Design, an interactive design studio specializing in mapping, data visualization, and strategic communications.
Sponsored by the Critical Issues in America series on Climate Futures, the Environmental Humanities Initiative, College of Letters and Science, and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.