University of Iowa climate project tells stories of a changing world

When Nazira Coury was looking for a creative way to express the effects of climate change, she didn't have to look far.

She interviewed her grandfather, Jose Luis Castellanos, about the reasons he left his home in Michoacan, Mexico, and ended up in Marshalltown.

A former fisherman whose family had fished Lake Chapala for generations, he watched his livelihood and the lake slowly dry up and change over the years; the water levels shrank, fish died, and his family decided they had to leave.

As a fellow at the University of Iowa's Climate Narrative Project, Coury interviewed him and two other immigrants, both former farmers, living in Marshalltown. Each had a different story, but each had left Mexico because of the effects of climate change. On Wednesday, she and two other Climate Narrative Project fellows read those stories aloud.

'One issue I'm passionate about is immigration and bringing to light voices of people who are put in a box or not heard,” Coury said. 'I wanted to show their different experiences and bring their voices to others.”

Sharing such stories is one of the goals of the Climate Narrative Project, now in its third year at the UI. The project invites students from across disciplines to be fellows, spending a semester learning about climate change and about artistic expression. Fellows research an aspect of climate change and find a creative way to share what they've learned. On Thursday, they unveiled their projects in film, theater, poetry, dramatic readings and more.

Jeff Biggers, writer-in-residence at the UI's Office of Sustainability, leads the program. He said using the arts can help people understand the real world impacts of climate change and empathize its victims. He also wants his students' work to help goad people to take action.

'I feel like the decline of Western civilization is because we have a lot of bad power points,” he said. 'We're at something beyond climate denialism right now. We have climate cynicism and frankly disinterest.”

The Climate Narrative Project partners with Yale Climate Connections, which released a report this year that seven in ten Americans rarely or never discuss climate change with family and friends.

'Part of our task is to say, ‘Why?' How do we reach new people? How do we tell a story to get people to think about these issues?” Biggers said.

It's not just artists who will need to answer those questions, which is why fellows come from across disciplines. Coury is studying international relations, and other fellows this semester include students of environmental science, psychology, anthropology, marketing and business economics. They learn public speaking techniques and think about ways to engage people beyond simply sharing data.

'I feel like the best way to truly get social issues to an audience is telling those personal stories,” fellow Solomon Worlds said, a senior studying classical saxophone and psychology.

He is planning to attend law school and had intended to study international law, but after completing the fellowship is considering switching his focus to environmental law instead.

People of color and historically marginalized groups have been the most impacted by climate change, he said, and he sees environmental work as a way to advance human rights.

'If you can help the earth, you can help everyone,” he said. 'I feel like, if we can fix the canvas, we can than fix the rest of what's on that canvas.”

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