Opinion: Let's talk about it: The power of Asheville, WNC stories in a climate crisis

My two children have plenty of stories about growing up on a college campus in Western North Carolina in a 900-square-foot rental with views of cattle, sheep and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

There was the time they got chased by a bull after sledding in this valley. Or the year the Swannanoa River flooded and students swam into the fields to save the pigs from drowning. These stories are how my daughters, now 24 and 17, connect to this land here at Warren Wilson College where I’ve taught environmental education for more than two decades.

It turns out that storytelling may be key to building a viable future for ourselves in a climate crisis. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says the most important thing we can do about the climate crisis is to talk about it. Yet 67% of people in the United States say they rarely or never discuss global warming with friends and family, although the majority are concerned about it.

I wanted to do my small part to change that narrative: I spent a year researching 50 women — one from each state in the U.S. — who are leading on climate justice. What I discovered was that these stories reflected collaborative leadership, connecting me to a climate movement larger than myself.

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For starters, it’s important to establish the scientific basis for the impact of storytelling on our brains. In functional MRI scans, areas of the brain light up when we listen to stories, which help us to see a situation from different perspectives. This seems important since climate change has become so politicized in this country. The women I interviewed are working in partnership with others in community: They were farmers, poets, students, scientists, Indigenous organizers, filmmakers, attorneys and more.

In North Carolina, filmmaker Dayna Reggero started the Climate Listening Project as a way to hear from people directly impacted by the changing climate. In her film, “Planet Prescription,” she documented the intersectionality of the climate crisis, air pollution, and our health care system. The American Lung Association estimates 150 million people, nearly half the U.S. population, breathe polluted air that contributes to chronic heart and lung disease. Government subsidies of the fossil fuel industry exacerbate our health challenges. During a virtual screening of the film, Reggero shared that her own father had died of COVID-19. The doctors, nurses and health care professionals whom she’d interviewed nodded in deep compassion.

Another storyteller, Anna Jane Joyner, started Good Energy to influence the film and TV industry to include relevant and accurate storylines about climate. She used to work for the Creation Care Alliance in Western North Carolina, and she’s now based on the Alabama Gulf Coast, ground zero for increasingly severe hurricanes.

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“It feels strange that we’ve gone through the worst fire season and hurricane season, but none of that complex reality is reflected in our film and TV shows,” she told me. “We need intimate, human stories about the climate because that’s what we’re experiencing—that’s the scale.”

She helped commission a study that showed only 2.8% of scripted TV shows or films from 2016-2020 mentioned climate change or related keywords like sea level rise. Good Energy aims to increase that number to 50 percent by 2025, especially with the publication of the resource Good Energy: A Playbook for Screenwriting in the Age of Climate Change.

Documenting these stories — from Indigenous leaders in Alaska like Bernadette Demientieff to Black farmers in Kentucky like Tiffany Bellfield-El-Amin — allowed me to see the power of stories in my life. In my classes, I often share stories of former students such as Lakyla Hodges, the equity and education manager for Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. She’s working to grow youth education through diverse afterschool and camp programs.

“You are a part of something larger than yourselves,” I tell my classes. But researching these 50 women made me see my words in action. I know 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But these stories reminded me how individual actions in collective generate momentum.

My students are part of that story, as they care for the cattle and sheep in the pastures and harvest food in the garden. We can’t imagine a vibrant future if we don’t first talk about it. The urgent change we need can start with a climate conversation — let’s begin right now.

Learn more:

Mallory McDuff will present "Love Your Mother" at two upcoming events:

• April 11: 6:30 p.m. at Pleb Urban Winery in a talk by McDuff sponsored by United Way of Asheville Buncombe County.

• April 12: 6 p.m. at Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe in a conversation with songwriter Liz Teague and Mallory McDuff.

Mallory McDuff teaches at Warren Wilson College and is the author of Love Your Mother: 50 states, 50 stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Let's talk about it: The power of stories in a climate crisis