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The Conversation
The Conversation
Sam Illingworth, Professor of Creative Pedagogies, Edinburgh Napier University

How writing about places people know makes the climate crisis less abstract

The Victorian tropical palm house at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland. Prettyawesome/Shutterstock

The discourse around climate change can lead to anxiety, detachment or resignation because it often stretches language in ways that make the world feel distant.

Global averages and abstract temperature thresholds make it harder for people to relate to climate change in their own specific location. And while the language of sustainable development appeals to rationality, it fails to engage people creatively and collectively.

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