Gathering around stories: Interdisciplinary experiments in support of energy system transitions

This paper explores the creative uses of stories and storytelling to engage groups and individuals with consideration of changes in energy systems across time and place. It summarises three story-based experiments that responded to the theme of ‘energy utopias’. These are drawn from the three core strands of a much wider body of work undertaken within the Stories of Change project. This took stories as a central motif and organising device to refresh public and political conversations about energy and decarbonisation. Our hypothesis was that stories could offer a popular and engaging route into thinking about the past and present of humanity’s lives with energy and a lively way of imagining possible futures. We also wanted to test the degree to which stories could offer a shared intellectual space that might support both interdisciplinary and co-productive working for a core team that includes social science, humanities, media, computing and design researchers as well as creative and community partners. The paper considers some of the practical, methodological and theoretical considerations and reflects on the strengths and limitations of stories as both motif and technique in supporting action on climate change

Climate change impacts from the global scale to the regional scale : Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a beautiful nation. Sadly, it is facing multiple impacts of global warming. The most prominent issues are increased risks of drought, hurricanes, and cyclones; and salt intrusion due to sea level rise and storm surges. Adaptation is difficult and expensive. The Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius has already warned that an increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere could lead to worldwide temperature increases. Because of various development activities leading to greenhouse gas emissions, the world climate is changing rapidly. Climate change is found in both developing and developed countries, but many developing countries are more affected by climate change and can do less about it. Many poor tropical countries do not have the means to improve their resilience against the effects of climate change. Many island states in the Pacific present examples of this dilemma. Bangladesh is an example of a large country with a large and dense population and is recognized worldwide as being extremely vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and climate change. It is a large delta area vulnerable to sea level rise. Global climate change has already vastly impacted the climate of Bangladesh, as is described in this book. The climate of Bangladesh is heating up and is also changing rapidly because of developments in the rural and urban landscapes. It is unclear if and when this could lead to massive climate change–related migration because of failed crops and failed governance. The designs of embankments, roads, and drainage schemes have already been altered by the government and various agencies. But are these alterations enough in the light of the developments that have occurred rapidly within the last few years? Should not these adaptations be thoroughly evaluated in the light of these new developments?</p