Climate Health Writing

A Do No Harm Side Event.

Climate Change is the biggest threat to health this century.

Underpinning that statement alone, is volumes of complex science that have accumulated to enable such a forecast. Underpinning that too though, is an infinite diversity of current and future human stories. Stories of pregnant mothers delivering prematurely due to extreme heat. Stories of pain and turmoil as families lose their once productive land to drought. 

The scale of such effects can be difficult to grapple with, and to merge with the day to day of our own lives. Storytelling and creative writing allows us to break through this abstraction and ground the daunting evidence in human experience.

Alongside the principles of the Do No Harm exhibition, we will actively explore how a creative writing practice can help us empathise with the human experiences of climate health harms. In this workshop, we aim to empower you as science and health communicators with the tools to imagine solutions and create more effective narratives to drive climate health action.

We want to bring together an interdisciplinary group, and no matter your familiarity with writing, climate, or health, all levels of expertise are welcome!

This will be a small and collaborative workshop with time to explore climate health evidence, the role of storytelling, specific writing tips and tricks, and most importantly, dedicated space for writing something of your own. 

Refreshments and small platters will be provided for sustenance whilst we work!

Facilitators

Stuart Henshall

Stuart Henshall is an aspiring communicator trying to navigate the overt and abstract ways that climate change shapes human health. As a medical student at the University of Melbourne and through the Wattle Fellowship, he is exploring his own writing to complement research into successful Climate Health communication.

Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun

Frankey is a writer raised between Naarm and Mauritius. He enjoys exploring how storytelling can deepen our entanglement with nature, focusing on non-human perspectives, from birds and trees to tables and rubbish bins. His essays, poetry, and short fiction have been published across various online journals, podcasts, and print publications.