The Center for Environment, Community, and Equity (CECE) co-hosted a panel of environmental storytellers alongside the Center for Environmental Filmmaking on October 14, 2025 bringing in three experts to talk about their experiences in the field and the insight they bring to the future of climate communication.

Joe Romm, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, began the discussion by sharing his own experience in 2005 trying to help his brother grapple with the destruction levied by Hurricane Katrina and what the future might hold. He realized through his research that a large gap exists between climate science and how it was being (or rather not being) communicated to the public. The situation was a lot more dire than he realized. Hurricane Katrina would not be the end, but rather the beginning. The severity of the situation opened his eyes to the necessity of effectively communicating science. Scientists are trained to be objective, to appeal to logic and fact above all, at the expense of storytelling. His experience and motivation exposed a theme early in the talk– the focus of successful storytelling is to make expertise accessible to the people that need the information.

When asked how to deal with the current moment, both Juliana Toloza Serna, award-winning documentarian, and, Maggie Stogner, award-winning documentarian and Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking, expressed the need to ground storytelling in the realities of the people’s story the filmmaker is trying to communicate.

Both speakers shared stories about finding common ground and how to go about creating pervasive content that lives in the hearts of the audience. Stogner relayed that effective storytelling is not just about making something captivating and informative, but “hand[ing] it off to communities” for them to unite around. Stogner does just that in her project “Upstream, Downriver” which does more than communicate an interesting and important story, but gets community members involved and disseminates pertinent information through its interactive website: https://www.upstreamdownriver.org/.

Romm’s experience dealing with the aftermath of disaster was echoed by Stogner. She first became involved in environmental storytelling through her volunteer experience as a child, cleaning pelicans after the 1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill.

When asked what to do when faced with the current moment of the environment and environmental action, Serna responded, “We have a lot more agency than we think we have”. When faced with environmental injustice and fossil fuel propaganda, the lived experience of those suffering the impacts of environmental degradation (including climate change) need to be communicated well. Fossil fuels have strong storytellers and effective communication. It is “insulting how good they are at” telling their side of the story and positioning themselves as a benefactor of communities that they hurt.

Serna and Stogner use environmental justice as their guiding star, repeatedly iterating that it is more important now than ever to get science communication right and that science alone can only go so far. Stogner summarized the importance of this ethos, mentioning that human moments are much more accessible than high-level science, no matter how revolutionary the results.

When asked about the future of environmental communication in the face of AI and the prevalence of short-form content, all three panelists expressed confidence and optimism. Audiences still crave authenticity and human connection and respond to well-crafted, high-quality filmmaking. That does not mean communication will not have to adapt. Romm and Stogner emphasized how important it is to know your chosen social media platform well and explained ways to address that issue.

While difficulties introduced by changes in medium does not mean audiences aren’t looking for the same connection to the heart and mind, it does mean the approaches will have to adapt. Romm pointed out that one source of failure for progressives trying to mobilize people around environmental issues has been their focus on processes rather than impacts and outcomes. The aim should be to communicate impacts and outcomes of policy which will help motivate action.

The Center for Environment, Community and Equity will be hosting another colloquium November 11, in the Hall of Science Room 113 to talk about Data Visualization with Climate Central Senior Visual Content Producer, Megan Martin.