Climate Storytelling Booth
Friday, April 26, 1-4 PM
College Green, UPenn

Share Your Climate Story at GreenFest!

Our pop-up installation for Earth Week aims to collect and showcase diverse stories from the Penn and Philly community. Stop by for a chat and to share your own handwritten climate story. Your story will be posted onto a physical version of our storybank at the booth, alongside narratives from fellow participants.

Following the festival, these stories will be compiled into a zine and added to our digital storybank, contributing to a growing repository of valuable data. Your unique perspective will help us paint a more comprehensive picture of our collective experiences with climate change.

Tools for Multispecies Flourishing — Workshop Dates Announced!
Saturday, May 11, 18 and June 15, 2024

We're excited to announce the workshop dates for Ecotopian Tools for Multispecies Flourishing. We hope you'll save all three dates!

PPEH and the Morris Arboretum & Gardens are excited to present this year’s artist-led workshops. This ongoing initiative to craft and share tools across the Delaware Valley takes a utopian approach to ecological crisis as a way to confront feelings of helplessness and apathy that often arise in the face of global warming.

May 11 @ The Morris Arboretum & Gardens

10 AM - e+i Studio “Multispecies Totem”
Noon - Bobby Haskell “Deadwood Sculptures”

May 18 @ UPenn Main Campus TBA

10 AM - Austen Camille “An Exercise in Imagination: It is very possible that over half of the world’s species live under the surface of the soil”

June 15 @ The Morris Arboretum & Gardens

10 AM
Blue Lab “Popup Story Patch”
Richard Hamilton “Auscultation Points”

Alliances Amidst Uncertainty
Friday, April 26 at 12:30 - 6 PM
PCPSE Auditorium, 133 S 36th St, UPen

How does uncertainty impact our ability to devise collective solutions to the climate crisis?

The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy and PPEH present a panel discussion about how to build alliances to advance solutions to the climate crisis in the face of the uncertainty. The panel will be followed by a screening of of the documentary, Youth v. Gov and a discussion with Philly youth activists. [Learn more and register]

Beyond Despair: A Q+A with Micahel Mann
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 2-3 PM
Room 500, Annenberg School of Communication

Join the Environmental Innovations Initiative in partnership with the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media as well as the Annenberg School for Communication for the first event in our new Climate 101 series.

Climate scientist Michael Mann will address climate doomerism and despair, and explain why he remains optimistic. Open to all! [Learn more and register]

Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action
Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 2 PM
PCPSE Room 250 (the Forum) 133 S. 36th Street

The Andrea Mitchell Center hosts Dana R. Fisher in conversation with Dr. Parrish Bergquist (UPenn). Fisher argues that there is a realistic path forward for climate action—but only through mass mobilization that responds to the growing severity and frequency of disastrous events.

Light refreshments will be served.[Learn more]

In the News: WHYY Spotlights My Climate Story + the Philadelphia students and educators advocating for climate literacy

Check out WHYY's Earth Day feature on MCS! My Climate Story: Philly students take science from abstract to personal sheds light on the passionate voices of Philadelphia's students and educators advocating for climate literacy with MCS. 

The piece features stories from MCS high school student Climate Heroes, Climate Champion teachers, and current UPenn students. [Read the full story and hear their perspectives]

Driving Advocacy: Campus Correspondent' Op-Ed Sprint

Spring at MCS has been abuzz with activity as our Campus Correspondents continue sharing personal perspectives on climate change from their campus communities. 

Last Friday marked another step forward on their path of advocacy for administrative and policy action in favor of an increase in resources dedicated to climate literacy in higher education. 

Under the guidance of project lead Maria Villarreal Simon, MCS public research intern Faith Bochert, and PPEH director Bethany Wiggin, the cohort engaged in an intensive op-ed writing sprint!

They honed their arguments for action delving into questions such as— What are the most common climate stories you’ve heard? Who in your campus and surrounding community do you really hope will listen to these stories? And what makes you uniquely qualified to write this op-ed?

PPEH is so excited to keep seeing these stories and perspectives shared with a wider audience as the Correspondents work towards their shared goals of administrative and policy action individually and as a group!

Christina Gerhardt (Clark University) and Cajetan Iheka (Yale University) have been invited to guest edit a special topic issue of the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA) on the Environmental Humanities in Practice. Submissions are due March 31, 2025

[Details and submission guidelines]

The Lansdowne Arts Committee is accepting submissions for “Art for a Sustainable Future” on view at the 20*20 House in Lansdowne, PA from June 1st-30th, 2024.  Submissions are due by 11:59 PM on May 5th.

This exhibition aims to highlight work created with the environment in mind: they seek work that employs sustainable practices or eco-friendly materials and directly addresses topics such as climate change, waste, and pollution. [Learn more + Apply]