{"id":278,"date":"2021-09-28T18:42:50","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T01:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/?p=278"},"modified":"2021-10-05T15:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T22:14:33","slug":"tiny-ecology-project-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/tiny-ecology-project-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Ecology Project #1: Stories we tell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the Northern Hemisphere, the first day of fall is September 22. Of course, the concept of fall is a construct, but it is based on the observations humans have made about the natural world. It is a story we tell ourselves to help make sense of changing weather throughout the year. It is a \u201ctruth, [which] is largely a story everyone agrees on\u201d (Perez Herranz, 2014, 5:08). Enough of us have bought into the concept of seasons that they have become fact; it was a story told and retold until it became a truth. Even though weather changes all throughout the year, between and during any given season, we agree that summer turns to fall abruptly on a specific day (and the same occurs for each change of season).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a story has become a truth, it can be easy to find observations that bolster that truth. I sat outside under a large birch in my front yard last week, on September 21st, the last day of summer. The air was cool in the shade, and I moved to the sun to be more comfortable. Some of the leaves were changing color but only a handful had fallen to the grass below. A week later and firmly into the fall season, I sat under the birch again. It was sunny, and there was a light breeze. This time, the grass was covered in orange leaves, and more fell quietly as I sat. Summer had turned to fall and the leaves acted accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, as the years pass and climate change disrupts known weather patterns, those branches  may well hold on to their leaves a little longer, and we may need to adjust our story about the coming of fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tree is the subject of another climate story, too. During this summer\u2019s heat wave, temperature records were broken across British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. In Golden, where I live, temperatures were in the high thirties (celsius) for over a week. It was not weather that residents were used to or prepared for. To my great luck, the birch tree stood to the south of our house and acted as a giant shade. It provided effective natural cooling for our home during the heat wave (an event that will surely happen again in the future). This gave me a first-hand perspective on the idea that, as climate change intensifies, planting trees like this birch could provide much-needed shade in the face of rising temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the birch in my front yard can help me to tell climate stories in my day-to-day life. How do I find the voice to give life to these stories? Bayer and Hettinger (2019) asserted that storytelling comes naturally to humans. How do I tap into that innate skill to tell climate stories more often? After all, Hayhoe (2019) argued that one of the most critical things that we can do to combat climate is to simply talk about it. I find that climate is a difficult subject to broach, and I often wonder what tools I could use to help me navigate the topic in conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayer, S., & Hettinger, A. (2019). Storytelling: A natural tool to weave the threads of science and community together. Bulletin of the ecological society of America, 100<\/em>(2), 1-6. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/bes2.1542<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hayhoe, K. (January 11, 2019). The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it <\/em>[Video]. TED. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-BvcToPZCLI&t=14s<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perez Herranz, C. (October 24, 2014). Why everything is a story <\/em>[Video]. TEDxMadrid. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3InAj96h06k<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Northern Hemisphere, the first day of fall is September 22. Of course, the concept of fall is a construct, but it is based on the observations humans have made about the natural world. It is a story we tell ourselves to help make sense of changing weather throughout the year. It is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":959,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cals502"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/hsandergreen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}