Ruby Salisbury - Communications Intern with the Middlebury Sustainability Solutions Lab

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Poems

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Images sourced from Unsplash

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Many climate experts and activists have come to understand that poetry is a valuable tool to think about the environment. In the last 10 years, many environmental organizations such as the NRDC and the NERC have funded projects that look to bring climate science and poetry together.

Why Do We Need Poetry?

Because in order to save the planet, we need, more than anything, for people to care.

“Readers say that they know this information already, so why do they need it in a poem... That is precisely the point. They ‘know’ it. They are not ‘feeling it.’

That is what activists in the environmental movement are asking of us: help it be felt, help it be imagined.”

• Jorie Graham, poet

• Poetry allows us to explore our often debilitating EMOTIONS around climate change.
• Poetry allows us to think about our CONNECTION with the planet and each other.
• Poems can connect us with the PERSONAL stories and experiences people have with climate change.
• Poems remind us of the BEAUTY of the natural world and why it is such an important thing to protect.
• Poems encourage all of us to unite and take ACTION to protect the environment.

Sources: Blackie, Sharon. “Interview with Jorie Graham.” Jorie Graham, 2012, https://www.joriegraham.com/earthlines-interview. The Editors at Poetry Foundation. “Poetry and the Environment.” Poetry Foundation, 2019, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/146462/poetry-and-the-environment. Flint, Sally. “When Climate Science Met Poetry.” The Literary Platform, 2019, https://theliteraryplatform.com/stories/when-climate-science-met-poetry/. “The Guardian view on the rise of eco-poetry: writing cannot ignore global heating | Editorial.” The Guardian, 10 November 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/10/the-guardian-view-on-the-rise-of-eco-poetry-writing-cannot-ignore-global-heating. Southern, Angela, et al. “Poets Imagine a Different Climate Narrative.” Natural Resources Defense Council, 30 March 2023, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/poets-imagine-different-climate-narrative.