WEATHER STATIONS

anger and enthusiasm’ – bringing the reality of our threatened
planet and the ‘slow violence of climate change’ alive for a new
generation, in the process nurturing young citizens with the
knowledge, motivation and tools to fight for a more sustainable
future.
A global website was set up as a scrapbook for the writers
and students to share their experiences: the discoveries,
delights and frustrations they encountered over the course
of the project, as each writer visited each Weather Station
to experience each partner’s unique perspective on climate
change.
The powerful and evocative writing in this publication is the
result. It is filled with humanity and humour, a questioning
of language, the ‘connective tissue necessary for life’ (Mirko
Bonné), a deep love of place and of nature, a sense of loss, of
fear – and of hope. From poetry, stories and cartoons though
to rap, reflection and personal diaries, each contribution
offers us clues as to how, in the words of Oisín McGann,‘we can
take the compelling elements in everyday life and relate them
to bigger, dramatic ideas’, connecting what we know with what
must happen.
Weather Stations was founded on the belief that literature
can give humanity to concept. Writers create worlds for us
to explore and in entering them we are able to empathize
with others, to begin to imagine how things can change and
how we might work together towards ecological sustainability
and social justice. We also need storytellers to interpret the
science, to bypass the politics and to ignore the too often
narrow self-interests of finance. And in doing so, show us how
our lives could be lived differently, guided by ecological rather
than economic imperatives.
This anthology goes out just ahead of the Paris UN Climate
Change Conference in December; we hope its content and
language help to bring the urgent stories of climate change
into sharp focus.
As Annas Ahdamazai a student from London taking
inspiration from Martin Luther King, writes: ‘Our lives begin
to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Stop the silence and use your words for the things that matter
most.’
Weather Stations Partners
September 2015
INTRODUCTION
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