Abstract

How do you talk about climate change while sailing along the world’s largest river on a carbon-intensive cruise ship?

The key message of this session is to consider how we weigh up opportunities in sustainability education against their costs and responsibilities to the environment. It draws on a classic carbon literacy training around assessing carbon impact and considers it in the context of a real-life educational paradox, that of lecturing on the natural environment from a carbon-intensive environment.

Session and activities

I am looking to run this session as an opportunity for us at UAL to bring my knowledge and experience as a geographer with specialism in climate change and the Amazon into this creative space.

This workshop opens by taking the audience on an immersive journey into the Amazon to provide the backdrop for discussions around creating impact, experiential education, and communicating climate change to diverse audiences.

In the session, I will present the paradoxical situation of giving environmental talks on a cruise ship on the Amazon River and explore how these experiences can inform creative climate communication at UAL. Bringing together Carbon Literacy, storytelling, science communication, and UAL’s Net Zero strategy,  the session will explore the parallels between these environments and audiences and invite discussion on how we can embed low-carbon thinking into our teaching and inspire real change.

The session ideally would run as such:

• Introduction and Talk (20 mins)
• Discussion (15 mins)
• Group ideation (15 mins)
• Feedback and Wrap Up (10 mins)

This is based on previously running the session as an hour-long talk and discussion (LCC Staff Conference 2025) but is flexible and could be adapted to fit to different timing or format.