Nature Stories
Urban, Wilderness, and Everything In Between
At the Development, Ecopsychology, & Wellness Lab (DEW Lab) at Teachers College Columbia University, we are interested in how physical environments affect our psychological development, organization, and communities. To better understand human responses to climate change and other environmental changes, we are curating a collection of stories documenting the changes that individuals have noticed in their backyards, neighborhoods, communities, and countries.
Imagine sitting around a campfire or a kitchen table. Or on a hilltop overlooking a valley, or on a park bench. You are telling a story about how it used to be and what has changed. Nature Stories is a project to collect those stories. Your story is important. And we invite you to share it.
All of us have memories of how things used to be. For some of us, the weather doesn’t seem what it used to be. Or there are now buildings where there used to be fields. Forest fires, earthquakes, or other natural disasters have changed the landscape. If you have a story about how an environment you know has changed, Nature Stories is a place to share it.
Your story may be about a dramatic event like a natural disaster, about the changing seasons, or how your community is being pushed by extreme weather brought by climate change. You might tell of your involvement in community organizing or movements to build sustainable and resilient futures. Ultimately, there are many ways to talk about climate and environmental change, and we are keen to capture the full range of human experience, from anxiety, grief, or pessimism to joy, hope, and excitement.
In that spirit, we invite you to share your unique climate story with us in words, photos, or video. Will will review all the stories we receive and curate and publish them on this. Your story is essential and will help deepen our understanding of the powerful connection between humans and their environments.
Please submit your story in the language of your choice. We will publish the story in both English and the language of your preference.