The Planet Forward Summit marked its 12th year with a two-day conference at George Washington University, exploring the theme “The Climate Divide: New Narratives to Transform the Crisis.” This year’s summit focused on how shifting the climate narrative could help build new coalitions and transform conflict and discord into dialogue and collaboration to address the climate crisis.
Frank Sesno, founder of Planet Forward and executive director of the GW Alliance for a Sustainable Future, introduced the theme by discussing the important role storytelling can play in changing the climate conversation.
“The focus and the theme of our summit today is: How do we incorporate these new narratives … to address and transform this conflict? We know that conflict, tension are part of any serious story,” Sesno said.
Imani M. Cheers, associate professor of digital storytelling at the School of Media and Public Affairs, also spoke about the power of storytelling.
“We know the power of storytelling to elevate and amplify conflict. Elevated conflict is a defining element of our times,” Cheers said. She encouraged the students attending the conference to think critically about how stories can shape public perception and spark change.
Sesno said the theme of this year’s summit was inspired by the work the Conflict Transformation Collaborative at Middlebury College is doing to address division and polarization through education and engagement.
“When I learned about what they were doing, I thought, that’s where we are in Washington,” Sesno said. “That’s where we are in the country now. How do we make sense of that? And how do we make sense of it as storytellers?”
Sarah Stroup, director of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation at Middlebury College, said conflict is an unavoidable part of the human experience.
“Every single person in this room has been in conflict because you have been in relationships with other people,” Stroup said. “Some of us hear the word conflict and have a negative reaction, and that’s understandable because conflicts can be terribly destructive. And yet, conflict is unavoidable in any relationship, in any society.”
Stroup emphasized that, when handled constructively, conflict can foster deeper relationships and spark social change. She noted that storytelling plays a key role in this transformation. Citing journalist Amanda Ripley’s Good Conflict project, Stroup said stories can escalate tension or help de-escalate it and invite understanding.
“You may have heard the phrase, ‘Facts don’t change minds, stories do,’” Stroup said. “This insight that stories can foster curiosity and complexity informs all sorts of interventions, like solutions journalism. If we are able to shift the stories that we tell, we can take a step toward more constructive conflict.”
Later, Ellen M. Granberg, president of GW, spoke at the summit about why sustainability is a priority at GW.
“GW is a place that wants to turn research and education into impact,” Granberg said. “And if you want to do that, what you want to do is tackle the biggest and most important challenges, and certainly sustainability is one of those. It's also an incredible opportunity to make use of all the many disciplines across GW. We can pull things together in a way that very few places can. And because of where we're located, because of our networks, we can also help turn that into policy and law in a way that others cannot do.”
During the conference, Sesno and Allison D. Tuttle, chief zoological officer at Mystic Aquarium, announced a new partnership among the GW Alliance for a Sustainable Future, Planet Forward and Mystic Aquarium.
“We are going to bring two amazing fellows from GW to Mystic Aquarium this summer,” Tuttle said. “They'll have access to all aspects of our mission, front of house, back of house. We’re going to show them everything: how we inspire our guests, how we educate and engage the public, our citizen science efforts, our world-class animal care and our conservation research. It’ll be a smorgasbord of elements for them to explore, reflect on and choose from. Then, they’ll create a piece to tell the story of their choosing.”
Through this collaboration, students will conduct research on beluga whales and African penguins and share their stories through the Planet Forward platform.
Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben delivered the Friday keynote address, beginning with a stark account of the state of the climate crisis.
McKibben explained that since 2023, global temperatures have spiked in ways never seen before. Ocean temperatures have reached unprecedented levels, with seas off the Florida Keys reaching 101°F in June 2023.
“The first thing to be said right now, in 2025, is the long, slow ramp up in temperature on this planet in the last 40 years is over the last 24 months spiking — and spiking dramatically in really, really, really scary ways,” McKibben said. “This has been scary from the outset as we've learned about the danger to the climate system, but it's gotten exponentially more frightening in the last two years because temperatures are going places that we've never seen before.”
He said while the situation is dire, there’s some hopeful advancement. He cited California's significant advances in solar, wind and grid-scale batteries. In two years, the state has reduced its natural gas use to produce electricity by 44%.
He said this trend can be seen elsewhere and pointed out the global momentum in clean energy, including rapid solar adoption in Pakistan, which led to a 10% drop in electricity demand on the national grid.
“That never happens. The demand for energy ... just goes up and up and up,” McKibben said. “People couldn’t figure out what was happening until they started looking at Google Earth and they could see on rooftops across Lahore and Karachi, solar panels just going up. Everywhere. Factory tops, shops, homes.”
McKibben emphasized that the fossil fuel industry has recognized the growing momentum toward clean energy and has responded by pouring unprecedented amounts of money and resources into political campaigns to safeguard their interests.
“And (on) the other side of this, the fossil fuel industry has so much money and so much power that they were able to figure out how to keep their business model going even when it became clear that it was ruining the earth,” McKibben said. “In the absence of billions of dollars, the only currency that will work is the currency of movements of getting people together to get things done.”
He said that success depends on the ability to craft compelling stories and build powerful narratives that can unite people around a common mission strong enough to challenge the enormous power that money produces.
“We can do that work, but only if we build momentum, and that, at some level, is a process of telling stories,” McKibben said.
During the conference, the winners of Storyfest, Planet Forward’s annual competition celebrating the best student-generated environmental stories, were announced.
Among the winners were two GW students. Avril Silva, a senior studying journalism and mass communication, won Best Podcast for “A PFAS Problem: Emerging Contaminants in Water in Frederick, Maryland.” Paul Leoni, a senior studying environmental and sustainability science, took home the GW Award for “Cutting Through the Fog: The Future of Lobsters in the Warming Gulf of Maine.”
The Storyfest winners will embark on a 10-day voyage to the Galápagos Islands this summer with Lindblad Expeditions aboard the National Geographic Gemini, where they will explore biodiversity and gain insight into conservation efforts at the frontlines of climate change.
Other Storyfest winners included:
- Best Short Video: Farron Taijeron, University of Guam, “Swimming with Snakes: The Backyard Science of an Invasive Species in Guam.”
- Best Social Media Video: Mario Castroviejo, University of Navarra, “How Climate Change Impacts One of Our Favorite Sweets: Chocolate.”
- Best Multimedia Story: Devin Santikarma, Middlebury College, “Water Gods: An Ancient Irrigation Method in Bali Comes Under Threat.”
- Best Written Story: Kayla Smernoff, Howard University, “Understanding the Demographic Discrepancy in Park Visitorship.”
- Spotlight Award: Karli Moore, Stanford University, “A Native Farmer Growing a Native Crop: The Role of Fiber Hemp in a More Sustainable Future.”
- Fan Favorite Award: Sagen Lily Quale, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Seeding Stories: Manoomin and Anishinaabeg Relations.”
