Climate Literacy in Education

Andri Magnason’s The Story of the Blue Planet

Towards Ecotopia

Tanja Nathanael

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5217

Keywords: ecotopia, climate awareness, Anthropocene, climate action, consumer culture, utopia, dystopia, greenwashing, development, ecological overshoot, ecological destruction, system change, degrowth, Story of the Blue Planet

Abstract

The reflection describes my experience of using Andri Magnason’s The Story of the Blue Planet as a hopeful guide toward classroom discussions about sustainable futures. Magnason’s novel helps students appreciate the environmental choices we are currently facing and provides an outline for what needs to be done. Just like the children of the Blue Planet, we face similar challenges to overcome resistance to climate literacy and action. Magnason’s message is hopeful and gestures at an ecotopian future. The book suggests that the choice to live sustainably is not as hard as it may seem.