Welcome to the first Re-emergence/emergency walk of the spring! March 19 kl. 11.15-13.00: Stories of Uppsala: The Ecology and Mythology of Climate Change
A ‘storying wander’ to Gamla Uppsala with Isak Stoddard, PhD Researcher Climate Change Leadership, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University.
Where: We meet at Eddaspången at 11.15. See map here: https://link.mazemap.com/db8P5Cma. The walk to Gamla Uppsala is about 4,5 km. The event will end at the Kings’ mounds in Gamla Uppsala around 13.00. Organized according to Covid-19 recommendations at Uppsala University.
Registration: To take part in the walk you need to register here: https://forms.gle/swPCNS7D1MZ2qbrp9 There limited spots available, so please register in time.
Questions and framing
Discussions around climate change tend to be accompanied by numbers, probabilities and limits. From the temperature thresholds of 1.5C and 2C to debates about the size of the remaining global carbon budget. From distant political targets for reaching net-zero emissions to debates about safe levels of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere.
Despite more than 3 decades of international negotiations, increasingly dire warnings informed by science, and a wealth and diversity of “climate action” – much remains the same and emissions continue to accumulate in the atmosphere.
What if completely different entry-points are needed to be able to respond more meaningfully to the social-ecological predicament we find ourselves in? What role could a more direct engagement with particular places have for our thinking about the past, present and future?
In this explorative walk through Uppsala we will also be travelling through time, ending up in Gamla Uppsala, imagining both a past and possible future when this place had (or might again have) a closer connection to the water-body of Mälaren. As we walk through the rolling landscape, we will work with stories of Uppsala – rooted in Norse mythology, folklore, local history or speculative fiction.
We will bring a few stories with us that you can work with, but if you have a story of your own that you are working on, or would like to share, please bring it along!
When we arrive at the Kings mounds we will gather around for some storytelling (in Swedish, English or other language of choice) as way to round off the walk.
Background material
The framing and format of the walk is inspired by a series of walks (or ‘storying wanders’) in the Norwegian mountains exploring the role that storytelling, walking and oral culture can have in (re)building relationships with the history, ecology and mythology of place. Here a brief account of one such walk: https://wildethics.org/projects/projects-conspirings/.
Read more about the all walks spring 2021 here: http://www.cemus.uu.se/emerg-walks/