‘CULTURE SPRING’ - A Story of a Cultural Renewal

Header image: Tuk Tuk! © Neeraja Raj, TK Studios, Lowkey Film

As culture takes centre stage at London Climate Action Week, it’s clearer than ever that we are not only ready for, but already moving towards, a new story - one that shifts us away from extractivism and towards regeneration. At the heart of this shift is an ever-growing movement of creatives and storytellers utilising their craft and creativity to tell new stories of regeneration, community and belonging, what it means to be human, and what we value, in our rapidly changing world. 

The story of The Emperor’s New Clothes is a fitting analogy for the moment we’re in. We are at the point in the story where the child in the crowd is pointing at the naked emperor as the ruler’s deceit is revealed to be the false promises of an extractive, fossil fuel economy. The fear of speaking out against the status quo dissipates as the crowd realises they all see the same truth - the imperialist greed is laid bare.

Scientists have been pointing out the mounting evidence but their language can be hard to understand. The merchants and investors are waiting to sell their beautiful, sustainable fabric instead of pretending the invisible cloak is what we desire. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel system is doubling down on trying to lock us into what is now being experienced as an inefficient, polluting, expensive and dangerous fuel for society, never mind for planetary health. Publicly funded fossil fuel subsidies and blocking renewable energy developments are just some of the ways in which it now requires effort to keep the economy running on fossil fuels, when solar and wind are cheaper, more efficient and less dangerous.

You don't need to understand the complexities of the system to understand that the system is broken. Our transport and buildings can’t cope with the rising heat and floods, our extractive food system is vulnerable. Everyone is starting to feel it now, with the majority of the public saying the economy is rigged for the rich and powerful. We are in one of the greatest periods of wealth inequality, exceeding the Gilded Age, and with the first trillionaire. This lack of trust in a broken system is of course fertile ground for populism, fuelled by a media landscape dominated by social platforms that are optimised for polarisation and outrage. 

So who is the child in the crowd of The Emperor’s New Clothes saying what everyone knows, with clarity of voice? I’d argue that is the role of culture. 

Storytellers and creatives are the antennae of society - tuning in with their sensitivity to the undercurrents, the emerging patterns, our darkest shadows and our deepest desires. In times of turbulence, culture is where we turn for sense-making, understanding our place in the world. Culture is not just ‘the arts’ - something we escape into through books, TV, theatre or music. It is not just a more creative way of communicating. Culture is a society’s shared values, norms, behaviours, stories and rituals. It reflects our ways of being; something continually evolving, contested, renewed and revived. It also includes sports, entertainment and religion. All of these are places where we practice, reinforce or challenge our shared values, our rituals that encode our social norms. What seems normal in one culture can seem eccentric or immoral in another. Culture is never fixed. It constantly evolves. 

The significance of culture is not just in reaching new audiences in new ways, or changing behaviours or opinions. The significance is in the cultural social mandate which has the power to shape business and political mandate. It's why, of course, culture is always upstream of politics. And business leaders, funders, policy makers and scientists concerned about the climate crisis are increasingly turning to storytellers, to help us turn the dominant public narrative on climate away from doomerist fatalism, and towards agency.

Popular culture has often been co-opted to sell us a lie of an infinite high consumption lifestyle as the aspiration, of individualism, the selfish gene myth and of the fossil fuel industry as the only possible backbone of a stable economy. Sometimes with deliberate co-opting of culture with product placement or sponsorship of arts institutions or sports clubs; but very often culture is just mirroring the values at large. 

Culture is shifting, and the system is lagging. There is an array of recent films and TV shows that highlight the human capacity for collaboration, empathy and communication to problem solve - from Project Hail Mary to Ted Lasso, that are about our love of nature and our place in the ecosystem, not in dominion but in partnership - from Remarkably Bright Creatures to Hamnet and The Sheep Detective and more. People are turning to cinema and TV for collective experience. There is a huge hunger not just for ‘consuming’ stories, but for the shared cultural experience and conversation that a story can provide.

2026 has been declared the year of the analogue as many people but particularly younger generations are yearning for connectivity, community, meaning and purpose. Church attendance is growing, and as people turn away from the AI slop and parents mobilise for smart phone free childhoods, Generation Z are shifting to community over follower numbers. Is this the start of the Rewilding of the Internet, away from an extractive space to a regenerative space, just as the land is being rewilded from denuded wildlife and industrialised food? 

The climate community needs to understand the importance of talking about the values and mindsets that drive the crisis. Indeed, given the intersection of the acceleration of AI and tech, the climate and the biodiversity crisis and the erosion of democracy, the only way we can address the climate crisis is with a holistic, planetary lens. We cannot keep fighting ‘issues’ in siloes, competing for scarce resources and competing for public attention. We will only ever address the crisis by shifting values, mindsets and systems towards resilience, adaptation and regeneration. That includes repair for the damage done, not just preventing further harm - and not just to the ecosystem but to people. Research shows that it is not only possible to live within planetary boundaries and address inequality, indeed, the only way to address inequalities is to ensure we are living within planetary boundaries. 

There is now a proliferation of storytellers exploring what the climate crisis means for us, not just as a scientific challenge, but in the deepest sense, what it means to be human within the wider ecosystem. Novelists, film and TV makers, poets and artists are exploring how the climate crisis forces us to examine what we value, our relationships and to play out possible alternative worlds. Culture enables us to explore the spiritual crisis - the crisis of meaning and relationship - of shifting our understanding of our place in the ecosystem.

Last year we founded a new literary prize awarded by a judging panel to the best climate fiction novel published in the UK. The Climate Fiction Prize is showcasing and inspiring some of the best writers engaging in the greatest story of our time - the story of how we grapple with the climate crisis. The winner of this year's Climate Fiction Prize was a book that spoke to this intersectional lens that we need to approach the climate crisis. It is a book as much about our relationship with technology and AI, and a book about social inequality as it is about the climate crisis. Most importantly it's compelling, funny and a page turner. The book has proven wildly popular as it has touched a nerve of the intersecting issues we are all living through as parents, friends and families.

The wide range of stories in development at Climate Spring and coming out across broadcasters and streamers is testament to the growing movement of creatives and talent engaging in these issues. It also reflects the scope that the climate crisis is a symptom of the extractive economy. A story about the climate crisis can look at the root cause of the issue - who is responsible and what would justice look like for the harms that are now baked in. Climate fiction includes stories about the transformation of society that is already underway, and a story about the possible futures that lie ahead.

Dystopian and destructive futures are not inevitable. Imagining how things could be helps bring to life the statistics and facts in ways that are relatable. In any great period of social upheaval and social change, it is often culture that provides the space for imagining or showing alternative ways of being. After all, Silicon Valley tech geeks invented driverless cars, smart phones and touch screens based on these ideas in their favourite science fiction TV, film, comics and books. 

Unlocking culture as a climate solution means investing in the leading creatives and producers with editorial freedom, but with a commercial distribution strategy. Climate Spring has pioneered that model and has a slate of over 100 films and popular scripted and factual TV projects, many now going into production and reaching screens. The Climate Fiction Prize and now the Climate Playwriting Prize with Shakespeare’s Globe and Fern Culture, is part of this exciting growing movement of creatives who want to harness their creativity to rewrite the ending - if not as a utopia, then as a world we want to live in, not the false vanity of a naked emperor.

We have been stuck in an old story, and a new story is ushering in - one where we embark on the greatest adventure, one you want your friends along with, where we traverse through the difficult times to better places. We are Frodo and Bilbo, and Dorothy and Toto, and we are off on an adventure to a better way of being - one of nature flourishing, abundance and regeneration. The journey isn’t easy, but with your friends with you, you’ll come through stronger. This is the real story that is unfurling, and one people are yearning for. We are excited to support its emergence throughout our popular culture.