For too long, climate communication has relied on the belief that if we stick with the science and communicate the evidence, action will follow. Scientific knowledge gives us the foundations for understanding possible futures, while speculation allows us to explore them. But poetry can bring that speculation to life, giving us a language to express what living through those futures might mean.

The power of poetry lies in making us pay attention to a sound, a place, an object or something changing around us. Researchers have argued that eco-poetry can influence how we experience a place, what we notice and what it might become in the future. They suggest that by “sounding” environmental change, speculative poetry offers us a tangible way to engage with, interpret and navigate the uncertainty of the climate crisis.

However, the literature professor Andrew Gorin has cautioned against making superficial claims that a poem will directly reduce carbon emissions or lead to greener policy. Its influence is much more nuanced, circulating ideas, offering different ways of seeing and........

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