Climate change doesn’t happen in the abstract. It happens where we live, work, and raise our families.

In this special Story Collider series, each episode explores a different element of urban climate change — from fire and air to water and earth — through powerful, true stories from the people experiencing it firsthand.

In this episode, our storytellers turn their attention to earth, exploring the ways humans shape the land around us — and how a changing environment shapes us in return.

Part 1: While filming a wildlife documentary, filmmaker Mae Dorricott begins to notice just how profoundly human activity is shaping animal behaviour.

Part 2: For Christy Marsden, climate change always felt like a distant threat until a patch of ice brought it sharply into focus.

Hailing from Lancashire in the north west of England, Mae - is an underwater researcher for natural history documentaries and is currently based in Bristol. From a young age she was blessed with the privilege to visit her mother’s home of Malaysia where her obsession with the sea began. The coral reefs imprinted onto Mae, and from those first snorkels as a child knew that her life would revolve around the sea. During her time studying marine biology at the university of Plymouth she worked part-time at the local Aquarium, where her passion for communication was ignited. To learn more about how good communication is essential for a healthy ocean, Mae undertook a Masters in Science communication at the University of West England. Then, in 2017 she applied and was awarded the European OWUSS scholarship, which gave her the opportunity to explore the watery world like never before. This opportunity became a springboard into the industry in which Mae currently works, specializing in underwater documentaries.

Christy Marsden bikes year-round in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When she's not advocating for climate-forward policies in the city, she's working on helping people develop climate resilience in communities through her work at the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership. Christy enjoys helping people craft their experience of climate change through storytelling as a means for science and climate communication

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Stories of Urban Climate Change: Earth