1.5 Stories

We built a simple Google Form so anyone worldwide can submit their climate story in 150 words — no app, no signup, no tech skills needed.
sample card
sample schoolkit

What is 1.5 Stories?

1.5 Stories is a global climate storytelling campaign that collects and amplifies real personal stories of people already living through climate change — from melting permafrost in Northern Canada, to devastating floods in Bangladesh, to wildfires in British Columbia.

Named after the critical 1.5°C warming threshold, our campaign turns climate data into human emotion — because statistics don't move people. Stories do.

What Inspired Us

We kept seeing the same problem: people know climate change is real, but feel disconnected from it. The IPCC reports, the graphs, the numbers — they don't land emotionally. But when a grandmother describes watching her Arctic village sink into permafrost, or a fisherman talks about the fish disappearing — that changes people.

We wanted to bridge that gap.

How We Built It

A simple story submission portal (Google Form) where anyone worldwide can share their climate experience in 150 words or less
Each story is designed into a visual story card using Canva — formatted for Instagram carousels, short reels, and printable posters
Stories are tagged by theme (flood, wildfire, drought, biodiversity loss) and region
A school outreach kit was created so teachers — especially in Canada — can bring these stories into classrooms with zero tech required
Indigenous and marginalized community voices are actively prioritized in story collection, reflecting a Two-Eyed Seeing approach that honors both traditional knowledge and scientific understanding

How It Addresses the Four Lenses

Equity & Justice — We center the voices of those most impacted: Indigenous communities in Northern Canada, coastal communities in South Asia, and others historically excluded from climate conversations.

Practical — No app, no complex tech. Launchable within days using tools everyone already has. Schools can use our kit tomorrow.

Two-Eyed Seeing — Indigenous knowledge of land, seasons, and ecosystems is treated as equally valid as academic climate science throughout our storytelling framework.

Systems Thinking — Stories touch all four themes: adaptation, biodiversity loss, collective action, and the need for infrastructure change — all through one human narrative at a time.

What We Learned

Building this taught us that the most powerful climate tool isn't always technology — sometimes it's simply giving someone a microphone and saying "your story matters." We also learned how underrepresented Global South and Indigenous voices are in mainstream climate media, and how much that gap needs to be filled.

Challenges We Faced

Identifying and ethically sourcing real climate stories in a short timeframe
Designing story cards that feel emotionally resonant without exploiting people's hardship
Making the school kit simple enough for any teacher, anywhere, to use without training

What's Next for 1.5 Stories

Partner with Canadian Indigenous organizations and schools
Launch on Instagram with a public story submission call
Translate story cards into French, Hindi, Bengali, and Tagalog
Build relationships with NGOs across South & Southeast Asia to expand story collection