Climate Disaster Project

12/07/2024

“There are days when the school closes because the children don’t have water to drink, and when women have to go down to the Itacarambi River to wash clothes and bathe.

We’re living through a drought that has lasted more than 10 years. There is very little rain. It’s not the fault of the Xakriabá. It’s the fault of the big businessmen, whose only thought is to destroy the land. The earth is dying because man himself is killing it.

Our children believe they could die of thirst at any moment. Many young people think about committing su***de. Our dream was to get back at least a little piece of our river, the São Francisco, to try to bring the water from there to at least part of the reserve.

We hope that Tupã has never died and never will. And that he can still make the weather better. But man needs to do his part, to stop so much deforestation, to stop the war, to stop killing the innocent, because in Brazil, it’s the Black and Indigenous people who die most often, because they’re innocent.”

- Xakriabá leader José Fiuza Xakriabá, Xakriabá Indigenous territory drought, as told to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s Alexandre Caetano

Read more about José's climate disaster experience as part of The Guardian’s This is Climate Breakdown series (The Guardian Photo/Chris de Beer-Procter)

11/23/2024

“When we built the house in 1978, we couldn’t see the sea. We never imagined that one day it would reach our house. It was so painful to see my house being destroyed gradually.

We installed fencing, with large metal sheets, to slow it down. My bedroom, which was closest to the sea, had a huge crack in the wall from leaks. When the fencing was touching the house, we had no choice left.

We had a small house in the back, where the housekeeper used to live. I moved in there. Then I had to leave because lots of sand started coming in.

It’s not the material goods I felt I lost, but rather the moments I had in that house. You can’t rebuild that context elsewhere.

We thought that some erosion control could be carried out, like has been done in other states and cities. But, in a way, we know that it’s our fault, as human beings, because we don’t take care of the environment as we should.”

- Retiree Sônia Ferreira, Rio de Janeiro coastal erosion, as told to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s Júlia Mendes

Read more about Sônia's climate disaster experience as part of The Guardian’s This is Climate Breakdown series (CDP Photo/Thiago Freitas)

11/18/2024

“I remember screaming in the middle of my yard the next morning: ‘Would it just stop fu***ng raining!?’ So much happened in the middle. It was like doomsday.

I knew early on something wasn’t right. All day long it had thundered. It started raining so hard. You wouldn’t even have a break between thunder and lightning. You would see lightning and thunder at the exact same moments

I touched base with Chris, Colton’s dad. He had just picked Colton up. I don’t know why but I begged him to spend the night at my house. I was like: ‘Please just turn around. Can you just please spend the night and watch Colton at my house?’

Chris touched base with me and was like: ‘We’re going to go to bed.’ I was in the mind frame of: ‘OK, they’re sleeping, they’re fine.’ I got my one client to sleep by 12.30 a.m. I had been scrolling Facebook and seen they were calling for an emergency alert on the scanner.

I remember hearing: ‘I need that emergency alert! I needed it a half-hour ago!’ My other client got up just as I heard there was massive flooding. I was like: I’ll just take care of her and then I’ll call Chris. It took me 15 minutes, and 15 minutes is what he says he needed.

I called him at 2.28am. He answered the phone. I think he said ‘sh*t.’ He was touching water when he put his feet over the bed and got up. He went to the side door and flicked on the porch light. He watched the shed float by the door as I was on the phone with him.

I told him, ‘Call 911.’ I called my dad, told him Chris was in trouble, that Chris was going to try and get to his mother’s and call me. That was a call I never got.”

- Care worker Tera Sisco, 2023 Nova Scotia floods, as told to the University of Victoria’s Sean Holman

Read more about Tera's climate disaster experience as part of The Guardian’s This is Climate Breakdown series (Guardian Photo/Darren Calabrese)

11/11/2024

Today is the start of the twenty-ninth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. World leaders are gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan to negotiate how to protect lives and livelihoods from the worsening impacts of climate change.

That’s why we’re honoured to have partnered with climate disaster survivors around the world and the to help make sure survivor voices are heard during those negotiations and the global news media’s coverage of them - to help make sure their experience and knowledge matters.

Between now and the conclusion of COP29, The Guardian will be publishing eight testimonies the Climate Disaster Project has co-created with survivors across five continents.

10/01/2024

"The focus of the production is not tragedy, it's humanity. And the ethos of Eyes of the Beast is not shock. It's empathy," writes The Martlet's Brianna Bock about Neworld Theatre's documentary play, based on the award-winning journalism of the Climate Disaster Project. Thanks so much for seeing us Brianna.

09/30/2024

"It’s an innovative format for climate journalism, which is more comfortable in the realm of maps, charts, statistics and traditional narrative storytelling. By artfully recompiling survivors’ testimonies and weaving them together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," writes Jimmy Thomson, the managing editor of Canada's National Observer, about Neworld Theatre's Eyes of the Beast which just closed a week long performance at the Victoria's Phoenix Theatre. Follow this page for news about future performances of the play, based on the award-winning journalism of the Climate Disaster Project.

09/20/2024

“A massive and monumentally important undertaking.” That’s how Times Colonist arts and entertainment reporter Mike Devlin describes Eyes of the Beast: Climate Disaster Survivor Stories, making it one of his critic’s picks for this week. There’s still time to see the play, which runs till Saturday at Victoria’s Phoenix Theatre and shares true life stories of loss and hope from British Columbia’s extreme heat, fires, and floods. Ticket are available at the box office or via at phone 250-721-8000.

09/18/2024

09/16/2024

"Play tells stories of those affected by disasters linked to climate change." And we're having the world premiere of that play tonight (!!!), bringing to the stage true life stories of resilience in the face of extreme heat, flooding, and fire. The performance, a Neworld Theatre production sponsored by CBC, runs from September 16-21. Tickets can still be reserved at the University of Victoria's Phoenix Theatre.

https://finearts.uvic.ca/theatre/mainstage/2024-2025-mainstage-season/eyes-of-the-beast/

09/13/2024

“A theatrical production on climate disaster offers healing, hope and a bold vision for the future.” Yup, that’s what we’re doing next week at Victoria’s Phoenix Theatre, from September 16-21!!!

09/12/2024

Some of Vancouver Island’s most prominent politicians will be showing solidarity with disaster survivors and speaking about what can be done to protect their communities at the world premiere of a groundbreaking theatre production about British Columbia’s extreme heat, fires, and floods.

Eyes of the Beast: Climate Disaster Stories, showing from September 16-21 at the Phoenix Theatre in Victoria, brings to the stage true life stories of loss, hope, and resilience from across the province.

At each performance, a voice from local, progressive, or conservative politics has been invited to listen to those stories and the audience’s response to them.

Those political leaders will then share their own thoughts about the impact of climate disasters on the province and how we can survive them together. They include:

* former BC Liberal cabinet minister George Abbott (Sept. 16);
* Minister of Tourism Arts, Culture, and Sport Lana Popham (Sept. 17);
* BC Conservative Nanaimo-Lantzville candidate and former NDP MLA Gwen O'Mahony, MBA, MScIB (Sept. 18);
* BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau (Sept. 20);
* BC Conservative Oak Bay-Gordon Head candidate and former Victoria city councillor Stephen Andrew (Sept. 21, matinee)
* Mayor Saanich Dean Murdock (Sept. 21).

Eyes of the Beast, produced by the internationally renowned Neworld Theatre, is based upon on-the-ground reporting from the University of Victoria’s award-winning Climate Disaster Project.

The first full-length documentary play of its kind, it paints a portrait of ordinary people living in extraordinary times—and the communities of neighbours, friends, and families who have helped them.

Tickets are going fast so reserve yours by following the link.

https://finearts.uvic.ca/theatre/mainstage/2024-2025-mainstage-season/eyes-of-the-beast/

09/06/2024

The true-life stories of people coming together during British Columbia’s recent climate disasters are being brought to the stage by internationally-renowned Neworld Theatre.

Eyes of the Beast: Climate Disaster Survivor Stories is the first documentary theatre production based on frontline climate disaster reporting, following the lives of ordinary people impacted by the extraordinary heat waves, fires, and floods of 2021.

That award-winning, trauma-informed reporting was conducted by students participating in the Climate Disaster Project, a teaching newsroom works with disaster-impacted people to share their stories.

The show, which paints a portrait of a province under pressure from a warming planet, will have its world premiere at the University of Victoria's Phoenix Theatre from September 16-21.

Tickets are going fast so reserve yours now by following the link.

https://finearts.uvic.ca/theatre/mainstage/2024-2025-mainstage-season/eyes-of-the-beast/