An Unlikely Coalition To Combat Ecological Disaster

Unveiling Climate Storytelling: The Power of Coalition and Communication

This episode explores how documentary filmmaking can illuminate environmental crises and foster coalition-building across diverse worlds — from scientists and religious leaders to policymakers and journalists. Abby Ellis, director of The Lake, shares insights on addressing complex ecological issues through compelling narratives that bridge ideological divides.

In this episode:

• The importance of coalition-building in tackling environmental crises
• How different ideological worlds can converge on shared goals
• Strategies for communicating climate science to skeptics
• The significance of portraying multi-dimensional characters in environmental storytelling
• The urgency of global ecological issues and timely solutions
• The role of religion and science in uniting communities around environmental stewardship
• Practical approaches for engaging hesitant audiences in climate conversations
• Example of empowering narratives from The Lake and real-world activism

Timestamps:

00:00 - Overview of upcoming screening of The Lake and its significance

00:30 - Introduction to Abby Ellis and the film’s core themes

01:16 - The role of coalition-building in environmental activism

01:54 - How bipartisan efforts emerged in Utah’s ecological crisis

02:22 - Environmental issues as human, not just political, concerns

02:50 - The urgency of the Great Salt Lake’s potential disaster

03:28 - The importance of immediate coalition-building for climate resilience

03:44 - How the film emphasizes the immediacy of ecological threats

04:12 - Lessons from Utah’s crisis for the broader climate movement

04:40 - The impact of united communities across political and religious divides

05:09 - The significance of diverse moral and ideological convergences

05:25 - The role of religious perspectives, like Mormon stewardship, in environmental advocacy

05:52 - The power of religious and scientific values coexisting in activism

06:27 - Communicating climate science to skeptical audiences effectively

07:37 - The importance of understanding different cultural triggers for environmental messaging

08:17 - How to speak to people in terms they understand, beyond politicized language

08:42 - Upcoming screening details and community engagement opportunities

09:05 - Future broadcasting plans and broader reach for The Lake

Resources & Links:

• The Lake - Official Website (Check for updates and broadcast releases)
• EcoRI News – Rhode Island’s leading environmental news source
• Act on Climate - Rhode Island – Local climate legislation and activism
• Sundance Film Festival – Premier platform for the film’s debut

Connect with Abby Ellis:

• Twitter
• Instagram

http://www.navigantcu.org

Transcript

Bill Bartholomew 0:00

All right, every so often we profile some of the great documentary films that are screening at Newport Film. Newport Film, a partner here with Bartholomew Town. Coming up on Thursday night at the Avon in Providence, the lake will be screening. I'm going to read you how the film is described by Newport Film. An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah. Two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from an unprecedented catastrophe. Again, that's coming up Thursday night at the Avon in Providence. There'll be a panel discussion to follow that I'll be moderating. We are fortunate to have Abby Ellis, the director of this really important film, joining us here on the podcast. Abby, thanks so much for your time.

Abby Ellis 0:44

Thank you for having me.

Bill Bartholomew 0:47

There's so many beautiful storylines we could pursue here today. But something that really struck me about your work here is that it highlights one, the urgency of ecological disaster, frankly, not to soften it. I mean, I think it belongs there, but also that to solve these kinds of problems requires a great deal of compromise, but more than anything, coalition building. As you were making this film, how clear did it become to you that coalitions and different storylines converging on the same ultimate goal was going to be perhaps a central theme?

Abby Ellis 1:24

I think it was always where we'd hoped it would go, right? Because a coalition forming is the best case scenario in this situation. And it started out, I started filming with some scientists who might be described as, you know, like scientists, environmentalists, and you might put them in the bucket of being on the left. And then halfway through, we actually started filming as well with government officials who are historically conservative, some of whom had been Trump appointees at times. And what became pretty clear as I was in these meetings was that both sides of the aisle had the same objective. They both wanted to save this body of water, maybe for different reasons. But what that made clear to me was that like issues of our environment, and this became very real in Utah, given that this nuclear bomb, as we say, is only five years away, right? It's not 20 years away. And issues of the environment are not left issues or right issues, they're human issues. And um, you know, what impacts our lungs and our air quality also impacts the economy. So it's like we, you know, everything gets gets in trouble when the environment erodes. And that became pretty obvious to everyone working here in different spaces, thankfully.

Bill Bartholomew 2:53

Right. Relating that to southern New England, it's such an important notion that everything relates to everybody. That the intersectionality is not simply like, all right, let's talk about policy making for the future or different camps that can line up, whether it be industrially or whatever, politically. The reality is when you talk about the situation described in the lake, the Great Salt Lake, this is a contemporary American ecological story that required human-powered solutions to even begin to fathom overcoming. You capture that so well. How much do you want to convey in this film to people who are watching it or even hearing about it, the urgency of the moment, not only when it comes to the Great Salt Lake, but the whole planet?

Abby Ellis 3:43

Well, I mean, I think one thing that was that was very interesting working on this film was that, like I said, this specific problem of the environment is really just around the corner. Whereas so often issues of climate, we see or we get predictions that they're like 20 years down the line, 30 years. And I think that's really hard to, hard for people to take seriously in their day-to-day. Um, but what I was really happy to see was that when, you know, catastrophe came knocking on the door of this place, everyone did come together in their own way. And it was a message for me, for the rest of the country and the rest of the world, that the only way out of this, the only way out of this climate nightmare that we've found ourselves in is if we all work together, you know, regardless of of what we're fighting for. We can't, you can't do anything if you don't have the environment. You can't do anything if you don't have a a home and a planet in clean air and clean water. So, um, you know, while this issue here in Utah was was very near and and still is very near, it's just a couple years away where it could happen. Um these these bigger issues of climate, you know, we've just learned that we're like in the worst case scenario zone for everything. So um it's time to start the coalition building now because by the time it comes knocking on your door, it's too late.

Bill Bartholomew 5:09

What we see with the lake and the coalition that you describe and and capture is something that maybe wouldn't be typically thought of as your ever average everyday coalition where you have the Latter-day Saints, right? Pre-conservative religious bloc with people who are as devout practitioners of data and science as there are, literally scientists and journalists. That amalgamation, in some ways, is like the that that's like unfathomable when you think about some of the ways that we look at America today at the same time it happened in real time. What was it like for you? And how important was it for you to bet to understand the different worldviews that converged on this project, going back to each worldview, so to speak, those of the latter-day science?

Abby Ellis 8:21

Yeah, it was so important. I'm not LDS, but um, you know, one of our characters is an ecologist, and he's a brilliant scientist and a progressive thinker, and also a devout Mormon. And um the longer, like the more time I spend with him, actually the more that made sense. And I thought that that was really interesting and not something that you typically get to see at a national level when it comes to, for example, this religion, um, which simply preaches that, you know, we were blessed with this planet. We need to take care of it. And I, you know, all of, you know, he would, he would often talk about that and he would talk about stewardship and the environment and being an environmentalist in the context of religion. And I thought to myself, like, this is incredibly, this is a unifying message. And often today, religion is only used to be divisive, especially in media. And I think Mormons have gotten a bad rap for a really long time. Um, and so it's important to me that these, that these characters in the film are dynamic and they, you know, have multitudes. And you can be a religious scientist. That's a thing that happens more often than I think we would imagine. And it's it's great, again, going not to go back to the coalition building, but it's great for people to have multitudes. It allows them to relate with other people and to really build a movement and, you know, bond and and and save something.

Bill Bartholomew 9:58

To that end, what did you personally learn about communicating climate science to people who view environmentalism or even frankly climate change with skepticism?

Abby Ellis 10:10

I think it's important to get to know the people you're trying to communicate with and understand triggers for them, right? I wouldn't go into farm country in Utah and try to communicate this issue by using the terms like climate change and environmentalism and conservation, even. Um, unfortunately, we live in a climate politically where those where words like that have been, you know, politicized. So instead, it's just about talking to people as people and getting a sense of what they need to survive, knowing that ultimately we all need the same thing, but figuring out how to communicate that stuff in a way that they not only understand but can hear you. Because um we don't need to preach to the choir. We need to preach to people who don't think like us, right?

Bill Bartholomew 11:04

Couldn't agree more. Abby Ellis, the film is the lake, this Thursday night at Newport Film. Well, I should say presented by Newport Film at the Avon in Providence. That'll be followed by a panel discussion. I'll be moderating with Terry Gray, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Joanna Detts, she's the publisher and co-founder of Eco RI News, that's our region's leading really environmental and climate news operation. And Senator Dawn Oyer for context. Senator Oyer, one of the co sponsors of the Act on Climate here in Rhode Island several years ago. Abby, thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it. Amazing film premiered at Sundance. If people don't see it at Newport Film, where else can they expect to be able to find it?

Abby Ellis 11:45

We hope you'll be able to find it broadcast early next year.

Bill Bartholomew 11:52

Okay. We will look for that.