Welcome to the Climate Comic
The Climate Comic is a collaboration between South Wales communities, researchers, an advisory group and illustrator Laura Sorvala. The project seeks to understand older and younger people’s climate change perceptions, imaginaries and behaviours in the places that matter to them.
Collaborators
The OPTIC team is (left to right) Dr. Merryn Thomas, Dr. Aled Singleton, Dr. Aelwyn Williams, Dr. Carol Maddock, Dr. Deborah Morgan, Prof. Charles Musselwhite, Prof. Tavi Murray and illustrator Laura Sorvala. The Advisory Group spans lifelong learning, creative practitioners, volunteers, charities, local authorities, and statutory bodies.
Our heartfelt thanks to the communities we had the privilege of working with, including Newton Grange Residential Home, Oystermouth Primary School, Women4Resources, Hirwaun YMCA and Neath Port Talbot Black Minority Ethnic Community Association. We would also like to thank our advisory group for guidance throughout, and our funders.
OPTIC was funded by the University of Stirling Ageing and Place: Pandemic Recovery and Action on Climate CHange (APPROACH) fund, as part the Social Behavioural & Design Research Programme (UK Research and Innovation). It was supported by the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research (CADR, Swansea University) with equipment provided by the Awen Institute. We received further funding from Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (hefcw) Research Wales Innovation Fund (RWIF) through Swansea University.
Creating the Climate Comic
The Climate Comic was created as part of the OPTIC project, which seeks to understand older and younger people’s climate change perceptions, imaginaries and behaviours in the places that matter to them.
In spring 2023, we carried out creative workshops with 66 people in south Wales: online, on a busy urban street, in a Valleys youth club, at a residential home and primary school, with a coastal walking group and a farming family. This comic shares their stories.
Turn to pages 21-24 of the comic to discover more about our workshop methods and how the comic was made. On pages 25-29, you can take part by playing the OPTIC dice game, colouring in a comic strip and creating your own comic.
Further project findings, including survey results, are available by contacting optic@swansea.ac.uk.
Visit OPTIC’s website here: https://www.climatecomic.co.uk/