Last week, I was with one of my nieces, M., an incredibly smart and unique 12-year-old girl. 

We rarely have one-to-one conversations because we usually meet indoors, in crowded places where there are so many humans and things stay at the surface. 

As we walked in the shade of a dry sand forest in the North of France, I enquired about her interest in space as we were ahead of the solar eclipse. But she is now in Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries, and she developed a passion for underwater life. 

One thing leading to another, we discussed the progress in animal communication, how whales sing to one another, etc. 

My gaze swept over the withered broom bushes all around, the oaks and other deciduous trees. No pines. I know that trees communicate with each other, but I found myself wondering: what exactly about the stars? If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I’ll be able to talk about it with my niece the next time I see her! 

Thanks for reading,

Caroline Prak, Thursday, 20 August 2026

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1 . The Library is open

- a step aside this week.

No guide for this edition. 

I wanted to hold a moment of rest and contemplation too — not just urgency.

So instead: a link to wander, not read: Lily Bodnar's "Graphics / Botanical Drawings is an Are.na channel, a scrapbook, really, of botanical drawings collected from artists across the internet. 

Naive tree taxonomies, gridded tulip studies, a plant someone sketched while on hold with their credit union. Nothing to learn from it, nothing to apply. 

The plants, the colours, the energy, all of it asking us to pay attention, nothing more. I just feel like drawing, you?

I'll be back with the Library next edition.

2. Five new reports in the Library, and what they found

• COMMUNICATIONS: Navigating Climate Change in Europe: The Choices Ahead (2022)

  • This is a six-country study examining how Europeans think and feel about climate change, and what obstacles stand between broad public concern and political action.  

• MOBILISATION: Mapping News Creators and Influencers in Social and Video Networks (2025) 

  • This report tracks independent “news creators” across 24 countries using audience data — what users say they follow for news — separating them from legacy outlets. Its typology, “the news” vs. “news-adjacent,” is original, and so is its pairing of five global findings with 24 country profiles of top creators, platforms, and brands.

• NARRATIVE: Crafting Public Narrative to Enable Collective Action (2023)

  • Evidence indicates that “public narrative” is an effective leadership practice for mobilizing collective action by turning personal and shared values into motivation to act. Narratives that pair vulnerability with agency create what the authors call a “moral battery,” connecting emotion to readiness for action.

• PSYCHOLOGY: Hopium or Empowering Hope? A Meta-Analysis of Hope and Climate Engagement (2023)

  • This systematic review and meta-analysis tackles whether hope drives climate action or acts as “hopium” that calms but doesn’t mobilize. It shows hope isn’t one thing: its link to engagement depends on what the hope is about (e.g., personal action vs. denial) and how it’s induced (e.g., experiential training vs. “society will fix it” messages).

• PUBLIC OPINION: Climate Change in the Indian Mind (2025)

  • A new, fifth-wave nationally representative survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) tracks how Indians understand, feel about, and act on climate change — against the backdrop of an unusually early, record-breaking heat wave that likely sharpened risk perception and personal-experience findings.

3 . A link on AI & [climate] comms worth watching

We’re in August 2026: journalists and communicators use AI, so why hide it or pretend otherwise? I don’t think it makes anyone less intelligent; it’s the opposite when you manage it well and own it. 

That’s why I appreciate Taylor Lorenz’s “Model Behavior” on Substack: a rare behind‑the‑scenes look at a working creator’s hybrid workflow. She spends ~$300/month on tools: AI aggregates research, organizes notes, and drafts titles/thumbnails, while reporting, long‑form pieces, and newsletter curation stay “100% human.” 

Candid about losing about a quarter of her income as readers turn to AI, Taylor is doubling down on original writing to protect her value. Pro‑transparency, she argues readers deserve to know how content is made, even as she calls out performative anti‑AI posturing. For climate communicators, it’s a grounded playbook for boosting productivity without outsourcing voice, judgment, or sourcing.

4 . Closing with beauty

I came across this beautiful picture...

It’s from autistic and queer aerial embroider Victoria Richards, and it’s called 'You'll choke too' - representing a forest fire. Her words: “I'm very upset every time I smell smoke these days. Wildfires are happening here in Devon and Cornwall... just saw on the news this morning too that some have been deliberately set. Well, the title of this piece is clear to me - whether you take it seriously or care or not, you'll choke on the smoke either way.” 

Community and art are personally what help me manage the rage and eco-anxiety. I like how it maps to agency at the end, and how Victoria is redirecting the attention her work gets to support the Devon Wildlife Trust: “They look after and support rare and wild species around my county by restoring and protecting wild areas.”  I’m happy to contribute, honoring all the firefighters and civil servants who saved and protected the living by sharing this call.  

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