Tell Your Climate Story with The Changing Times

Getting outside with The Changing Times editors

Meg Smith always takes stunning photos.

Meg Smith always takes stunning photos.

Summertime is full of new experiences, often marked by the beautiful long, warm days. We (the editors of The Changing Times) love to see Megan’s adventures with her littles, the stunning landscapes of Meg’s hikes, and Sydney’s exploration of her new home in Charleston, South Carolina. We’re all getting outside and enjoying the world in our own way. There’s no limit to what we can find when we step outside our front door and no one’s relationship with our beautiful earth is quite the same.

Telling our climate stories

Spending time outside in the summer is part of our individual climate stories. These stories become part of us, guiding us as we make decisions about how we interact with the world each and everyday. When our editorial team (virtually) sat down following the release of our spring 2021 issue, we discussed how we could tell these stories about engaging with our world and share the places that are important to us. 

Sydney found this stunning lookout

Sydney found this stunning lookout over the marsh across the street from her new home in Charleston!

Thus, we came up with the idea of a special summer art issue, where we could invite everyone to share their experiences of the world.

We're always pretty creative over here at The Changing Times, but this summer we wanted to do something EXTRA creative - devote our pages exclusively to creative endeavors! We gave our columnists the summer off so YOUR voices, stories, sculptures, paintings, and pictures could have every inch of the issue. We couldn't be more excited to see what you all come up with!

Share your climate story with The Changing Times

How do YOU engage with this beautiful, harsh, broken, wild, soft, rugged world? 

The Changing Times asks (and tries) to answer this question every issue. Climate change is so big it’s hard to conceive but we know that storytelling (in every form) and community around those stories are acts of resistance. 

If you’re ready to tell your story and share your experiences, there’s still time left to get involved with two of our current projects:

1 - Get involved with our campaign: #TCTgetoutside.

We're asking for your photos about how you engage with our earth. How do you get out in the world? Where do you go? It could be a hike in a wilderness area or just a walk around your neighborhood. We want to see your experiences and hear your stories.

Submit with the hashtag #TCTgetoutside on Instagram or use our online submission form.

We’ve already begun sharing photos on our Instagram account, if you need some inspiration. We’re excited to share more places and stories. Some of the submitted photos will be featured in the summer 2021 print issue or online extras and we will continue sharing your #TCTgetoutside photos and stories on Instagram.

2 - Submit your work for the summer 2021 issue!

We accept submissions of any and all creative outpourings. We want your grief, your joy, your anger, your exuberance, your pain, your tiredness, your exhaustion - your experience of this deeply interconnected world. How do you engage with the world? How do you experience/process climate change? What is your lived, bodily experience of the more-than-human world? We want YOUR experience/voice/story.
Submit using our online submission form.

Submissions for the print issue due by July 5!

The Changing Times is a seasonal (quarterly) publication of Families For a Livable Climate that invites community-wide response to these turbulent and revolutionary times, seeking submissions from people of all ages and backgrounds. In this space, we share stories, express love for the world around us, and offer ways for everyone to get involved in answering the call to change - in ourselves, our families, our communities, and our country. We know this work happens by challenging our systems and leaders; conversing on resiliency, grief work, activism, youth empowerment, education, intergenerational support, local living, and traditional knowledge; and connecting with one another through our relationship with nature and the creative arts. While the magazine is based in Missoula, MT we consider “conversations with the peripheries,” throughout Montana, and beyond to be vital, so anyone is welcome to subscribe and/ or submit.