This collaborative project highlights links between the climate crisis and human health. The poems connect a mix of voices from climate science and healthcare, using words to halt and heal a fast-escalating climate emergency. They testify to our team’s mission – to forge exciting collaborations using poetry to announce key environmental change and health messages. Read on to see how the poems have inspired a book, poetry trail, podcast and music to get the climate change message out there.
Through creative writing workshops with over 30 Met Office climate scientists and health professionals from the University of Exeter, led by our poet Dr Sally Flint, we created 12 poems with the notion that ‘there is power by paying attention’. What makes ‘One Chance Left’ stand out is that the poems are written by those working on the front line of the climate crisis. It is a coming together of voices excavating climate change problems and searching for solutions in an emergency. Those who see first-hand and are acutely aware of the devastation being done to the planet are desperate to let others know the truth and the likely implications. We must join together to heal the world before it’s too late.
Explore the poems through our e-book which is available below and through the digital collection of Libraries Unlimited in Devon.
There will be a limited printed edition of One Chance Left on recycled paper, now available for sale on the Riptide website.
Follow the flags in the city of Exeter. Be inspired by extracts from the poems. Engage others. Make a change. Together we can repair our planet.
In November 2021, poems were displayed at Exeter Central Library, the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Queen Street, Princesshay, the Met Office and both University of Exeter campuses in Exeter, and at the Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
Combining the poems with sounds of nature from the BBC archives, recordings of each of the 12 poems have been produced for One Chance Left, with narrators including:
Driven by hope for a greener future, click on the images to listen.
Add your voice here
West Country musicians in England have transformed the One Chance Left poems into songs.
In a climate emergency, this is a bringing together of facts, findings and feelings, and through music, we join in using powerful words to get the key climate message across – that we have one last chance to save our wonderful world.
This album is now available on all major streaming platforms including Spotify and to purchase on BandCamp, with all proceeds going to Greenpeace and Surfers Against Sewage. The One Chance Left e-book is included with this purchase.
Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Education at Exeter Medical School, Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and GP in the Emergency Department at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. He was also the Deputy Medical Director for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust. His interests include the use of IT in Medical Education, Global Health, and Event Medicine. As a previous cabinet member of the Association for Medical Humanities, he is passionate about the use of humanities in medical education and continues to run a special study unit in music on the BMBS programme at Exeter.
Associate Professor of Medical Science Education and Neuroscience at University of Exeter. During his active research period in the UK and the USA, he worked on various aspects of neuronal network changes that occur as a result of memory formation, in both health and dementia states. His interests have evolved more towards health issues and, in particular, health inequality and the environment. He recently published a systematic review of sustainable management of medical waste in African developing countries and has been acting as the academic lead of Planetary Health Grand Challenges events and the college Rep of Environment and Climate Emergency (Sustainability group).
Education and Skills Partnership Development Manager at University of Exeter and responsible for continuing professional development at the University of Exeter’s Medical School. She has a background in anthropology, archaeology, and education. Cecilia’s professional life has grown and developed at the intersection of science and humanities in Uruguay, USA, Panama and UK. It has taught her that we are at our best when we work in collaboration and in an interdisciplinary way to address challenges and develop opportunities. She considers that there is no greater challenge than our planetary health emergency. We have a once-in-a-generation window to act courageously and make change happen. As Nelson Mandela believed: ‘Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.’
Professor in Detection and Attribution at the University of Exeter and a Science Fellow at the Met Office. He has a distinguished research record in the science of climate change and extensive experience in communicating climate science through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, public engagement events and appearances on radio and TV. His book Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial is the inspiring story of how the science of climate change was developed, how it has been repeatedly sabotaged and why humanity must act now.
Principal Consultant in Applied Science and Strategic Head of Health Science Integration at the Met Office. Under the UK–South Africa Newton Fund partnership, Professor Barciela leads a team of scientists responsible for the Weather and Climate Science for Services Partnership (WCSSP) South Africa project. She also works with international experts in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and World Health Organization (WHO) on research related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Poet and editor who lectures in Creative Writing and Publishing. She is co-founder of Riptide Journal, and has designed/facilitated many successful creative and community projects. For several years she has been working with scientists, academics and medical professionals investigating how stories and poetry can help raise awareness of the devastation that climate change is causing around the world. She aims to forge more science/arts collaborations using language, images and other art forms to show and encourage ways to heal, protect and connect nature and people.
Associate Director for Arts and Culture at the University of Exeter. She has built her career designing and delivering learning programmes in galleries and museums and has worked in large national collections (National Galleries of Scotland, Victoria and Albert Museum) to regional institutions (The New Art Gallery, Walsall), and University-based collections (Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge). In 2016, Sarah was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship. She is fascinated by creative thinking and the creative process, interests that have been put to good use at Exeter where Arts and Culture aim to ‘activate creativity’. She finds it a frightening privilege to work with researchers who know just how urgent the climate crisis is. What gives her hope is that our species can find incredible solutions to complex problems – scientists and storytellers, artists and makers help drive awareness and culture change.
Cultural professional with over 20 years of experience. He has founded his own theatre company (The British Touring Shakespeare Company), worked at the Globe Theatre, held a range of roles at Arts Council England, developed a new arts & culture service at the University of Exeter, led Plymouth Culture for 4 years and is currently Head of Creative Places for the University of Exeter. This role involves supporting and shaping the cultural plan, leading Exeter Culture and overseeing Exeter UNESCO City of Literature.
2021.10.28
Leading health professionals and climate scientists are using poetry to warn of the catastrophic impact of the climate crisis and there is “one chance left”...
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