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California Coastal Commission

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Monarchs hanging from a tree

Climate Storytelling Contest

2025 Photo Essay 3rd Place Winner

"Through My Mind: Climate Change and the Future I Fear"
By Aden McCoy, Oakland

Text: Through My Mind: Climate Change and the Future I Fear, by Aden McCoy, 2025.

Climate Change is the gradually changing of the earth's environment over a period of a time, usually caused by human activities. Effects of climate change are rising sea levels and more disastrous natural disasters effects like stronger winds and hotter days. Causing a tremendous loss of ecosystems and life, both human and animal. The estimated loss to gdp from natural disasters is around $417 billion. The overall story I wanted to show in my essay, was a tour inside my mind and my thoughts about climate change, what I think, how I feel. Though my story does not have a middle beginning and end, I feel that my intention with that choice is to further emphasize the point that these are my thoughts and my feelings currently, and they don't just go away. I hope that viewers take away with them the thoughts that what they do impacts the younger generation. As much as I want to inspire others to action, I also want to inspire myself. I often feel that I am so desensitized to bad news, that I just shrub and say, Oh well, but I want to be inspired, I want to fight for what I believe in.

Photo of a wooden park bench. Caption: Lone Bench, UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley California. Text: The lone bench represents my feelings of loneliness and isolation, when people bring up climate change. How isolating and longely the new can be, how I just feel despair and hopelessness.

Photo of a chalk board with a chalk drawing of a person's head with scribbles on the top, and words incluing HELP ME. Caption: Overactive Mind, Lisser Hall, Oakland, California Text: Overactive Mind, is representative over my overactive mind and anxieties. It feels like whenever I open my eyes I feel like I see a new headline about how the world is going to end in 3 days, so I think this is how I picture my mind.

Photo of a caution tape across a path near a stream. Caption: RESTRICTED, UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley, California. Text: RESTRICTED represents my feelings of anger on how nature has been robbed from future generations. The caution tape shows how nature has been blocked off and forgotten about, robbing the next generation from experiencing it.

Photo of a child stepping on rocks to cross a stream. Caption: Skipping Stones, UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley, California. Text: Skipping Stones is representative of how I navigate the vast information landscape, like dodging rocks. We are living in the age of information, which has made it easier than ever for anyone to create 'news' which leads to a lot of misinformation and fear mongering.

Photo of a flyer on a wall that says Save The Kelp. Caption: Save The Kelp, Julia Morgan School for Girls, Oakland, California. Text: Save The Kelp is a poster supporting a hypothethical kelp initiative to me it represents taking all of my negative feelings and turning them to political action. I believe that nothing can ever get permanently changed without political pressure from ordinary people.

Photo of a shelf with clipboards, pens, hole punchers, and other school supplies on it. Caption: Climate Keys, Julia Morgan School for Girls, Oakland, California. Text: Climate Keys is a photo of the supply cubby from inside my science classroom, and it represents the education and learning we do in class. In science class we learn so much about our world, how we can help it and our places in the world, we also get the tools to deal with our feelings, and make a positive impact.

A photo of a hallway heading in two directions around a corner. Caption: Intersection Hallway, Julia Morgan School for Girls, Oakland, California. Text: Intersection Hallyway represents how now, right now we are at a pivotal intersection point in history, we have two choices to keep going down the path we are on, or forge a new one. The old path has led us here, a world heading for destruction, but the new path offers up hope, a chance for a better future, but it's up to us to make the right choice.