Joerg Altekruse: The paradigm shift through storytelling

Storytelling and film to take action in impact

Joerg, tell us a little about your work and how it intersects with the impact space.

When I became a filmmaker, a film could have a significant impact on important issues by sparking debates all over Germany and even influence law-making. Audiences were not split up like today. My film about Lake Baikal containing one fifths of all sweet water inspired its protection as a UNESCO World Nature Heritage Site. I worked for a campaign that halved the number of teenagers in Germany to start smoking within 15 years. I learned that through good storytelling, people could be inspired to take action. When you give a clear description of a “problem space” and open the door to well defined “solution spaces”, people are ready to change. 

I documented a solution-finding process that wrote history. When the Earth’s ozone layer was threatened by hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration, the UN “Montreal protocol” to phase them out had been signed within three years. In a Swiss monastery all stakeholders, from the industry, the UN to the World Bank took a bold move into the “solution space” with the HCFS free ecofridge system.

But Climate Change and the closely connected fossil energy production are on a different level of complexity, with huge vested interests involved. It took me 20 years to get “Tipping Points of Climate” commissioned, a series broadcast in over 60 countries. Yet it failed to trigger the action we had hoped for. Therefore, in 2015, the year of the historic Paris Climate Conference, we founded Youth4planet to build unconventional “solution spaces” by co-creative storytelling and filmmaking.

Vision for the paradigm shift

What is your definition of “impact”, Joerg?

Don’t we all wish to have some kind of impact in life, on other people, maybe even in history?  But here we are talking of a special type of impact that requires entrepreneurial vision, to bring resources, people and ideas together into the same “solution space.” For me, this kind of impact creates an environment that makes so much sense that no one can resist. The result could be an idea that resonates with as many people as possible. Or it could be a technology that we have been anticipating, or a service or solution to an unsolved challenge. At best, the impact is so convincing that all old habits, all old power structures immediately become obsolete and get socially overrun. There are ample examples in history of a new normal taking over in a wink of eye - the personal computer, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the swiping gesture on a smart device – they all came from a vision and with a promise – and stayed. At best, well-tested positive impact starts a paradigm shift that cannot be rolled back. For example, the washing machine liberated women worldwide from a time-consuming task and allowed them to pursue higher education. 

Global economy heading towards tipping points

Based on your experience, what is one of the important issues to be solved over the next 10 years?

When I worked on the tv series “Tipping Points of Climate” I came to admire the collective wisdom of the community of tens of thousands of scientists creating knowledge about Mother Earth, and how we humans influence its ingenious interconnected systems we depend on.

With our highly efficient machine called the “global economy” we are heading for disaster by destroying the ecosystem we are part of, causing loss of biodiversity, atmospheric heating and a general overconsumption of limited resources. Although many now see that this is unwise, nobody seems to be held accountable, able to stop the machine, repair it, or replace it. 

I believe we need to get the machine back to work within planetary boundaries in the next ten years. For this we need to create a countdown running backwards, defining every step. We need people that take responsibility to change the course, people who can respect equal rights of all humans and the rights of all beings to exist. We need an exponential growth of “solution spaces” for these people to get going. Imagine the incredible speed similar to the deployment of the Covid vaccines.

A filmmaker’s view point on impact

From your perspective, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges in the impact space?

As a filmmaker, you learn to see things in a multimodal way and from many different angles: from above, outside, inside and underneath - and from input to outcome.

When I look at the challenges ahead (e.g. the climate disaster) I see a lot of money and resources, but in the wrong solution spaces. I see technology fit for delivery but not the right people to make use of it. And I see schools and learning systems still hovering in solution spaces from the 19th century unfit for developing the desirable communication skills and brainpower in people to connect dots and create integrated solutions across sectors.

Six years ago the UN Sustainable Development Goals were signed by 193 states. All declared to implement Education for Sustainable Development into their education system and train solution seekers for tomorrow. Very little happened. Only the Fridays4future movement with some good questions managed to drill through the sticky institutional dough surrounding the learning sphere.

Consequently youth4planet is developing - in cooperation with others – fast tracks and passing lanes that allow for young people to use their smart power-in-their-pocket devices to bypass the hurdles of the current learning systems, anticipate solutions and act proactively. Running through simple steps (researching – understanding – creating – visualizing – promoting – integrating feedback) they learn from their mistakes in a co-creative filmmaking and storytelling process. Effective digital connectivity will grow solution spaces exponentially and thus help to earn the digital dividend.

“Smart forces” to have an impact 

Joerg, please share the long-term vision you have for your work and how you measure & quantify your impact.

My vision is to make Youth4planet storytelling and film processes available for every kid, worldwide, as a tool for learning about the laws of nature, cooperation, co-creation, and optimistic engagement. Scientists tell us that the next 10 years are crucial for tackling the climate crisis. Let’s form “smart forces” to have an impact in the real world. 

Steps towards this goal include running online local training, make Youth4planet available for co-creative storytelling, starting the first “Earthbeat Challenge”, initiate local “Earthbeat Knowledge Hubs”, create “Earthbeat Popup Hubs” and to find investors to co-develop renewable energy solutions and much more.

Impact can be measured by outreach, diversity of ideas generated, spread and implemented, and outcome of local transitions, integrated energy solutions and a carbon drawdown.

Top-down solutions

Through your work, what misconceptions have you noticed regarding what “impact” is all about? 

Very often I have seen people or institutions trying to make an impact by enforcing something upon others, offering them no choice. This paternalistic view of impact is typical for postcolonial power structures. Imagine those well-meant food programs in refugee camps who by design treat the inhabitants like hungry animals rather than respected citizens who would be fully capable to create and run their own organizational structures. Thus the existing rules create endless victim–offender games that no one can win. 

Inadequately tested, top-down solutions often have the opposite effect for which they were intended. Totalitarian systems, even good willed eco-dictatorship, produce a similarly chaotic outcome because they cannot be agile and constantly readjusted. Whoever is dreaming of universal fixes for ecological challenges, beware of unwanted consequences. We are complex beings in highly complex societies living together in a highly complex biosphere, all of which need to be respected. There is no time for quick fixes.