As part of Qatar Foundation’s two-day Earthna Summit, the session ‘Climate Through a Lens: The Power of Media’ brought together storytellers and visual communicators to explore how media can shape public understanding and inspire action on climate change.

Held at the Earthna Village – an interactive, community-centered space in Msheireb Downtown Doha designed to engage audiences of all ages – the session, moderated by Nick Clark, environment editor at Al Jazeera English, saw Hamza Yassin, wildlife cameraman and presenter; Ali Rae, journalist and filmmaker with Al Jazeera English; Anthony Flint, Senior Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; and Thijs Biersteker, environmental artist and founder of Woven Foundation share their insights on how different media forms can be powerful tools in making the climate crisis more relatable, emotional, and urgent.

The session underscored that while the climate crisis is complex, the way we talk about it – through images, stories, and voices – can open pathways to understanding, empathy, and meaningful change.

Yassin explained how his personal journey – from growing up around pet lions in Sudan to filming golden eagles in Scotland – shaped his distinctive visual language for environmental storytelling.“Being severely dyslexic, I see the world through images,” he said. “That’s how I communicate – and photography became my language.”

Reflecting on how he approaches documentary work differently, Yassin added: “I try to show the full picture – not just pan into the perfect part of the scene, which is what we typically see in documentaries. I include the people, the context – the real story. Even if it’s not always picture-perfect, it humanizes the narrative, and that, to me, is more important.”

Speaking on why the urgency of climate change still hasn’t hit home for most people, Rae emphasized the psychological barriers that prevent audiences from engaging meaningfully with the climate crisis – what she called the “five D’s”: distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity.

“We have all the science we need – but our response hasn’t caught up,” she said. “Understanding how people psychologically process climate information is key to changing the conversation.”

According to Biersteker, transforming data into interactive, physical art can spark emotional connection and understanding. “If something is unimaginable, it becomes un-actionable,” he said. 

“We need to turn the complexity of science into something compelling – something that makes people feel, because if we don’t, we risk alienating people from the cause. If we can add emotion to the data, we can speak to the imagination– and that gives me hope.”

And Yassin ended the session closed on a note of cautious optimism, saying: “If we can spark curiosity in the next generation – like [famous broadcaster and biologist] Sir David Attenborough did for me – there’s a chance to build something better.”