Charlotte Weatherill
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ckweatherill.bsky.social
Charlotte Weatherill
@ckweatherill.bsky.social
2.4K followers 1K following 390 posts
Lecturer in Environmental Politics @ UoM
Climate politics - vulnerability - islands
Social media editor for @environmentalpol.bsky.social
Convener of @bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social
Views are mine and represent me
Posts Replies Media Videos
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Really tough job organising our panel for POLLEN. Two slots and 15 papers. Or hopefully, but not guaranteed, six slots and 15 papers - which is still so difficult. Conferences are so difficult to organise (believe me, I know) but I'm not sure this way of doing it has worked.
December 8, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Today is my first day in my new job at the Uni of Manchester, and I have a new article to share!

‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.

This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.

doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
ABSTRACT How climate change is narrated matters. Every story that is told of climate change contains its own causes of the problem, its own solutions and its own vision of the future. This article juxtaposes two stories: the dominant story of climate change as represented by the IPCC and a counter-story of climate change as ‘imperial mess’. This language comes from Alice Te Punga Somerville and her book Two Hundred and Fifty Ways to Start an Essay About Captain Cook (2020). In this book, Te Punga Somerville writes about colonialism in Aotearoa and the Pacific as a story that can be told in endless different ways, with each story drawing out different elements. Number 223 of her project, ‘In Montebello Islands’, discusses the British nuclear weapons testing programme. The tests were called ‘Operation Hurricane’, and Te Punga Somerville writes that the whole imperial mess of the past five centuries could be called “Operation Hurricane”. This article takes this claim as a prompt, both methodologically and theoretically, in order to argue that climate change needs to be understood in a historically and geographically informed way, where the colonial history becomes the present, coloniality and resistance entwine and the ‘way out of the mess’ has to be found in a fight against the entirety of Operation Hurricane. The contribution of the article is twofold: First, this article contributes to literatures that understand climate change as a historical process of imperial violence, by directly addressing what this changes about an analysis of climate politics. Second, it contributes to critiques of the IPCC by showing how its approach depoliticises climate change through the way it narrates and communicates climate science as separate from historical and structural processes.
December 1, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
lisaschipper.bsky.social
It’s Friday. May I be blunt? F*ck this. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Over a third of animals lost in test deep sea mining - scientists
The findings contribute to a controversial debate that pits green technology against the environment.
www.bbc.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
mybisa.bsky.social
🔉We are delighted to announce that we have kicked off todays event with @bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social!

🌏We are joined by Carl Death to discuss his new book 'African Climate Futures' followed by a roundtable with Farai Chipato and Audra Mitchell on alternative ecological futures.
December 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
edwinheathcote.bsky.social
The getting rid of juries has, in my opinion, a darker rationale. It means protestors, who are more likely to get let off when juries are involved, will now all be found guilty. Part of a sinister cross party agenda of slowly criminalising protest.
December 4, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
mybisa.bsky.social
🚨LAST CHANCE for our Environment and Climate Politics Working Group event tomorrow!🚨

'Alternative ecological futures: Art, climate change and the radical imagination' the role of art and creativity in imagining alternative ecological futures 🌟

Register now 👉 https://ow.ly/2tPJ50XxVaE
December 3, 2025 at 2:02 PM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Commute off to a good start. If things don't get worse, I'll be going back through my home station an hour and a half after I first left it.
December 3, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
hannahhughes.bsky.social
Really looking forward to chairing and listening into this @bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social conversation on the role of art and creativity in imagining alternative ecological futures :-)
bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social Environment and Climate Politics Working Group @bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social · 6d
Last chance to register for Thursday's event!

'Alternative ecological futures: Art, climate change and the radical imagination'.

Online, free to all, 3pm-4.30pm, UK time.

More info and the link for registration: www.bisa.ac.uk/events/alter...

@mybisa.bsky.social
Alternative ecological futures: Art, climate change and the radical imagination- Environment and Climate Politics | BISA
- Environment and Climate Politics Working Group
www.bisa.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social
Last chance to register for Thursday's event!

'Alternative ecological futures: Art, climate change and the radical imagination'.

Online, free to all, 3pm-4.30pm, UK time.

More info and the link for registration: www.bisa.ac.uk/events/alter...

@mybisa.bsky.social
Alternative ecological futures: Art, climate change and the radical imagination- Environment and Climate Politics | BISA
- Environment and Climate Politics Working Group
www.bisa.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
ckweatherill.bsky.social
In it I juxtapose stories of climate change across three sites of climate politics: uninhabitability, displacement, and loss and damage.

For each, I tell the IPCC version of the story, and then a counter-narrative that places climate change in the Pacific in the context of centuries of imperialism.
3.1 The IPCC Story Definitions: Habitability (human) ‘The ability of a place to support human life by providing protection from hazards which challenge human survival, and by assuring adequate space, food and freshwater’ (IPCC WGII 2023, 2911). The story: ‘The reduced habitability of small islands is an overarching significant risk caused by a combination of several key risks facing most small islands even under a global temperature scenario of 1.5°C (high confidence). These are loss of marine and coastal biodiversity and ecosystem services; submergence of reef islands; loss of terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services; water insecurity; destruction of settlements and infrastructure; degradation of health and well-being; economic decline and livelihood failure; and loss of cultural resources and heritage. Climate-related ocean changes, including those for slow-onset events, and changes in extreme events are projected to cause and/or amplify Keys Risks in most small islands. Identification of key risks facilitates the selection of optimal context-specific adaptation options. Moreover, it can distil the benefits and/or disadvantages and long-term implications of choosing such options (high confidence)’ (IPCC WGII 2023, 2046). 3.2 The Operation Hurricane Story Definitions: The Runit Dome: a concrete shell that houses death (Pacific Storytellers Cooperative 2018, 3:20) Disposability: ‘Our lives don't matter, the war matters. Nuclear bombs matter. Our lives don't matter, oil matters. Money matters, gas matters, profits matter.’ (Jetñil-Kijiner, in Willacy 2017, 38:30–38:41) Sacrificial colony: Colonisation that is distinguishable by its logic of disposability. To fit this into Lloyd Best's typology of colonialism, sacrificial colonies would be a subset of ‘colonies of conquest’ where this exploitation is to continue until the place ceases to exist (Best 1968, 285).
December 1, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
peterharveydigital.bsky.social
"How climate change is narrated is fundamentally important for climate politics, as contained within each story of climate change are the causes of the problem and therefore implied solutions and implied futures."

Really interesting article:
ckweatherill.bsky.social Charlotte Weatherill @ckweatherill.bsky.social · 7d
Today is my first day in my new job at the Uni of Manchester, and I have a new article to share!

‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.

This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.

doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
ABSTRACT How climate change is narrated matters. Every story that is told of climate change contains its own causes of the problem, its own solutions and its own vision of the future. This article juxtaposes two stories: the dominant story of climate change as represented by the IPCC and a counter-story of climate change as ‘imperial mess’. This language comes from Alice Te Punga Somerville and her book Two Hundred and Fifty Ways to Start an Essay About Captain Cook (2020). In this book, Te Punga Somerville writes about colonialism in Aotearoa and the Pacific as a story that can be told in endless different ways, with each story drawing out different elements. Number 223 of her project, ‘In Montebello Islands’, discusses the British nuclear weapons testing programme. The tests were called ‘Operation Hurricane’, and Te Punga Somerville writes that the whole imperial mess of the past five centuries could be called “Operation Hurricane”. This article takes this claim as a prompt, both methodologically and theoretically, in order to argue that climate change needs to be understood in a historically and geographically informed way, where the colonial history becomes the present, coloniality and resistance entwine and the ‘way out of the mess’ has to be found in a fight against the entirety of Operation Hurricane. The contribution of the article is twofold: First, this article contributes to literatures that understand climate change as a historical process of imperial violence, by directly addressing what this changes about an analysis of climate politics. Second, it contributes to critiques of the IPCC by showing how its approach depoliticises climate change through the way it narrates and communicates climate science as separate from historical and structural processes.
December 1, 2025 at 2:52 PM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Today is my first day in my new job at the Uni of Manchester, and I have a new article to share!

‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess.

This article is something a bit different, playing with format to explore why climate storytelling matters.

doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
ABSTRACT How climate change is narrated matters. Every story that is told of climate change contains its own causes of the problem, its own solutions and its own vision of the future. This article juxtaposes two stories: the dominant story of climate change as represented by the IPCC and a counter-story of climate change as ‘imperial mess’. This language comes from Alice Te Punga Somerville and her book Two Hundred and Fifty Ways to Start an Essay About Captain Cook (2020). In this book, Te Punga Somerville writes about colonialism in Aotearoa and the Pacific as a story that can be told in endless different ways, with each story drawing out different elements. Number 223 of her project, ‘In Montebello Islands’, discusses the British nuclear weapons testing programme. The tests were called ‘Operation Hurricane’, and Te Punga Somerville writes that the whole imperial mess of the past five centuries could be called “Operation Hurricane”. This article takes this claim as a prompt, both methodologically and theoretically, in order to argue that climate change needs to be understood in a historically and geographically informed way, where the colonial history becomes the present, coloniality and resistance entwine and the ‘way out of the mess’ has to be found in a fight against the entirety of Operation Hurricane. The contribution of the article is twofold: First, this article contributes to literatures that understand climate change as a historical process of imperial violence, by directly addressing what this changes about an analysis of climate politics. Second, it contributes to critiques of the IPCC by showing how its approach depoliticises climate change through the way it narrates and communicates climate science as separate from historical and structural processes.
December 1, 2025 at 8:25 AM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Preparing to fly back to the UK. Heart utterly broken as usual. Family emotions aside, there's nowhere as beautiful as Aotearoa.
A landscape photograph taken from the Royal Albatross Centre, looking back down the peninsula. The sea is a colour that only exists in the water here. New Zealand blue.
November 28, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
profemzed.bsky.social
Calling IR academics— looking for anyone who works with the writings of Christina Sharpe, LHM Ling and Anna Agathangelou (not all at the same time!) — project with mz, cristina masters & shine choi. Dm or email any of us. ☺️
November 26, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social
Happening next week, 4th December.

Alternative ecological futures: Art, climate change and the radical imagination.

Online and free 3pm-4.30pm UK time - make sure you register!

www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...
Title, BISA working group logo, 4th December. "This roundtable brings together four researchers and their perspectives to a conversation about the role of art and creativity in imagining alternative ecological futures" List of participants. Chair Hannah Hughes, speakers Carl Death, Audra Mitchell, Farai Chipato, Cara Berger.
November 26, 2025 at 7:45 AM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Re-reading The Kraken Wakes on holiday. It's always felt like the climate change analogy out of Wyndham's stories. Here's a paragraph for the Europeans coming back from COP.
With apologies, I can't get this copied out on my phone. The paragraph relates to the narrator returning from witnessing attacks in the Caribbean and feeling affected but safe in the real world of the UK, where these things can't happen. Unlike the tropics, where "freakish" things often happen. This sense of false safety is a theme through the book.
November 22, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
pippacrerar.bsky.social
BREAKING: The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.
November 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Swam in Otago Harbour. More picturesque than it sounds.
Mac bay, beach, blue water looking warmer than it is. Me in the water, but you'll have to take my word for it.
November 20, 2025 at 3:46 AM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Went on an adventure with my sister. Spent hours on a boat and didn't throw up. Saw the most incredible sights... Impossible to capture on camera of course.
cascading waterfalls of Milford Sound on a rainy day
November 19, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
tom-cb.bsky.social
Always good to read something by @ckweatherill.bsky.social
geoopenaccess.bsky.social Geo: Geography and Environment @geoopenaccess.bsky.social · 20d
🏝️New in Geo!🏝️

'"Operation Hurricane": Narrating climate change as imperial mess' by Charlotte Weatherill

This paper is part of an ongoing Special Section: 'Political Ecologies of Islands: Environmental & Climate (In)Justices'.

doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Charlotte Kate Weatherill (2025) entitled: '‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess' with an orange banner at the top.
November 18, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
geoopenaccess.bsky.social
🏝️New in Geo!🏝️

'"Operation Hurricane": Narrating climate change as imperial mess' by Charlotte Weatherill

This paper is part of an ongoing Special Section: 'Political Ecologies of Islands: Environmental & Climate (In)Justices'.

doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Charlotte Kate Weatherill (2025) entitled: '‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess' with an orange banner at the top.
November 18, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Charlotte Weatherill
johnhoganmorris.bsky.social
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess
This article asks what politics are uncovered if you tell the story of climate change as ‘Operation Hurricane’, an historicised framing in which colonial history becomes the present, coloniality and ...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:54 AM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Soundtrack of this holiday is the Korimako / Bellbird. I love it.
November 15, 2025 at 7:50 PM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
I have a new publication. dx.doi.org/10.1002/geo2... I'm on leave so I'll share it properly in December, but it's good to see it out!
‘Operation Hurricane’: Narrating Climate Change as Imperial Mess
This article asks what politics are uncovered if you tell the story of climate change as ‘Operation Hurricane’, an historicised framing in which colonial history becomes the present, coloniality and ....
dx.doi.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:29 PM
ckweatherill.bsky.social
I make a big deal about not flying. I'm currently 34 hours into a 40 hour multi flight journey, 6 years since I last did this.

I lost my train tickets & debit card in London, nearly missed my connection, visa didn't get approved until 1 hour ago, and my luggage is stuck in Singapore. This is karma.
November 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM