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Hope is a Thing with Flippers

Wresting the Narrative from the Fossil Fuel Industry for a Just Transition

Wednesday 6th November, Maritime Museum, Aberdeen

This special event aimed to connect writers from a range of genres – poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction and journalism – with those working in communities or campaigning for climate justice, to create compelling stories for a future without fossil fuels. 

The event featured speakers and activism performances related to aspects of the Fossil Fuel Treaty – a campaign calling for an end to all new oil and gas, a rapid shift to sustainable energy, and a just transition both for oil and gas workers and for nations with less capacity to transition.

After the speakers and performances, workshop attendees were invited to imagine the Aberdeen Maritime Museum in fifty years’ time and the exhibits they would like to see there. The list below, addressed to Scotland’s First Minister, is what these people most hoped for – on a day when hope was otherwise in short supply.

It is clear that Scotland’s communities are calling for a fast, fair and community-led transition away from fossil fuels, and better more equitable narratives for a liveable future.


Dear First Minister

The Aberdeen Maritime Museum Re-imagined: the year is 2074

  • An exhibition celebrates the spirit of ‘truth and reconciliation’. Scotland moved on from fossil fuels without guilt or blame. Everyone’s voice was heard and the transition was peaceful and community-led.
  • An acknowledgement of the benefits that oil and gas brought to Aberdeen, but the recognition that we had to move on.
  • Stories told by communities – not corporations.
  • An exhibition of voices: Oral histories tell of the concerns that arose ahead of the Just Transition. It wasn’t as scary as people had once thought.
  • A celebration of marine nature recovery after the oil fields were decommissioned.
  • A look back at the 2024 narrative that is now universally recognised as petro-masculine, extractivist, colonial and individualist. These views are now seen as archaic as VHS.
  • Petro-artifacts on show – like the first and last bottles of oil extracted from the North Sea.
  • A walk through from the past to the present showing the transition to regenerative, nurturing communities led by participatory democracy.
  • Many exhibits are housed in the community rather than in a central museum space. A giant sculpture in St Fittick’s Park depicts the creative collaborations and collective community spirit that drove Aberdeen’s Just Transition.
  • An exhibition shows how communities benefited from the transition away from fossil fuels, rather than big corporations.
  • Transparency of the truths behind the extinct corporations that were desperate to perpetuate an industry beyond its lifespan for the sake of profit.
  • The museum now includes welcoming spaces for communities, discussions and active democracy.
  • An exhibition celebrates the beautiful natural world in recovery from climate change.
  • The large central oil rig model has been rewilded with plants as a living exhibit.
  • An exhibition shows how our environmental debts were repaid as justice for those who did least to cause the climate crisis.
  • Exhibitions show a positive view of the Just Transition; in the end, it wasn’t as scary as people thought, but became an opportunity to create greenspaces, warmer homes and community-owned energy.
  • Stories of transition previous to oil and gas: the transition from coal; the transition away from whale oil.
  • Stories of climate migration: as climate change made parts of the world uninhabitable, Aberdeen welcomed migrants into its rich and diverse community.
  • An exhibit shows how oceanic life is thriving in the extensive ‘no-take’ zones around Scotland’s shores.

First Minister – this is the future we want for our children.
Please back the Fossil Fuel Treaty for Scotland.

We are concerned citizens who participated in the event ‘Hope is a Thing with Flippers’ at Aberdeen Maritime Museum on the 6th November 2024, facilitated by Creative Carbon Scotland. The event brought together those working in Scotland for climate justice with creatives, broadcasters and communicators from across Scotland.

Download a poster of this letter:


Event Speakers:

Sandy Winterbottom is a writer, Earth and environmental scientist, volunteer campaigns coordinator for Paperboats, and climate activist with the North Sea Knitters.

Matt Sowerby is an environmental writer, campaigner and producer from Cumbria. He is currently Climate Action Lead for the National Trust’s North England Advisory Group, as well as a Carbon Literacy Trainer at Cumbria Action for Sustainability. As a poet, Matt was a 2018 National Youth Slam Champion and 2023 Uni-Slam Champion. He has performed in the Houses of Parliament and on BBC Radio Three. https://mattsowerby.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/sourbee_matt/. You can listen to Matt speaking to Helen Needham on Scotland Outdoors.

Orla Shortall is a writer, academic and knowledge exchange practitioner. She runs the spoken word night Speakin’ Weird in Aberdeen and is an active member of the group Friends of St Fittick’s Park campaigning to save St Fittick’s Park in Torry from development.

Chris Aldred’s work in education has focused on accessible educational opportunities for adults and has always been informed by political involvement, from the early women’s liberation movement, through trade unionism and most recently climate action. A Torry resident, she loves St Fitticks park and as a Friend of St Fitticks Park is trying to save it from developers.

Cathy Allen is a retired teacher and has lived and worked in many countries including Ethiopia and Zambia and co-ran a charity in Tanzania for 15 years. She is an environmental and climate justice activist with Extinction Rebellion, Debt for Climate and Stop EACOP.

Nat Gorodnitski is Uplift UK’s Network Coordinator for oil and gas phase out as well as a lifelong artist and seasoned campaigner for climate and social justice.

Mark Richards from Aurora Photography kindly donated his time and skills to the event. Mark has given his time freely for many many years to climate activism. He took some truly wonderful photos of our event.

A Huge thank you to everyone that came along and to Creative Carbon Scotland for funding the event.