Characters That Inspire Action

Character Dimensions in a Climate Context

In his seminal text, The Art of Dramatic Writing, Lajos Egri argues that every character has three essential dimensions—physiological, sociological, and psychological—and that understanding all three is necessary for writing believable human beings.

Physiological Dimension

Egri places physiology first because it’s immediate and visible, noting that “our physiology colors our outlook on life.”

In climate stories, the physiological dimension determines what characters can physically withstand and perceive. A farmer watching ancestral land turn to dust experiences climate change differently from a city planner managing heat-related deaths. A person with disabilities faces different challenges under an evacuation order than a person without disabilities. Physical reality shapes what characters know and prioritize.

Questions to Ask

• What climate impacts has your character directly experienced in their body?
• What has this character already lost to climate change?
• What physical resources do they have—water, cooling, mobility, shelter?
• How does their age, health, or condition shape their level of vulnerability?

Sociological Dimension

Egri’s second dimension examines how environment shapes character: class, occupation, family life, cultural background, etc.

For example, a character’s economic position impacts their climate vulnerability. The person with air conditioning and emergency funds experiences heat waves differently than the person without these resources.

Questions to Ask

• What social class does your character occupy, and how does it determine their adaptive capacity?
• What community networks exist—or have been lost due to displacement?
• How does their cultural background shape their understanding of environmental change?

Psychological Dimension

Egri emphasizes that psychology emerges from the combined influence of physiology and sociology. From these forces come ambition, frustration, temperament, and ultimately, worldview.

Questions to Ask

• What is your character’s relationship to nature?
• What are the characters still trying to protect—and what will they sacrifice to keep it?
• What decision must they make that they’ve been avoiding?
• What’s the gap between what they say they want and what they actually need?
• What belief about themselves or the world does climate change threaten?
• Where does their resistance to change come from—fear, pride, attachment, denial?
• What transformation becomes possible only through this crisis?

Character Growth Through Climate Crisis

Characters don’t change because time passes—they change because circumstances force decisions that reveal and transform them.

The Decision Chain in Climate Stories

In dramatic writing, a character’s decision sets forces in motion that other characters must respond to. This pattern of choice and consequence creates dramatic momentum. Here’s an example from the film Erin Brockovich:

PG&E decides to dump contaminated water into the Hinkley community (decision) → Hinkley residents develop cancers and illnesses, but don’t know why (consequence) → Erin decides to investigate the real estate files, discovers the cover-up (counter-decision) → PG&E must choose between admitting liability or fighting the victims (pressure point) → PG&E chooses denial and legal warfare, Erin escalates to class action (character revelation + new consequences) → Residents must decide whether to accept settlement or demand trial (new pressure point) → They choose settlement, revealing pragmatic need over complete justice → Erin continues to fight injustice (final character revelation).

Every protagonist needs a transformation moment where internal change becomes external choice. Strong stories create this through contrast.

Start by defining the opposing values your story explores (e.g., Denial vs Acceptance; Isolation vs Community; Extraction vs Regeneration; Individualism vs Collectivism) and position your characters along this spectrum. Where are they at the beginning of the story? Where are they at the end? How have the events of the story pushed them along this spectrum…for better or for worse?

Supporting characters at different points along this spectrum reveal the range of responses:

• Antagonists embody contrasting values to your protagonist’s
• Catalysts force difficult choices for your protagonist
• Allies support the protagonist’s journey
• Mirror characters show what the protagonist could become

Critical Considerations: Archetypes That Undermine Stories

Climate narratives often default to familiar character types that flatten complex realities into simple moral categories:

• The Lone Hero who single-handedly solves systemic problems reinforces individualism when climate solutions require collective action.
• The Helpless Victim who suffers without agency and experiences paralysis rather than empowerment undermines the resilience real communities employ.
• The Prescient Prophet who no one believes positions audiences as foolish masses, breeding defensiveness rather than engagement.
• The Evil Denier who maliciously destroys the planet oversimplifies structural systemic problems into mustache-twirling villains.
• The Enlightened Outsider who teaches locals what they already know centers outsider expertise rather than allowing indigenous and frontline communities to explain their lived experience.
• The Wisdom Dispenser reduces Indigenous characters to mystical guides and scientists to purely rational figures with no personal stakes.

Think about creating complex characters whose climate relationships reflect real tensions—between the status quo and future sustainability, between individual needs and collective good, between grief for what’s lost and hope for what’s possible.