Terra Studio/Week 4

Playground 2

Micro-Build Kit

Seven micro-builds, one per output category. Each takes 5-10 minutes and produces something you can use. Complete all seven and you will have a storytelling co-pilot, a research notebook, three social cards, a concept video, a slide deck, an interactive calculator, and a content multiplication map from the Danny Kennedy keynote.


1

Text & Reasoning

Storytelling Co-pilot

Create a Claude Project (or ChatGPT Custom GPT, or Gemini Gem ) with your storytelling frameworks loaded as permanent context. Every prompt you write in this workspace will already have your Story Spine template, audience checklist, and value frame guide available. This becomes your Step 1-4 workhorse across all remaining modules.

How to set it up

  1. 1.Claude: Open claude.ai and create a new Project. Under Project Instructions, paste the text below. Give the project a name like "Climate Storytelling."
  2. 2.ChatGPT: Create a Custom GPT. Under Instructions, paste the same text.
  3. 3.Gemini: Create a new Gem. Under instructions, paste the same text.
Project instructions: paste into Claude Project / Custom GPT / Gemini Gem
You are a climate storytelling co-pilot. My strategic frameworks are loaded below.

STORY SPINE TEMPLATE (Pixar structure):
Setup: [the world as it was — status quo]
Normal: [what happened every day]
Break: [the disruption — introduce the hero metric as a discovery, not a headline]
→ Effect: [first concrete consequence]
→ Effect: [second concrete consequence]
Decision: [the specific action or decision THIS audience can take]

AUDIENCE CHECKLIST (Module 2 pre-flight):
Before writing, confirm:
1. Audience — who specifically, and what do they already care about?
2. Value frame — economic / health / stewardship / security?
3. Psychological distance — geographic / temporal / social / hypothetical?
4. Collapsing strategy — local data / present tense / personal story?
5. Fear + agency — is fear paired with a concrete, achievable action?
6. Messenger — is the source credible to this specific audience?
7. Call to action — is it specific to this audience's decision-making power?

VALUE FRAME GUIDE:
Economic: cost, ROI, liability, market opportunity, fiscal risk, insurance exposure
Health: air quality, heat mortality, physical and mental health outcomes
Stewardship: conservation, cultural heritage, responsibility to future generations
Security: infrastructure resilience, food and water security, supply chain risk

FOUR-STEP WORKFLOW:
Step 1 (You): Define the spec — audience, frame, hero metric, distance strategy, output format
Step 2 (AI): Generate a raw draft from the complete spec
Step 3 (You): Curate, verify every claim, check that editorial decisions survived
Step 4 (You + AI): Multiply across formats and channels

When I share a Step 1 spec, generate a draft.
When I share a draft, pressure-test it against the audience checklist.
When I share a published piece, help me multiply it for a new audience or format.
Always ask which step I am working on before responding.

2

Research

NotebookLM Research Notebook

Upload a climate report you are currently working with into NotebookLM. Then use these three directed prompts instead of the default generation. The difference between a directed prompt and the default is the difference between using AI passively and directing it with the frameworks you have built this month.

Audio Overview — Story Spine structure, specific audience
Prompt: directed Audio Overview (paste into the Audio Overview customization field)
Do not use the default podcast format. Structure this audio conversation as a Story Spine investigation of the uploaded material.

Host 1 opens by establishing the status quo — what was the situation described in these documents before the key disruption?
Host 2 introduces the disruption: what is the single most surprising finding in this material?
Together, trace two concrete consequences — each expressed as a causal chain, not a list of facts.
Close by identifying the specific decision or action this material points to, and who specifically should take it.

Target this conversation toward [DESCRIBE YOUR AUDIENCE — e.g. city planners, philanthropists, science journalists]. Use vocabulary they would use, not academic jargon.
The hero metric — one specific statistic with its source — should be the turning point of the conversation, not buried in background.
Study Guide — value frame and distance analysis
Prompt: Study Guide with value-frame analysis (paste into the Study Guide customization field or the NotebookLM chat)
Generate a study guide for this material that uses the value-frame and psychological-distance framework.

For each major finding in the uploaded documents, answer:
1. Which value frame does this connect to most strongly — economic, health, stewardship, or security?
2. Which psychological distance does this invoke or collapse — geographic, temporal, social, or hypothetical?
3. What specific audience would this finding resonate most with, and why?

Format as a structured table: Finding | Value Frame | Distance Type | Best Audience

After the table, add a recommendation section:
- Which single finding is the strongest hero metric candidate?
- For which audience, and through which value frame?
- What is the most likely distance barrier for that audience, and how would you collapse it?
Briefing Doc — audience-specific hero metric extraction
Prompt: Briefing Doc for a specific audience (paste into the Briefing Doc customization field or the NotebookLM chat)
Generate a briefing document from this material for [DESCRIBE YOUR AUDIENCE].

Structure:
1. Hero metric — one specific statistic with source and year
2. Three supporting statistics that show consequence (each with source)
3. The primary psychological distance barrier this audience will have to this topic
4. The recommended collapsing strategy — local data / present tense / personal story / other
5. Three questions this audience will likely ask — and brief answers grounded in the uploaded documents
6. One recommended call to action specific to this audience's decision-making power

Constraints:
— No statistics without sources from the uploaded documents
— Flag any claim where the source is unclear with [SOURCE UNCLEAR]
— Maximum 400 words
— Use vocabulary appropriate for [AUDIENCE] — no academic jargon

Tip: After generating each output, compare it against the default (no prompt) version. The comparison surfaces exactly where the frameworks add value and where they don't.


3

Visual & Design

Canva Social Cards + Bulk Create

Take your urban heat island pitch from Module 3 and produce three social card variations in Canva: one data-forward, one photo-forward, one infographic-style. Use the design brief below to brief yourself or Canva's AI before opening a template. Then use Bulk Create to generate localized variations at scale.

Design brief: three social card variations from one pitch
Design brief for three social media cards from the same climate pitch.

Card 1 — Data forward:
The hero statistic dominates: [YOUR METRIC — e.g. "Nighttime temps 10°F hotter in low-income neighborhoods"]
Minimal text, maximum typographic impact. The number IS the design.
Background: dark/saturated or a heat-gradient palette. No stock photography.

Card 2 — Photo forward:
A striking image of [SUBJECT — urban street, neighborhood, shoreline, infrastructure] with minimal text overlay.
Text: headline only (max 8 words) + source attribution in small type.
Image mood: [URGENT / DOCUMENTARY / HOPEFUL — pick one]

Card 3 — Infographic:
A simple diagram explaining the mechanism: [E.g. impervious pavement → heat absorption → UHI effect → ER admissions]
Three to four steps maximum. Icon-based — no complex illustration.
Visible data label at the consequence step.

Shared requirements for all three cards:
— Audience: [WHO]
— Value frame: [ECONOMIC / HEALTH / STEWARDSHIP / SECURITY]
— Source attribution visible on every card
— Format: 1:1 square (Instagram) or specify preferred format
— Brand colors: [YOUR BRAND PALETTE or "use earth tones / navy + orange / other"]

Bulk Create walkthrough

Once you have a template you are happy with, use Canva Bulk Create to generate localized versions at scale — different cities, stats, or dates auto-populated from a spreadsheet. This is how newsrooms produce "Your city's climate risk" shareable cards without manual resizing.

Canva Bulk Create help page

4

Video & Audio

Flow + Veo Concept Clip

Take a climate scenario you care about — your city in 2050 under a specific warming pathway, a reforested street, a thriving coral reef. Generate a concept image in Google Flow, then animate it into a short video clip with Veo in the same workspace. The question to ask at the end: does the visual make the future feel closer? That is temporal distance collapsing in real time.

Honest assessment: Generative video excels at atmospheric and scenario B-roll. It struggles with realistic human faces, complex movement, and factual depiction of real places. Use these tools to visualize futures and possibilities — not to document the present.

Step 1: generate a concept image in Flow
Prompt: concept image direction for Google Flow
Generate a concept image for a climate communication campaign. This is for early-stage visual exploration — show me the direction, not the final asset.

Subject: [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT TO SHOW — e.g. "a reforested urban street in Phoenix at dusk, visible canopy, people walking"]
Mood: [CHOOSE ONE — hot and urgent / hopeful and green / data-forward / documentary-style]
Avoid: Generic stock photo aesthetics. No clip art. No celebrities or identifiable faces.
Style reference: [E.g. photorealistic, editorial magazine, aerial satellite view, illustrated infographic]

After generating, ask yourself: does this image make the [geographic / temporal / social] distance feel closer or further?
If it doesn't collapse the distance you're targeting, describe what would.
Step 2: animate into a Veo clip
Prompt: direct a Veo scenario clip
Direct a short atmospheric video clip. I want to collapse [temporal / geographic] distance for my audience.

Scene description: [DESCRIBE THE SCENARIO IN 2-3 SENTENCES — be specific about place, time, and what is happening or has changed]

Visual direction:
— Setting: [SPECIFIC CITY OR LOCATION]
— Time: [YEAR OR DECADE — e.g. 2045, present day, a decade from now]
— What changed: [WHAT IS VISIBLY DIFFERENT FROM TODAY]
— Mood: [hopeful / urgent / documentary / atmospheric]
— Duration: 5-10 seconds

What I want the viewer to feel at the end: [DESCRIBE THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE — e.g. "this future is possible" or "this is already happening somewhere"]

5

Presentations

Claude to Slides

Take the Story Spine you developed in Module 1 and generate a fully structured slide deck from it. The Claude approach gives you more editorial control — your frameworks are baked into the generation step, so the output needs less redesign. Gamma is faster for a rough first pass if you prefer a visually designed starting point.

Prompt: generate a slide deck from your Story Spine (paste into Claude)
Generate a presentation deck from my Story Spine. For each slide provide: slide number, title (max 8 words), 3 bullet points (max 12 words each), one visual direction (describe the image or chart that would go on this slide), and speaker notes (2-3 sentences).

Slide structure:
1. Title — [your headline] for [audience]
2. Setup — the world as it was (Story Spine beats 1-2)
3. The break — what changed (Story Spine beat 3)
4. Consequences — what is at stake (Story Spine beats 4-5)
5. The hero metric — make the statistic the visual centrepiece of this slide
6. The ask — the specific decision or action (Story Spine beat 6)
7. Supporting evidence / backup (optional)

My Story Spine beats:
[PASTE YOUR BEATS HERE]

Audience: [WHO]
Value frame: [ECONOMIC / HEALTH / STEWARDSHIP / SECURITY]
Desired output: [GOOGLE SLIDES MARKDOWN / POWERPOINT OUTLINE / GAMMA PASTE]

Evaluation checklist

  • Does slide 5 (the hero metric) feel like the pivot of the deck?
  • Does slide 6 give THIS specific audience a concrete decision — not a generic call to action?
  • Would you remove any slides? Which ones and why?
  • Does the narrative arc survive if you remove slides 2 and 3?

6

Interactive Tools

Heat Risk Calculator

Build a "What's your city's heat risk?" calculator. When someone enters their own city and sees their neighborhood's projected temperature in 2040, the hypothetical becomes concrete. That is hypothetical distance collapsing in real time. Use Claude Artifacts to prototype inside your existing workflow, or Google Opal to produce a shareable public link.

Claude Artifacts — prototype inside your workflow
Prompt: build a heat risk calculator as a self-contained HTML file (Claude Artifacts)
Build a self-contained HTML file — single file, no frameworks, no build step, no dependencies. Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript only. It should run by opening the file in any browser.

The tool: a "What's your city's heat risk?" calculator.

Input: a text field for city name + a "Check risk" button.

Output (shown below the button after submission, as a clean card):
1. Urban heat island intensity — how much hotter the city's core runs compared to surrounding areas, in degrees F
2. Projected temperature increase by 2040 under a moderate scenario (SSP2-4.5)
3. One concrete action the user can take — with a real link to a resource if possible

Design requirements:
— Clean, minimal layout. No frameworks, no decoration, no unnecessary chrome.
— System font stack (no Google Fonts)
— Works well on mobile (responsive, single column)
— Show a disclaimer below the results: "Data is illustrative — verify against NOAA, IPCC, or your local municipality before publishing"
— If real data is unavailable for the entered city, use illustrative placeholder values and label them clearly as [ILLUSTRATIVE]

Do not present placeholder data as real. Label all estimated values clearly.
Output the complete HTML file in a single code block, ready to save and open.
Google Opal — produce a shareable public link
Prompt: build a heat risk tool in Google Opal
Build a shareable "What's your city's heat risk?" mini-app.

The app should:
1. Ask the user to enter their city name
2. On submit, display three results:
   — Current heat island intensity (use public data if available, clearly labelled placeholder if not)
   — Projected temperature increase under a moderate 2040 scenario
   — One concrete local action with a link to a real resource
3. Include a Share button so users can share their city's result as a link

UI requirements:
— Keep it minimal — this should feel like a useful tool, not a slide deck
— Label any estimated or placeholder data clearly
— Mobile-first layout

After building, share the link. This is a shareable public-facing tool — anyone with the link should be able to use it without an account.

Decision guide: Artifacts for prototyping and internal use (fastest path, already in your workflow). Opal for simple shareable public tools. Lovable or Replit if you need a more complex application you intend to maintain over time.


7

Content Multiplication

Danny Kennedy Clip Analysis

Watch Danny Kennedy's keynote for Terra.do — a solutions-forward talk on the solar energy transition covering global deployment, distributed ownership economics, and the lifecycle argument for renewables. One recording, dozens of potential outputs.

The exercise: identify three moments you'd clip for a solar advocacy campaign, then three moments for a climate entrepreneurship audience. The two lists should be different. If they are the same, you haven't differentiated your audiences enough.

Build two editorial briefs before you clip
Prompt: build audience-differentiated clip briefs (paste into Claude after watching the keynote)
Help me build two audience-differentiated editorial briefs for Danny Kennedy's keynote on the solar energy transition.

From the transcript I know Kennedy covers: the "solar as vaccine" framing and the 2015 cost inflection; Pakistan more than tripling renewables since 2023 through a popular movement of households, farms, and factories — not utility projects; Nigeria's 17 million diesel generators and why replacing them with solar is "shooting fish in a barrel"; Indonesia mandating 100 gigawatts of village-level solar by 2035 through cooperative ownership; China providing "lowest cost electricity in history"; the lifecycle comparison (a fossil fuel lifestyle requires roughly 22,000 kg of material per year, burnt and gone — a renewable system uses about 1,000 kg of metals running 25 years); his argument that the "missing pieces" are consumer finance and software, not new technology; and his call for storytellers and business model innovators, not just engineers.

Brief 1 — Solar advocacy (audience: climate philanthropists and policy advocates):
— Which 3 arguments from this talk are strongest for this audience?
— For each: the specific claim, which value frame it connects to (economic / stewardship / security / health), and why this audience would stop scrolling
— What is the hero metric you would use?

Brief 2 — Climate entrepreneurship (audience: clean energy founders and investors):
— Which 3 arguments are strongest for this audience?
— Same format.
— What is the hero metric you would use?

The two briefs must recommend different moments. If they are the same, that means the audiences have not been differentiated enough — say so.
After completing both, identify: which value frame does Kennedy rely on most, and which audience does the keynote as a whole seem optimized for?
Map the full multiplication chain
Prompt: map the content multiplication chain for your chosen audience
I have watched Danny Kennedy's keynote on the solar energy transition. Help me map the content multiplication chain.

Source: one 60-90 minute keynote recording
Audience from Module 2 checklist: [YOUR CHOSEN AUDIENCE]
Value frame: [ECONOMIC / STEWARDSHIP / SECURITY / HEALTH]

For this audience and frame, generate:
1. A blog post title and 3-paragraph structure (topic sentence only for each paragraph)
2. A LinkedIn thread: 5 posts, each max 200 characters, building a causal argument
3. A newsletter excerpt: 100 words, hero metric as the opening hook
4. A policy brief frame: who is the decision-maker, what is the ask, what evidence supports it

Constraints for all outputs:
— Use the same hero metric across all formats — change how it is positioned, not what it says
— Each piece must collapse a different type of psychological distance
— Do not use the word "transition" as a standalone noun

NotebookLM Studio — five artifact types from one source

Create a new notebook at notebooklm.google.com, upload the transcript summary (download button above), then use each directed prompt below to generate Studio artifacts. Each takes 30 seconds to configure and produces a different output format from the same evidence base.

How to use these prompts

In the notebook, click the pencil icon on each Studio card to open its customization panel. Paste the relevant prompt below into the description or customization field, then generate. Mind Map, Reports, and Video Overview auto-generate without a customization field.

Audio Overview — Story Spine of the solar argument
Prompt: paste into the Audio Overview customization field
Do not use the default format. Structure this conversation as a Story Spine investigation of Kennedy's solar argument.

Host 1 establishes the status quo: global energy before the 2015 inflection — the open bet on which technology (nuclear, geothermal, maritime) would prove cost-effective, and the roughly one-third of the economy that was electrified. Most countries were fossil fuel importers exposed to volatile spot markets and geopolitical risk.

Host 2 introduces the break using Kennedy's vaccine framing: if the climate crisis is the virus, low-cost solar is the vaccine. The turning point statistic is the lifecycle comparison — a fossil fuel lifestyle requires roughly 22,000 kg of material (fuel and oxygen) per year, burnt and gone; a renewable system uses about 1,000 kg of metals that run for 25 years and can be recycled.

Together, trace two consequences: (1) the distributed solar revolution arriving fastest outside the West — Pakistan more than tripling renewables since 2023 through households, farms, and factories, not utility projects; (2) the distributed ownership economics — solar and storage as an antidote to the concentration of power that fossil fuels enabled for a century.

Close with Kennedy's specific call to action: deploy at speed and scale. The missing pieces are consumer finance (wrapping solar into mortgages, helping households buy induction stoves) and software for smart grids and virtual power plants — not new technology.

Target this conversation toward climate philanthropists and policy advocates skeptical that solar can scale fast enough. Use economics and deployment data, not environmentalism.
Slide deck — presenter slides for a policy audience
Prompt: select "Presenter slides" + paste into the "Describe the slide deck" field
Select: Presenter slides. Length: Default.

In the "Describe the slide deck" field, paste:

Six slides for a climate policy and philanthropy audience. (1) Title: "The Solar Age — What the Global South Is Teaching the West." (2) Status quo: only one-third of the economy is electrified; most countries are fossil fuel importers exposed to volatile spot markets; a fossil fuel lifestyle burns roughly 22,000 kg of material per year. (3) The break — make the lifecycle comparison the visual centrepiece: a renewable system uses about 1,000 kg of metals running 25 years in a circular economy vs. 22,000 kg burnt once. (4) Global South deployment: China delivers lowest-cost electricity in history; India exceeds its national solar mission; Pakistan triples renewables since 2023 through households, farms, and factories — not utilities. (5) The distributed ownership shift: Nigeria's 17 million diesel generators being replaced; Indonesia's mandate for 100 gigawatts of village-level solar by 2035 through cooperative ownership. (6) The ask: the missing pieces are consumer finance and software — not new technology. Deploy what already works at speed and scale. Tone: authoritative and solutions-forward, not alarmist.
Flashcards — every verifiable evidence claim
Prompt: paste into the Flashcards customization field
Generate flashcards for the specific, verifiable claims in this talk.

Each card: front — the claim as Kennedy states it. Back — the evidence or data he uses to support it, plus one sentence on why this claim matters for a climate pitch. Flag [VERIFY BEFORE USING] on any card where the source is unclear.

Prioritise these claims:
— The lifecycle materials comparison: fossil fuel lifestyle vs. renewable system (the specific kilogram figures for each)
— Pakistan's renewable energy growth since 2023 and what drove it (households and factories, not utility projects)
— Nigeria's diesel generator count and the business model Kennedy describes for replacing them
— Indonesia's village solar mandate: the gigawatt target, the year, and the ownership model
— China's solar market and how Kennedy characterises it
— The fraction of the global economy currently electrified
— The 2015 emissions curve inflection and what changed
— CATL and BYD mineral independence target year
— Kennedy's "missing pieces" framing: what they are and why he argues they matter more than new technology
— His vaccine metaphor: what is the "virus" and what is the "vaccine"

Exclude general climate background that could be said without having read this transcript.
Quiz — for briefing a skeptical investor
Prompt: paste into the Quiz customization field
Generate a quiz for someone who needs to brief a skeptical energy investor on Kennedy's argument.

Questions must be grounded in specific claims from this transcript. Include:
1. The lifecycle materials comparison — the specific kilogram figures for fossil vs. renewable systems
2. What drove Pakistan's solar growth since 2023 (was it utility projects or something else?)
3. Which countries does Kennedy name as solar deployment leaders, and what is distinctive about each?
4. Kennedy's vaccine metaphor — what is the "virus" and what is the "vaccine"?
5. What are the "missing pieces" Kennedy identifies — and why does he argue they matter more than new technology?
6. The Nigeria diesel generator framing — what is the count, what is the business model argument, and what does he mean by "diesel mafia"?
7. What is the Indonesia village solar mandate — gigawatt target, year, and ownership model?
8. Why does Kennedy say the value in the industry is NOT in manufacturing?
9. What fraction of the global economy is currently electrified, according to Kennedy?

Plus one synthesis question: if you were briefing a climate philanthropist vs. a clean energy investor using only this talk, which two moments would you choose differently for each audience, and why?

Format: mix of multiple choice and short answer. Provide answers at the end so the quiz can be used for self-testing.
Infographic — solar cost curve and deployment scale
Prompt: paste into the Infographic customization field
Generate an infographic structured around the solar deployment and economics data in this transcript.

Visual logic: once-through and centralized → circular and distributed → deployed at scale globally.

Data points to feature — all from the transcript:
— Lifecycle comparison: fossil fuel lifestyle ~22,000 kg/year (burnt once) vs. renewable system ~1,000 kg of metals running 25 years (recyclable)
— Global electrification: only roughly one-third of the economy is currently electrified
— China: lowest-cost electricity in history; solar growing like a weed with a strong CAGR
— India: exceeding its national solar mission
— Pakistan: more than tripled renewables since 2023 through a distributed popular movement
— Nigeria: 17 million diesel generators; solar replacement characterised as "shooting fish in a barrel"
— Indonesia: 100 gigawatts of village-level solar mandated by 2035 through cooperative ownership
— CATL and BYD: targeting mineral independence through recycling by 2042

Audience: policy advocates briefing a government official on the economic and energy security case for solar.
Tone: data-forward, solutions-oriented. No ideological framing — the data makes the case.

The multiplication chain in practice

DescriptTranscribe and edit the full recording into a 10-minute highlight reel on the economic argument.
OpusClipExtract 6-8 vertical clips for social distribution.
ClaudeGenerate a blog post, a LinkedIn thread, a newsletter excerpt, and a policy brief — each for a different audience.
NotebookLMUse the pre-loaded notebook to generate a directed Audio Overview, presenter slides, flashcards, quiz, and infographic — all from the same source.

One keynote. Thirty-plus pieces of content. Each reaching a different audience through a different channel — the evidence base stays identical throughout.