show local (but serious) climate impacts
April 5, 2022 3:50 PM Subscribe
A new visual language for climate change. All too often, the climate change imagery the world sees is ineffective at driving change – it may be aesthetically pleasing and illustrative but not salient or emotionally impactful. Instead of a polar bear on an ice floe, let's use climate visuals that are more compelling and diverse. For example, images of floods are emotionally powerful... but they can also be overwhelming. Make sure to include solutions or immediate tangible action.
Kurzgesagt also just put out a video on talking about climate in away that encourages action rather than doom and hopelessness:
We WILL Fix Climate Change!
posted by mbrubeck at 7:46 PM on April 5, 2022
We WILL Fix Climate Change!
posted by mbrubeck at 7:46 PM on April 5, 2022
Oops meant to link the "climate impacts" album.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:16 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:16 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
"We WILL fix climate change"
Emissions are rising, not falling, not zero. Rising.
When considering international trade, no decoupling has yet occured.
The scenarios where we depart from 4-7c by 2100 (and more beyond it) all require BOTH negative emissions tech deployed at a scale that is multiples of the world economy AND natural sinks of GHG to continue to function AND natural sources of GHG to remain stable. None of those are currently true.
Do all you can. Project Draw down has a prioritized list. If Hope is the drug that gets you to act, take hope. If fear or rage or doom is your fuel, then so that. But act. Every emission you avoid and every being you save gives the future of life more to work with to survive this rapid challenge.
But dont be complacent or paralysed, we were never going to live forever, action is the tonic to adversity
posted by anecdotal_grand_theory at 9:27 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
Emissions are rising, not falling, not zero. Rising.
When considering international trade, no decoupling has yet occured.
The scenarios where we depart from 4-7c by 2100 (and more beyond it) all require BOTH negative emissions tech deployed at a scale that is multiples of the world economy AND natural sinks of GHG to continue to function AND natural sources of GHG to remain stable. None of those are currently true.
Do all you can. Project Draw down has a prioritized list. If Hope is the drug that gets you to act, take hope. If fear or rage or doom is your fuel, then so that. But act. Every emission you avoid and every being you save gives the future of life more to work with to survive this rapid challenge.
But dont be complacent or paralysed, we were never going to live forever, action is the tonic to adversity
posted by anecdotal_grand_theory at 9:27 PM on April 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
Climate activisim doesnt need better slogans or more awareness or finely tuned policies. It needs armies and WMD. That is how anything gets done in the world.
To save the climate by destroying it faster and more thoroughly ... I get the cynicism and absurdism but doing absolutely nothing for the climate is a better choice than this one.
posted by UN at 10:29 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
To save the climate by destroying it faster and more thoroughly ... I get the cynicism and absurdism but doing absolutely nothing for the climate is a better choice than this one.
posted by UN at 10:29 PM on April 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Sorry, but I perused their evidence (US, UK, Germany focus groups) and looked at their visuals - see first page for ex. and I come away with the thought that they're closely positioning climate comms with poverty porn/aid comms
so much has changed since 2016 when this was published, right down to energy shortages in Europe, for example, ongoing right now, that I question whether actionable communication needs to be more "at home" and less "PoC far away"
posted by infini at 2:45 AM on April 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
so much has changed since 2016 when this was published, right down to energy shortages in Europe, for example, ongoing right now, that I question whether actionable communication needs to be more "at home" and less "PoC far away"
posted by infini at 2:45 AM on April 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
action is the tonic to adversity
I think part of the point of "we need better communication" is that wrong action--inadequate, badly focused action--uses up the communication without helping, giving a sense that one has done one's part. We see this constantly in the consumer-focused approaches to climate change. It is so easy to give first-world consumers something to buy their way out of their responsibility--electric cars, metal straws, compostable fast food plates--and so difficult to communicate all the ways that simply does not help. You're constantly dealing with people's emotions, their guilt, their urge to turn away from the guilt and get back to their lives.
Even if your idea is that you need armies to solve climate change, that need must be communicated somehow. How do you get the message across? Infini in the comment above raises the crucial point of who do you show suffering--if Ukraine has taught us anything, it's that nothing motivates the global north into action, like seeing white people suffer. Similarly, in his book The Great Derangement (discussed in this thread, among others), Amitav Ghosh talks about the difficulties we have in even fictionalizing climate change, because so much of our narrative language is focused on the individual.
We need a language--a fiction, an imaginary, a propaganda--that can handle talking about collective problems that involve multiple interacting systems, that shies away from individual heroes, villains and victims, and we are failing to develop that language. That's why sites like the FPP are important, because they are trying to sort out what language actually works.
posted by mittens at 6:13 AM on April 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
I think part of the point of "we need better communication" is that wrong action--inadequate, badly focused action--uses up the communication without helping, giving a sense that one has done one's part. We see this constantly in the consumer-focused approaches to climate change. It is so easy to give first-world consumers something to buy their way out of their responsibility--electric cars, metal straws, compostable fast food plates--and so difficult to communicate all the ways that simply does not help. You're constantly dealing with people's emotions, their guilt, their urge to turn away from the guilt and get back to their lives.
Even if your idea is that you need armies to solve climate change, that need must be communicated somehow. How do you get the message across? Infini in the comment above raises the crucial point of who do you show suffering--if Ukraine has taught us anything, it's that nothing motivates the global north into action, like seeing white people suffer. Similarly, in his book The Great Derangement (discussed in this thread, among others), Amitav Ghosh talks about the difficulties we have in even fictionalizing climate change, because so much of our narrative language is focused on the individual.
We need a language--a fiction, an imaginary, a propaganda--that can handle talking about collective problems that involve multiple interacting systems, that shies away from individual heroes, villains and victims, and we are failing to develop that language. That's why sites like the FPP are important, because they are trying to sort out what language actually works.
posted by mittens at 6:13 AM on April 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
One problem we constantly have in Miami is that even when people are shown the obvious effects of the (minor, so far, less than a foot!) sea level rise they just say that "it's always done that". Never mind that sunny day flooding used to be a rare event. Even 20 years ago it was a couple times a year at most thing when king tides coincided with a strong easterly wind.
There are literally neighborhoods that flood at least once a year now. Not bad enough to get into houses, but the streets are covered enough that they are impassable by many cars. But most people seem to think they've been doing that since they were built despite people who bought their house brand new saying that it has only been a thing in the past decade.
Denial is, sadly, much stronger than any evidence that can be brought to bear. Even when they're the ones driving their car through saltwater because the approach to the Venetian Causeway has flooded yet again.
The sad thing is that we are very lucky in that our particular location is experiencing less sea level rise than the worldwide average. Rather than capitalize on that extra time and make our city and region more resilient, we keep ignoring the problem.
posted by wierdo at 6:23 AM on April 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
There are literally neighborhoods that flood at least once a year now. Not bad enough to get into houses, but the streets are covered enough that they are impassable by many cars. But most people seem to think they've been doing that since they were built despite people who bought their house brand new saying that it has only been a thing in the past decade.
Denial is, sadly, much stronger than any evidence that can be brought to bear. Even when they're the ones driving their car through saltwater because the approach to the Venetian Causeway has flooded yet again.
The sad thing is that we are very lucky in that our particular location is experiencing less sea level rise than the worldwide average. Rather than capitalize on that extra time and make our city and region more resilient, we keep ignoring the problem.
posted by wierdo at 6:23 AM on April 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
infini, you are very right that the 25 photos in "Drowning Land" by photographer Aji Styawan may not challenge the Global North penchant for poverty porn aesthetic.
At the same time, I appreciated the photos of people watching tv and opening the fridge as those activities are not the typical image of desperate climate refugee that all too many of the climate change documentaries use (Ice on Fire was wretched with having aerial shots of brown refugees en masse and individual white scientist talking heads).
The "Three Millimeters" series by Greg Kahn is set in coastal Maryland and leans a bit too much into the artsy landscape mode, but does focus on people in the U.S., white and people of color.
p.s. I should have also reposted the Dochas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages as a resource.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:22 AM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
At the same time, I appreciated the photos of people watching tv and opening the fridge as those activities are not the typical image of desperate climate refugee that all too many of the climate change documentaries use (Ice on Fire was wretched with having aerial shots of brown refugees en masse and individual white scientist talking heads).
The "Three Millimeters" series by Greg Kahn is set in coastal Maryland and leans a bit too much into the artsy landscape mode, but does focus on people in the U.S., white and people of color.
p.s. I should have also reposted the Dochas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages as a resource.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:22 AM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Poking around more to find examples to show my students....
Heat stroke relief stations in Karachi, Pakistan.
Flooded playground in Sweden.
London hotspot during heatwave.
Fishing near Detroit coal.
Drinking water and fracking.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:30 AM on April 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Heat stroke relief stations in Karachi, Pakistan.
Flooded playground in Sweden.
London hotspot during heatwave.
Fishing near Detroit coal.
Drinking water and fracking.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:30 AM on April 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Nobody ever asks the negative utilitarians or antinatalists for their opinions on the climate crisis.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:11 AM on April 6, 2022
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:11 AM on April 6, 2022
hey, bit of a self link but we put together a project for Louisiana called land loss lookout, so people can see what is happening to our islands.
Nigerian folks have been the largest respondents, so we worked with Unique Mappers to return the favor, and look out for and protect the Niger Delta.
I don't know if we are part of the United States, or just its colony, but if the laws of the United States applied, these same companies that destroyed our lands in the 1960's are the ones preventing climate action, and forcing the displacement of the native peoples of Louisiana.
(Rights of Indigenous People in Addressing Climate-Forced Displacement January 15, 2020
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6656724/Louisiana-Tribes-Complaint-to-UN.pdf)
it's been 17 years since Katrina, and we hope someone does something. the LA govr has a Climate Action Plan, as compromised as it is, he was forced to take all of Houston's waste in order to have the task force pass our legistature--compromised as it is, it is a brilliant example of what small groups of dedicated people can achieve.
If such a polity as Louisiana, long considered the sacrifice zone for oil and gas companies, where the legislature's members are employees of the oil and gas multinationals, can pass a plan, i hope the rest of y'all can be inspired that the United States can act as well.
If a catholic deacon can organize her people to fight a $9.2 billion FDI plant that would increase the US's emissions by 13MT a year
, and change the mind of the United States, anything is possible. I hope that the climate movement can see the environmental justice advocates in cancer alley, where much of the US CO2 is emitted, as climate leaders, and not just advocates for racial justice.
posted by eustatic at 12:28 PM on April 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
Nigerian folks have been the largest respondents, so we worked with Unique Mappers to return the favor, and look out for and protect the Niger Delta.
I don't know if we are part of the United States, or just its colony, but if the laws of the United States applied, these same companies that destroyed our lands in the 1960's are the ones preventing climate action, and forcing the displacement of the native peoples of Louisiana.
(Rights of Indigenous People in Addressing Climate-Forced Displacement January 15, 2020
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6656724/Louisiana-Tribes-Complaint-to-UN.pdf)
it's been 17 years since Katrina, and we hope someone does something. the LA govr has a Climate Action Plan, as compromised as it is, he was forced to take all of Houston's waste in order to have the task force pass our legistature--compromised as it is, it is a brilliant example of what small groups of dedicated people can achieve.
If such a polity as Louisiana, long considered the sacrifice zone for oil and gas companies, where the legislature's members are employees of the oil and gas multinationals, can pass a plan, i hope the rest of y'all can be inspired that the United States can act as well.
If a catholic deacon can organize her people to fight a $9.2 billion FDI plant that would increase the US's emissions by 13MT a year
, and change the mind of the United States, anything is possible. I hope that the climate movement can see the environmental justice advocates in cancer alley, where much of the US CO2 is emitted, as climate leaders, and not just advocates for racial justice.
posted by eustatic at 12:28 PM on April 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
This is not a visual but recently I have been thinking about how many people find going into "nature" to be a healing experience. And also, how much our natural areas need to be healed. And how we need to rethink the Western idea of a stark divide between civilization and nature.
I want us to start talking about how if we are in nature to be sources of healing - cleaning, planting, removing invading species, setting small intentional fires for management, and so on, we can also find healing for ourselves.
Don't you want to be a healing member of the natural world? Another participatory citizen of the planet, like a bison fertilizing the grass of the great plains or a fungus consuming the remains of a flower that has completed its lifecycle, or a bee napping in a squash flower?
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:38 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
I want us to start talking about how if we are in nature to be sources of healing - cleaning, planting, removing invading species, setting small intentional fires for management, and so on, we can also find healing for ourselves.
Don't you want to be a healing member of the natural world? Another participatory citizen of the planet, like a bison fertilizing the grass of the great plains or a fungus consuming the remains of a flower that has completed its lifecycle, or a bee napping in a squash flower?
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:38 PM on April 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
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i have an image in mind that is emotionally impactful, contains tangible action and a solution
heads. spikes. walls
posted by lalochezia at 6:42 PM on April 5, 2022 [7 favorites]