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How the Arts and Humanities are Confronting Climate Change

June 2, 2020

How the Arts and Humanities are Confronting Climate Change

Students sitting in bean bags looking at VR headsets

A dancer’s performance ritual confronting the anguish and fear of a planetary emergency. A multimedia art exhibition exploring the significance of plants’ carbon sequestration during the Anthropocene period. An English professor uncovering links between storytelling and climate change. These are some of the experts within the College of Arts and Sciences applying their arts and humanities intellect to a growing global crisis.

Climate change as a discipline is no longer confined to the scientific arena.

People outside the sciences are expressing complicated feelings about climate change, attaching narrative and emotion to the science, and aesthetically amplifying environmental realities, allowing audiences a more accessible, identifiable connection to global warming.

“Narrative matters,” said Jason Cervenec, Education and Outreach director at the Byrd Polar Climate and Research Center. “Just getting more scientists in and sharing more information isn’t actually going to work. You need trusted emissaries and compelling stories, and that’s probably going to come from the arts and the humanities.”

Read the full article about arts and humanities and their role in climate communication here.