Climate Change Conversations: Causes, Impacts, Solutions

Communicating Climate Change through Art


Some artists have taken to addressing the issue of climate change through their artwork, from basket-weaving to documentary filmmaking. According to mockumentary filmmaker Randy Olsen, in a panel discussion recorded by WGBH in 2008, a challenge in artistic methods of communicating climate change is the difficulty in telling a compelling, engaging story that will resonate with audiences while effectively communicating the technical and scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change. But it is a challenge accepted by artists like Olsen and Nathalie Miebach. On communicating climate change through sculpture and basket-weaving, Miebach, in a public lecture on WGBH Forum Network, stated that she is "trying to explore the kind of expectations that we bring with us when we try to address a question either through science or through art, and how this visualization influences the way we understand something."

Next: Proposed Solutions

Image of melting Arctic glaciers from After the Warming

Courtesy of Maryland Public Television

Image of melting Arctic glaciers from After the Warming

Courtesy of Maryland Public Television

Curator

Casey E. Davis Kaufman

AAPB Project Manager - WGBH