1 00:00:23,089 --> 00:00:25,592 At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, carbon 2 00:00:25,592 --> 00:00:31,164 dioxide in the atmosphere was at 277 parts per million. In 2025 we 3 00:00:31,164 --> 00:00:36,503 are measuring 426 parts per million. In the same 265 years, 4 00:00:36,569 --> 00:00:40,507 global temperatures have risen by 1.3 degrees Celsius. Sea 5 00:00:40,507 --> 00:00:43,743 levels have risen by 23 centimeters, and most of this 6 00:00:43,743 --> 00:00:48,348 change has occurred rapidly after the year 1900. All of these 7 00:00:48,348 --> 00:00:51,251 are human caused global changes that have led to what some 8 00:00:51,251 --> 00:00:55,622 people are calling the Anthropocene, a new geological 9 00:00:55,622 --> 00:01:00,493 era in which we are the defining factor. At the peak of our 10 00:01:00,493 --> 00:01:04,030 species' long existence, these changes are also driving us 11 00:01:04,030 --> 00:01:09,069 towards what may be the planet's sixth mass extinction. But you 12 00:01:09,069 --> 00:01:11,938 don't need me to tell you that, do you? 13 00:01:11,938 --> 00:01:13,706 We already know. 14 00:01:21,381 --> 00:01:26,553 It was like a cloud that you see growing on the horizon, and then 15 00:01:26,553 --> 00:01:27,921 suddenly it's right above you. 16 00:01:28,655 --> 00:01:31,891 I don't actually remember the first time I ever heard about 17 00:01:31,958 --> 00:01:37,464 climate change. I think it's been so omnipresent in my life 18 00:01:37,464 --> 00:01:40,800 and the lives of people of my generation, of our generation, 19 00:01:40,867 --> 00:01:44,103 and so I could not place a finger on the first time, no. 20 00:01:44,938 --> 00:01:52,078 I'm just thinking about how my own actions sometimes do not 21 00:01:52,078 --> 00:01:53,813 feel sufficient enough. 22 00:01:54,481 --> 00:02:01,621 I feel like we're grieving the possibility for this generation 23 00:02:01,621 --> 00:02:04,390 of children, future children, to have the childhoods that we had. 24 00:02:05,058 --> 00:02:09,362 Everywhere in Canada, has gotten hotter, the winters have gotten 25 00:02:09,562 --> 00:02:15,134 weirder, either later or milder or more extreme. 26 00:02:16,169 --> 00:02:19,038 I think I worry about trying to do things now before I don't 27 00:02:19,038 --> 00:02:25,411 have the opportunity to, or before the places that I want to 28 00:02:25,411 --> 00:02:28,348 visit don't exist. 29 00:02:28,348 --> 00:02:32,919 It impacts my decisions on where to live. 30 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:35,188 I don't think I'll have kids because of it. 31 00:02:35,855 --> 00:02:40,159 what I have seen within my lifetime already, and the 32 00:02:40,159 --> 00:02:45,431 changes that I've seen within my lifetime have, like plunged us 33 00:02:45,431 --> 00:02:50,770 further into the deep end, and so it's hard to feel optimistic 34 00:02:50,770 --> 00:02:53,806 that the changes that need to be made will be made. 35 00:02:59,712 --> 00:03:02,882 My name is Braedon Lowey. I've been in university for five 36 00:03:02,882 --> 00:03:06,085 years, mostly studying literature, and this film is my 37 00:03:06,085 --> 00:03:10,023 final project for my master's degree. In those five years, 38 00:03:10,023 --> 00:03:13,993 I've been bombarded by climate news, and it makes me constantly 39 00:03:13,993 --> 00:03:16,763 feel the need to do more, because I'm tired of reading 40 00:03:16,763 --> 00:03:19,832 headlines, and I've heard that sentiment from so many of my 41 00:03:19,832 --> 00:03:24,103 peers. Are we doing enough? What needs to be done? What more can 42 00:03:24,103 --> 00:03:28,341 we do? In the scholarly arts and humanities, there is an ongoing 43 00:03:28,341 --> 00:03:31,911 crisis of purpose in so many people. At best, we're 44 00:03:31,911 --> 00:03:35,081 constantly trying to justify our work to people who will give us 45 00:03:35,081 --> 00:03:38,618 money, but we're also frequently trying to justify it to 46 00:03:38,618 --> 00:03:42,355 ourselves, or our families. Poetry doesn't put out 47 00:03:42,355 --> 00:03:45,959 wildfires, and essays about poetry definitely don't. And 48 00:03:46,426 --> 00:03:49,629 that doesn't mean these things aren't important, but the need 49 00:03:49,629 --> 00:03:53,266 to enact climate solutions grows more and more urgent every day, 50 00:03:53,266 --> 00:03:56,936 and as that need grows, I'm finding myself less and less 51 00:03:56,936 --> 00:04:00,240 invested in any work that doesn't have to do with saving 52 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:04,744 the planet. And I'll say right now that this is not a climate 53 00:04:04,744 --> 00:04:08,481 change documentary. This is a movie for people who know so 54 00:04:08,481 --> 00:04:11,784 much about it and are paralyzed by that knowledge, because 55 00:04:11,784 --> 00:04:14,787 that's the place that I've been digging myself out of for years. 56 00:04:15,088 --> 00:04:19,225 And because I'm tired of asking myself this question, I made it 57 00:04:19,225 --> 00:04:22,528 my master's thesis and interviewed poets, authors, 58 00:04:22,528 --> 00:04:26,499 musicians, fellow students and journalists to answer it once 59 00:04:26,499 --> 00:04:28,434 and for all: 60 00:04:28,434 --> 00:04:31,404 What is the point of making art in the apocalypse? 61 00:05:32,265 --> 00:05:35,435 I'm standing above Lytton, British Columbia, a picturesque 62 00:05:35,435 --> 00:05:38,805 small town nestled alongside a mountain range and two rivers in 63 00:05:38,805 --> 00:05:41,574 Nlaka'pamux territory. In addition to being a very 64 00:05:41,574 --> 00:05:45,111 charming town, it also boasts the record of Canada's hottest 65 00:05:45,111 --> 00:05:49,449 municipality with a temperature of 49.6 degrees Celsius, 66 00:05:49,449 --> 00:05:51,551 recorded during a heat wave in summer of 2021. 67 00:05:52,785 --> 00:05:56,089 It was this extreme temperature that led to a blazing wildfire 68 00:05:56,089 --> 00:05:59,092 the following day that leveled practically the entire town in 69 00:05:59,092 --> 00:06:03,129 just minutes. The poem you just heard was by Lytton resident 70 00:06:03,129 --> 00:06:06,733 Meghan Fandrich from her book Burning Sage, which she wrote in 71 00:06:06,733 --> 00:06:10,503 the wake of the fire. In Meghan's own words, she wasn't a poet 72 00:06:10,503 --> 00:06:13,873 before this, so I came here to find out why she became one. 73 00:06:16,442 --> 00:06:20,546 Meghan: I have never been a writer. I've never shared my writing, except, 74 00:06:20,546 --> 00:06:24,751 like, you know, with my grade six teacher, but about a year 75 00:06:24,751 --> 00:06:30,389 after the fire, I was still really, like trapped in, in the 76 00:06:30,389 --> 00:06:34,660 trauma, in fight or flight, in this, like bare minimum of 77 00:06:34,660 --> 00:06:38,931 survival. But enough time had passed that I knew that I needed 78 00:06:38,931 --> 00:06:41,701 to get myself out of it, that I knew there was some capacity in 79 00:06:41,701 --> 00:06:44,036 me to get myself out of it, and so I thought I would just write 80 00:06:44,036 --> 00:06:48,608 out a few memories from the fire for, um, for a friend that I had met, 81 00:06:48,841 --> 00:06:52,979 and I sat at the typewriter and it just poured out of me, even 82 00:06:52,979 --> 00:06:55,314 more than my conscious memory, like unconscious memories were 83 00:06:55,314 --> 00:06:58,017 just pouring out through the typewriter. It really surprised 84 00:06:58,017 --> 00:07:01,020 me, and it surprised me at an emotional level that I was 85 00:07:01,087 --> 00:07:03,856 suddenly able to externalize these feelings that I was 86 00:07:03,856 --> 00:07:07,860 having. And then it went from like, from the first poem to 87 00:07:07,860 --> 00:07:10,696 another, to another to another, to the point that, like, three 88 00:07:10,696 --> 00:07:13,332 or four months in, I was still just on this living room floor 89 00:07:13,466 --> 00:07:14,300 at the typewriter. 90 00:07:14,767 --> 00:07:17,703 Meghan's work isn't the only example of this kind of thing. 91 00:07:17,904 --> 00:07:20,439 There are hundreds of research studies out there on the 92 00:07:20,439 --> 00:07:23,910 practice of emotional writing, and the general consensus is 93 00:07:23,910 --> 00:07:28,347 that greater psychological well being correlates with consistent 94 00:07:28,347 --> 00:07:31,484 and thorough acts of writing about trauma and personal 95 00:07:31,484 --> 00:07:35,087 distress. Author Louise De Salvo has written an entire book on 96 00:07:35,087 --> 00:07:38,925 this called How Writing Can Help Us Heal, and in it, she states 97 00:07:38,925 --> 00:07:42,762 that "the more a piece of writing succeeds as narrative by being 98 00:07:42,829 --> 00:07:46,566 organized, detailed, vivid, compelling, lucid, the greater 99 00:07:46,566 --> 00:07:50,102 the benefits derived." But this isn't just about recovery, 100 00:07:50,269 --> 00:07:54,106 because recovering from trauma also facilitates psychic growth. 101 00:07:54,340 --> 00:07:57,476 When you exercise, your muscles strain themselves and then 102 00:07:57,476 --> 00:08:00,847 repair themselves with rest and recovery, coming back stronger 103 00:08:00,847 --> 00:08:03,449 than before, and the same thing happens with these psychic 104 00:08:03,449 --> 00:08:07,086 processes. Recovering from trauma reframes one's feelings 105 00:08:07,086 --> 00:08:10,690 of helplessness and hopelessness and increases one's feelings of 106 00:08:10,690 --> 00:08:13,626 independence, agency and confidence in their problem 107 00:08:13,626 --> 00:08:17,430 solving skills. In other words, recovering from trauma, 108 00:08:17,597 --> 00:08:20,733 confronting it, and healing from it makes us better at preventing 109 00:08:20,733 --> 00:08:24,770 it in the future. It builds resilience, and work like this 110 00:08:24,770 --> 00:08:28,174 is one of the ways that we can do that, not just for ourselves, 111 00:08:28,174 --> 00:08:30,343 but maybe also for our communities. 112 00:08:32,511 --> 00:08:37,416 So sharing the book has been just absolutely amazing. There 113 00:08:37,416 --> 00:08:40,620 have been so many different times where people from the 114 00:08:40,620 --> 00:08:44,457 community have thanked me for sharing it. Like, I remember being 115 00:08:44,457 --> 00:08:46,926 at the post office, just in the, you know, the dirt parking lot 116 00:08:46,926 --> 00:08:49,128 in our temporary post office, and being stopped by an 117 00:08:49,128 --> 00:08:52,265 Nlaka'pamux elder who put her hand on my arm and told me how 118 00:08:52,265 --> 00:08:56,702 beautiful my book was and thanked me. A couple of years 119 00:08:56,702 --> 00:09:00,072 after the fire, I was stopped by someone who I hadn't seen since 120 00:09:00,072 --> 00:09:04,577 the fire, and he had lost his house in the fire, and when I 121 00:09:04,577 --> 00:09:08,281 asked him how he... how he was doing, he said, oh, traumatized. 122 00:09:08,581 --> 00:09:13,286 And he told me about how he knew which corner on the highway he 123 00:09:13,286 --> 00:09:15,988 was going to drive his car off of, and how he stopped himself 124 00:09:15,988 --> 00:09:18,858 so many times. And I said, well, like, it's amazing that you can 125 00:09:18,858 --> 00:09:24,397 talk about it. And he replied that he couldn't talk about it 126 00:09:24,397 --> 00:09:28,000 until he read my book, and then he hasn't stopped talking about 127 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,406 it since. And so for me, like, yeah, to put on the page how low 128 00:09:33,406 --> 00:09:37,176 I got... Like, I got so low that the that the only thing that 129 00:09:37,176 --> 00:09:39,812 kept me going was the fact that I had to keep my five year old 130 00:09:39,812 --> 00:09:45,051 alive. And I think every time we tell our story, we tell our 131 00:09:45,051 --> 00:09:48,587 like, personal experience. And I don't mean our story of running 132 00:09:48,587 --> 00:09:51,524 from the flames, I mean just like our story of what we are 133 00:09:51,524 --> 00:09:53,759 feeling and what we're experiencing. And really, that's 134 00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:57,129 what art is, right? It's sharing that, sharing something from the 135 00:09:57,129 --> 00:10:02,969 depths of us. It's like. We put the words on the experience for 136 00:10:02,969 --> 00:10:07,106 other people, or by putting words on it, others know that 137 00:10:07,106 --> 00:10:08,040 they're not alone in it. 138 00:10:09,308 --> 00:10:11,911 Storytelling is how we communicate our experiences to 139 00:10:11,911 --> 00:10:14,847 each other, and it is, and always has been, a fundamental 140 00:10:14,847 --> 00:10:18,985 part of developing communities and culture. Stories give us a 141 00:10:19,151 --> 00:10:23,489 shared language of narrative to process traumatic events like 142 00:10:23,489 --> 00:10:26,625 this one, and even just journaling about climate change 143 00:10:26,625 --> 00:10:30,329 can make us feel better about it, so sharing that brings those 144 00:10:30,329 --> 00:10:33,332 benefits to an entire community and bolsters agency in 145 00:10:33,332 --> 00:10:37,303 everybody. I chose to focus on Meghan's work today because she's 146 00:10:37,303 --> 00:10:39,872 made a point of using her platform before to talk about 147 00:10:39,872 --> 00:10:42,708 climate trauma. But she's not the only person in this 148 00:10:42,708 --> 00:10:45,644 community who's approaching those subjects with their art. 149 00:10:46,212 --> 00:10:49,448 Jade Baxter is an Nlaka'pamux filmmaker who recently had her 150 00:10:49,448 --> 00:10:53,052 short documentary, Why Would I Leave, on display in a gallery in 151 00:10:53,052 --> 00:10:56,088 Vancouver. Like the title suggests, it bolsters 152 00:10:56,088 --> 00:10:59,992 connections to a land that has been dramatically altered. 153 00:10:59,992 --> 00:11:03,295 Nlaka'pamux playwright Kevin Loring also just recently co-wrote 154 00:11:03,295 --> 00:11:06,132 a book with Peter Edwards about the history of Lytton 155 00:11:06,132 --> 00:11:09,668 before the fire, and it shows us a picture of a town that is much 156 00:11:09,668 --> 00:11:13,406 more than just what happened to it. All of these works develop 157 00:11:13,472 --> 00:11:16,942 resilience and build agency in communities while raising 158 00:11:16,942 --> 00:11:20,012 awareness about climate change. And these are essential outcomes 159 00:11:20,012 --> 00:11:23,983 of climate action. But that said, climate change doesn't 160 00:11:23,983 --> 00:11:27,887 always look like raging wildfires burning down towns. It 161 00:11:27,887 --> 00:11:31,590 is a constant, slow, continuous process. And when there's not 162 00:11:31,590 --> 00:11:35,494 grief, there's often anxiety, or to use an increasingly common 163 00:11:35,494 --> 00:11:39,265 term these days, solastalgia, grief for something that is not 164 00:11:39,265 --> 00:11:43,202 yet lost. And it's really easy to get absorbed by that anxiety 165 00:11:43,202 --> 00:11:46,739 and resort to nihilism. What does recycling matter if 166 00:11:46,739 --> 00:11:49,742 everything is inevitable anyways? And fair enough, 167 00:11:49,742 --> 00:11:53,212 because recycling didn't prevent this, but that doesn't mean 168 00:11:53,212 --> 00:11:57,049 we're helpless. And so now I want to look at some more people 169 00:11:57,049 --> 00:12:00,386 whose work is empowering and inspiring people to fight those 170 00:12:00,386 --> 00:12:03,556 feelings about climate change, and for that, we're going to 171 00:12:03,556 --> 00:12:05,024 head back to the city. 172 00:12:10,529 --> 00:12:13,566 Sean: My name is Sean Holman. I'm the Wayne Crookes Professor in 173 00:12:13,566 --> 00:12:16,469 Environmental and Climate Journalism at the University of 174 00:12:16,469 --> 00:12:20,005 Victoria, and I run something called the Climate Disaster 175 00:12:20,005 --> 00:12:23,442 Project, which is an award winning international teaching 176 00:12:23,442 --> 00:12:27,213 newsroom whose students work with climate impacted 177 00:12:27,213 --> 00:12:31,851 communities to help document and investigate their stories using 178 00:12:31,951 --> 00:12:35,921 trauma informed practices. The problem when it comes to 179 00:12:35,921 --> 00:12:40,192 journalism and when it comes to how we often share stories in 180 00:12:40,192 --> 00:12:46,732 society is too often it's about removing control from someone 181 00:12:46,732 --> 00:12:50,202 who has already lost a substantial amount of control. 182 00:12:50,269 --> 00:12:56,742 So what our practice does is we try to restore control to 183 00:12:57,009 --> 00:13:03,082 survivors in as many ways as we can throughout the story sharing 184 00:13:03,082 --> 00:13:07,453 process. For most of the time that journalism has been 185 00:13:07,453 --> 00:13:12,324 covering climate change, it has focused on climate change as a 186 00:13:12,558 --> 00:13:18,364 large scale, global, future, environmental issue that is 187 00:13:18,364 --> 00:13:22,535 harming people in other places, but most often animals and 188 00:13:22,535 --> 00:13:29,808 plants. It has not been consistently framed as a local, 189 00:13:29,808 --> 00:13:36,148 human scale, present tense issue. The problem is not that 190 00:13:36,148 --> 00:13:41,287 we have focused too much on the negative. The problem is we 191 00:13:41,287 --> 00:13:45,357 focused on the wrong negative things. That's the problem. 192 00:13:46,625 --> 00:13:49,962 Sean is pointing out a problem of scale and narrative that has 193 00:13:49,962 --> 00:13:53,465 long been an issue with the climate movement, and it applies 194 00:13:53,465 --> 00:13:56,769 to both problems and solutions. We point at fossil fuel 195 00:13:56,769 --> 00:14:00,105 companies and say they're the problem. We need to stop them. 196 00:14:00,773 --> 00:14:04,410 Well, we're not going to stop them in a day. Change is 197 00:14:04,410 --> 00:14:07,813 incremental until we hit a tipping point. If one person 198 00:14:07,813 --> 00:14:12,017 each day switches to an electric vehicle, well, that's progress, 199 00:14:12,384 --> 00:14:15,554 and it might be counter intuitive, but we need to think 200 00:14:15,554 --> 00:14:20,125 smaller, not bigger. What can we do locally to make those 201 00:14:20,125 --> 00:14:25,364 incremental changes? Well, here's someone with the answers. 202 00:14:26,332 --> 00:14:30,870 My name is Chantal Bilodeau, I am a playwright and the artistic 203 00:14:30,870 --> 00:14:34,707 director of a small arts organization based in New York 204 00:14:34,707 --> 00:14:37,910 City called the Arts and Climate Initiative. The Arts and Climate 205 00:14:37,910 --> 00:14:42,348 Initiative is an organization that uses theater and live 206 00:14:42,348 --> 00:14:45,718 storytelling to encourage people to talk about the climate 207 00:14:45,718 --> 00:14:50,889 crisis. I feel like theater has a lot to offer, because people 208 00:14:50,889 --> 00:14:54,894 are experiencing the work live, and they're experiencing it 209 00:14:54,894 --> 00:14:58,631 together as a community. So that's something very unique, I 210 00:14:58,631 --> 00:15:03,602 think, as opposed to a book that you can put down, or a film 211 00:15:03,602 --> 00:15:06,572 that you can pause, you know? You have to experience the whole 212 00:15:06,572 --> 00:15:10,409 thing from beginning to end in one go and then experience it 213 00:15:10,409 --> 00:15:11,610 with the people around you. 214 00:15:13,412 --> 00:15:16,048 The arts and climate initiative that Chantal runs also 215 00:15:16,048 --> 00:15:19,051 facilitates something called Climate Change Theater Action. 216 00:15:19,518 --> 00:15:22,521 Every other year, 50 playwrights are commissioned to write a 217 00:15:22,521 --> 00:15:25,791 short play about climate change, and then these plays are made 218 00:15:25,791 --> 00:15:28,360 available to organizers to put events on in their own 219 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:32,564 communities. It's a worldwide theater festival taking place in 220 00:15:32,564 --> 00:15:36,468 a bunch of different spots, and it brings this idea of live 221 00:15:36,468 --> 00:15:38,270 experience to the next level. 222 00:15:38,971 --> 00:15:42,107 I've received all kinds of feedback from this global 223 00:15:42,107 --> 00:15:45,244 festival that tells me that these events are having an 224 00:15:45,244 --> 00:15:50,082 impact, like students who change their major or add to their 225 00:15:50,082 --> 00:15:52,484 major, you know, they're in the theater, and suddenly they want 226 00:15:52,484 --> 00:15:55,254 to have a minor. They want to add a minor in environmental 227 00:15:55,254 --> 00:15:59,992 studies. I've had organizations change their mission so they can 228 00:15:59,992 --> 00:16:05,764 be more environmentally focused. I've had people say, oh, the 229 00:16:06,065 --> 00:16:09,501 scientist, you know, came to see the event, and afterwards, one 230 00:16:09,501 --> 00:16:13,472 of them told me, this is like, this is better than the whole 231 00:16:13,472 --> 00:16:17,843 semester I teach, because you you know, people can feel what 232 00:16:17,843 --> 00:16:20,546 it means, as opposed to just having the data. 233 00:16:21,146 --> 00:16:24,883 Now, these aren't just anecdotes. Chantal told me about 234 00:16:24,883 --> 00:16:28,287 a graduate student from Alaska named Brooke Wood who focused on 235 00:16:28,287 --> 00:16:31,790 Climate Change Theater Action for her dissertation. Her study 236 00:16:31,790 --> 00:16:35,060 interviewed attendees of these events and found that while many 237 00:16:35,060 --> 00:16:37,596 people pointed out that these events are 'preaching to the 238 00:16:37,596 --> 00:16:41,333 choir' by appealing to existing environmentalists, most 239 00:16:41,333 --> 00:16:44,770 attendees left feeling more hopeful, more motivated and more 240 00:16:44,770 --> 00:16:49,074 inspired, and furthermore, qualitative data indicates a 241 00:16:49,074 --> 00:16:52,378 number of people that reported having taken climate positive 242 00:16:52,378 --> 00:16:55,014 steps in follow up interviews, like switching to more 243 00:16:55,014 --> 00:16:58,851 environmentally friendly hygiene products. Evidently, preaching 244 00:16:58,851 --> 00:17:02,421 to the choir doesn't hurt, and there's even more data collected 245 00:17:02,421 --> 00:17:06,258 by Sean. In 2024 the Climate Disaster Project premiered a 246 00:17:06,258 --> 00:17:09,862 play called Eyes of the Beast that turned its testimonies into 247 00:17:09,862 --> 00:17:13,265 stage narratives presented in a new way. Here's what they 248 00:17:13,265 --> 00:17:14,366 learned from that. 249 00:17:15,667 --> 00:17:21,407 When we did Eyes of the Beast, we did a pre and post treatment 250 00:17:21,407 --> 00:17:26,545 audience survey. How did people feel about climate change before 251 00:17:26,612 --> 00:17:30,816 the performance? How did they feel after? Pre-treatment, more 252 00:17:30,816 --> 00:17:34,353 people could imagine how animals and plants and people all around 253 00:17:34,353 --> 00:17:37,122 the world had been harmed by climate change than they could 254 00:17:37,122 --> 00:17:40,292 imagine how people in their community and businesses in 255 00:17:40,292 --> 00:17:43,262 their community had been harmed by climate change. We have 256 00:17:43,262 --> 00:17:47,800 created the psychological distance problem for ourselves. 257 00:17:48,167 --> 00:17:52,504 It is astounding that in a community that has been so 258 00:17:52,738 --> 00:17:57,009 impacted by both wildfire, smoke and heat, that people can't 259 00:17:57,009 --> 00:18:00,245 imagine how climate change has harmed them, and yet that's the 260 00:18:00,245 --> 00:18:05,651 case. The climate movement has created, and climate journalists 261 00:18:05,651 --> 00:18:10,989 have created the psychological distance that is resulting in 262 00:18:11,056 --> 00:18:13,759 inaction on this core issue. 263 00:18:16,995 --> 00:18:20,065 The psychological distance issue that Sean is talking about is a 264 00:18:20,065 --> 00:18:23,268 cognitive bias in which one perceives distance between 265 00:18:23,268 --> 00:18:27,406 themselves and an event, in this case, climate change. Sean and 266 00:18:27,406 --> 00:18:30,576 Chantal are undoing that bias with their work, and both of 267 00:18:30,576 --> 00:18:34,046 them have the data to prove that this is working. People who are 268 00:18:34,046 --> 00:18:37,115 exposed to these works not only come away with a greater 269 00:18:37,115 --> 00:18:39,952 understanding of how climate change can affect them, but also 270 00:18:39,952 --> 00:18:43,088 with more hope and desire to learn about climate change and 271 00:18:43,088 --> 00:18:46,792 act on it. Being exposed to narratives changes the way that 272 00:18:46,792 --> 00:18:50,529 people think. A professor of mine once told me that in time 273 00:18:50,529 --> 00:18:54,066 travel movies, the one big rule is that you can't do anything in 274 00:18:54,066 --> 00:18:57,236 the past, because the smallest change can alter the entire 275 00:18:57,236 --> 00:19:01,507 future. It's the butterfly effect, right? Yet we're 276 00:19:01,507 --> 00:19:04,810 constantly being told now that nothing we do matters and that 277 00:19:04,810 --> 00:19:08,780 we won't change the outcome. That's just not true. Small 278 00:19:08,780 --> 00:19:12,985 changes always lead to more, and changing the way that people 279 00:19:12,985 --> 00:19:16,822 think is the very first domino in a chain of incremental 280 00:19:16,822 --> 00:19:21,093 action. From looking at all this work, it's clear how arts and 281 00:19:21,093 --> 00:19:24,530 literature are important tools for battling climate change. We 282 00:19:24,563 --> 00:19:28,100 need to be addressing the crisis of narrative. And as we face more 283 00:19:28,100 --> 00:19:31,603 and more impacts, these works will connect us and connect our 284 00:19:31,603 --> 00:19:34,907 experiences. They facilitate our ability to cope with climate 285 00:19:34,907 --> 00:19:38,143 change, to communicate about climate change and to combat 286 00:19:38,143 --> 00:19:42,080 climate change. But then what happens when we reach the end? 287 00:19:43,282 --> 00:19:48,987 We either win or lose. Then what? I want to return to the idea of 288 00:19:48,987 --> 00:19:53,425 scale, not in space, but in time. Any work that we're doing 289 00:19:53,425 --> 00:19:56,862 right now presumes a future, and we need to think about what that 290 00:19:56,862 --> 00:20:00,699 looks like, too. And the best place to talk to people about 291 00:20:00,699 --> 00:20:04,002 that is a place where climate change has been unraveling 292 00:20:04,002 --> 00:20:07,973 landscapes that have been hundreds, even thousands, of human 293 00:20:07,973 --> 00:20:10,008 generations in the making. 294 00:20:24,623 --> 00:20:29,328 Andri: So I take my daughter to my grandmother. She was... she became 295 00:20:29,328 --> 00:20:33,332 98, and we calculated when she would become as old as 296 00:20:33,332 --> 00:20:36,935 grandmother. And she found out that she would be as old as 297 00:20:36,935 --> 00:20:43,141 grandmother in the year 2104. And then we imagine somebody coming 298 00:20:43,141 --> 00:20:49,381 to visit her, maybe at the same kitchen table, in the year 2104. 299 00:20:49,915 --> 00:20:55,087 You know, that person is born in 2080, will be remembering her as 300 00:20:55,087 --> 00:21:03,428 her maybe primary inspiration in life until 2170. So grandmother 301 00:21:03,428 --> 00:21:06,932 whispers a secret to my daughter that she's going to keep until 302 00:21:06,932 --> 00:21:15,240 2100, and ask that person to keep the secret until 2170. So around 303 00:21:15,307 --> 00:21:22,147 2020, they could decide that something would take place 150 304 00:21:22,147 --> 00:21:26,184 years later, only through one middle man, which was sitting at 305 00:21:26,184 --> 00:21:30,922 the table, my daughter. So the idea, our time is the time of the 306 00:21:30,922 --> 00:21:34,426 people that we know and love, the time that saves us, versus 307 00:21:34,426 --> 00:21:38,330 the time of the people that we will know and love, the time that we save. 308 00:21:42,100 --> 00:21:45,070 This is a sculpture in the town of Hveragerdi commissioned by 309 00:21:45,070 --> 00:21:49,007 Elísabet Jökulsdóttir, a poet, that encourages us to listen to 310 00:21:49,007 --> 00:21:52,544 nature. It sits by the river where you can watch the water 311 00:21:52,544 --> 00:21:57,549 pass by. The Icelandic name translates to "this passes," and 312 00:21:57,549 --> 00:22:00,352 it's dedicated to people who are going through difficult times. 313 00:22:00,552 --> 00:22:03,722 Watch the river pass by and know that your struggles and 314 00:22:03,722 --> 00:22:08,160 challenges will pass by as well. Sitting here now, I'm reflecting 315 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:12,864 on the global challenge that we are all facing, and I do feel a 316 00:22:12,864 --> 00:22:17,069 little bit better. The time will pass by, and so will we. But in 317 00:22:17,069 --> 00:22:21,173 the back of my mind, I can't help wondering if the river will still be running. 318 00:22:24,109 --> 00:22:28,714 So my name is Néfur, and I'm a singer, composer, and performer 319 00:22:29,081 --> 00:22:31,817 making music with Icelandic glaciers. 320 00:22:31,817 --> 00:22:36,988 So The Water, The Lover, is an album that is created completely, entirely 321 00:22:36,988 --> 00:22:40,726 with sounds of Icelandic glaciers and my voice. There's 322 00:22:40,726 --> 00:22:44,029 no other instruments. All the sounds that you hear are sourced 323 00:22:44,029 --> 00:22:49,301 from the voices of glaciers and my own. And then the album is a 324 00:22:49,301 --> 00:22:55,006 journey, a mythological journey that take us somewhere where we 325 00:22:55,006 --> 00:23:00,746 can really reawaken our senses and reconnect with our bodies, 326 00:23:00,812 --> 00:23:04,549 sentient bodies, as well as bodies of water, like the glaciers. 327 00:23:05,417 --> 00:23:09,421 There was an Icelandic glaciologist, Oddur Sigurdsson, that 328 00:23:09,688 --> 00:23:14,659 announced Okjökull dead in 2014, and there were 329 00:23:14,659 --> 00:23:19,831 anthropologists from, from Texas, Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer, 330 00:23:20,732 --> 00:23:26,605 that felt like this deserved some more attention. And they 331 00:23:26,605 --> 00:23:31,176 did a small movie about the glacier, and then they kind of 332 00:23:31,176 --> 00:23:34,546 proposed that a memorial should be put which is interesting, 333 00:23:34,546 --> 00:23:39,384 because who defines history? Like who defines when the first, 334 00:23:39,384 --> 00:23:43,255 second world war started? So when did climate change happen? 335 00:23:43,855 --> 00:23:47,526 When did Iceland lose its glaciers? Are we always losing 336 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:52,431 or gaining glaciers? Or was there a defining moment that you 337 00:23:52,431 --> 00:23:58,270 could identify? So they decided to kind of identify this moment 338 00:23:58,670 --> 00:24:03,208 and asked me to write the text. I wrote this: Ok Glacier is the 339 00:24:03,208 --> 00:24:08,713 first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the 340 00:24:08,713 --> 00:24:12,851 next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same 341 00:24:12,851 --> 00:24:17,489 path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is 342 00:24:17,489 --> 00:24:21,560 happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did 343 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:28,233 it. August 2019, 415 ppm of CO2. In the end, I felt it was 344 00:24:28,300 --> 00:24:34,239 best to just to do it like very bluntly, straightforward, but 345 00:24:34,239 --> 00:24:37,943 speak to the future and us simultaneously. 346 00:24:40,712 --> 00:24:45,116 This is the Okjökull glacier, or at least what's left of it. It 347 00:24:45,116 --> 00:24:49,621 is one of the glaciers featured in Néfur's album, The Water, The Lover, 348 00:24:49,621 --> 00:24:52,123 and it is also the glacier that Magnason writes 349 00:24:52,123 --> 00:24:55,260 about in his book On Time and Water, which is about climate 350 00:24:55,260 --> 00:24:59,464 change and much more. Andri told me that when he writes about 351 00:24:59,564 --> 00:25:03,869 climate change, nobody seems to listen. But when he writes about 352 00:25:03,869 --> 00:25:08,707 time and water, people pay attention. So I wanted to come 353 00:25:08,707 --> 00:25:11,042 up here, because I've been talking to you a lot about 354 00:25:11,176 --> 00:25:17,716 climate change, but I want to show you time and water. Here it 355 00:25:17,716 --> 00:25:21,219 is, and this is what's happening all over the place. 356 00:25:25,490 --> 00:25:29,794 My grandparents had like... they were mountaineers. So they were 357 00:25:29,794 --> 00:25:34,366 kind of exhibition leaders with scientists on the first trips of 358 00:25:34,366 --> 00:25:37,702 the Icelandic Glacial Research Society. They were kind of the 359 00:25:37,702 --> 00:25:42,540 first generation to discover the glaciers, to map them. At that 360 00:25:42,540 --> 00:25:46,244 time, the glaciers were in the context of eternity. Now they're 361 00:25:46,678 --> 00:25:52,183 retreating on the timescale of a human. So I've become the first 362 00:25:52,250 --> 00:25:56,321 to say goodbye to the glacier, but not the last, because this 363 00:25:56,321 --> 00:25:59,758 will be ongoing for the next 100, 200 years. 364 00:26:01,259 --> 00:26:06,197 I read Andri's book as well before coming here and... and, 365 00:26:06,197 --> 00:26:12,570 yeah, he talks about Ok, and it's this place that is also like a 366 00:26:12,570 --> 00:26:17,108 historical mark, because it's the first one that disappeared 367 00:26:17,108 --> 00:26:21,813 in Iceland due to the climate change, and it happened 368 00:26:21,813 --> 00:26:25,650 during our lifetime. I was just very curious to go there as part 369 00:26:25,650 --> 00:26:29,721 of the project. And, yeah, I think I was meant to go there 370 00:26:29,788 --> 00:26:34,659 because it was a very profound connection with the place. I 371 00:26:34,659 --> 00:26:40,432 think for me, there's something about listening to specifically 372 00:26:40,432 --> 00:26:45,604 these ecosystems that are dying or that are endangered, is about 373 00:26:45,770 --> 00:26:49,507 giving them some attention, because if we don't do it now, 374 00:26:49,507 --> 00:26:54,846 when are we going to do it? And also, when I came here to the 375 00:26:54,846 --> 00:26:58,783 glaciers, I thought of the glaciers as my grandparents, 376 00:26:58,783 --> 00:27:04,589 almost like these elders that are in their last moments of 377 00:27:04,589 --> 00:27:08,727 their life. And so the question was like, How can I listen? How 378 00:27:08,727 --> 00:27:14,232 can I be there for them? How can I also, like, carry some of 379 00:27:14,232 --> 00:27:17,102 their wisdom with me and then share it with the others? 380 00:27:20,171 --> 00:27:26,211 So to understand 2100 I have to visit my grandmother. To 381 00:27:26,211 --> 00:27:31,282 understand the scale of ocean acidification, I basically need 382 00:27:31,282 --> 00:27:36,521 mythology to hold it, because it's so large. History is about 383 00:27:36,521 --> 00:27:41,993 historical events, like people doing historical things, you 384 00:27:41,993 --> 00:27:47,265 know, kings and kingdoms and all that nonsense. But mythology is 385 00:27:47,265 --> 00:27:52,203 about foundational stories, like separating the waters. So 386 00:27:52,203 --> 00:27:57,308 mythology became very natural as a holder for science also 387 00:27:57,642 --> 00:28:01,746 because the scale of the science that we're talking about is, is 388 00:28:01,746 --> 00:28:06,484 on a mythological scale. That is, it's not a historical thing. 389 00:28:06,551 --> 00:28:09,854 It's a mythological thing because it's about the 390 00:28:09,854 --> 00:28:14,526 fundaments. And we are the first generation of humans that 391 00:28:14,526 --> 00:28:18,263 understand that we're shaking fundaments. That is, we're 392 00:28:18,263 --> 00:28:23,268 melting glaciers, we're raising sea levels. So Moses split the 393 00:28:23,268 --> 00:28:30,108 Red Sea, but that was like a small local event, like for, for 394 00:28:30,108 --> 00:28:35,447 a day or two, while discussing sincerely that we're raising sea 395 00:28:35,447 --> 00:28:40,085 levels, maybe by one meter... that, that's a... that's mythology. 396 00:28:43,488 --> 00:28:46,257 Braedon: Stories and art have helped me connect to a world that's long 397 00:28:46,257 --> 00:28:49,961 gone and a world that we are losing, and it always has been a 398 00:28:49,961 --> 00:28:53,465 means of coping with that kind of change. The Romantic movement 399 00:28:53,465 --> 00:28:56,768 of the late 1700s brought about a fixation on nature in 400 00:28:56,768 --> 00:28:59,871 paintings and poetry because people needed to cope with rapid 401 00:28:59,871 --> 00:29:03,074 change and urbanization, I think we're seeing something similar 402 00:29:03,074 --> 00:29:05,944 now with art that tries to connect us with the natural 403 00:29:05,944 --> 00:29:10,215 world in new and engaging ways. More importantly, though, art 404 00:29:10,215 --> 00:29:13,051 has always been a means of creating change. There are 405 00:29:13,051 --> 00:29:16,254 countless examples of books influencing culture, like 406 00:29:16,254 --> 00:29:20,058 Uncle Tom's Cabin, which massively amplified anti slavery 407 00:29:20,058 --> 00:29:24,028 sentiments prior to abolition. Art alone does not make our 408 00:29:24,028 --> 00:29:28,533 world better, but it does make us better, and we are the ones 409 00:29:28,533 --> 00:29:32,203 who have to save the planet. And when it comes to climate change, 410 00:29:32,437 --> 00:29:35,840 art can teach us new ways to think and empower us to act. 411 00:29:38,076 --> 00:29:42,847 Studying eco criticism has changed the way that I think 412 00:29:42,847 --> 00:29:49,120 about climate change by revealing to me that it is a 413 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,525 discursive issue as well as a practical one. 414 00:29:53,525 --> 00:29:59,931 I wanted to kind of learn about the ways that we're entangled 415 00:30:00,031 --> 00:30:03,134 In that industry, even as someone who doesn't work in the 416 00:30:03,134 --> 00:30:10,275 oil industry and like, recognize how I am complicit in that 417 00:30:10,275 --> 00:30:15,380 industry and, and be more aware of that. And then how can we 418 00:30:15,380 --> 00:30:20,885 better understand that entanglement through reading, and 419 00:30:20,885 --> 00:30:25,957 watching film, and looking at visual art, and things like that? 420 00:30:26,191 --> 00:30:31,963 I think literature and the humanities is in the shadow of 421 00:30:32,030 --> 00:30:35,366 all of the sciences when it comes to legitimacy, or 422 00:30:35,366 --> 00:30:39,270 perceived legitimacy. And I think if we're writing about 423 00:30:39,270 --> 00:30:42,941 climate change, and if we're talking about climate change, 424 00:30:42,941 --> 00:30:46,611 and if we're entering the conversation of the... all of these 425 00:30:46,611 --> 00:30:52,550 other disciplines are having every day, I think we can take a 426 00:30:54,586 --> 00:30:59,991 necessary step forward as a discipline, and engage with 427 00:30:59,991 --> 00:31:03,561 scientists, engage with world leading research, in a way 428 00:31:03,561 --> 00:31:08,066 that's authentic and necessary. 429 00:31:08,066 --> 00:31:13,338 I think that there's a potential for literary arts and writers 430 00:31:13,872 --> 00:31:19,744 and the arts generally to be present in governance decision 431 00:31:19,744 --> 00:31:24,816 making and governance frameworks, and to be demonstrating people's 432 00:31:24,816 --> 00:31:32,657 emotional and political investment in improved environmental governance. 433 00:31:32,857 --> 00:31:41,532 I think it's possible to package what we do in a way that 434 00:31:41,532 --> 00:31:46,371 underscores its political relevance. I think it is 435 00:31:46,371 --> 00:31:52,076 possible for, for example, an English professor to explain to 436 00:31:52,076 --> 00:31:58,182 a member of parliament why they need to be involved in making 437 00:31:58,182 --> 00:32:04,789 decisions about local green spaces, and that might be the first step. 438 00:32:19,704 --> 00:32:23,308 There's a lot that we have to do, but everything we've looked 439 00:32:23,308 --> 00:32:26,978 at here is on the right track. Every day we spend engaging 440 00:32:26,978 --> 00:32:30,281 critically, creatively and lovingly with ourselves, our 441 00:32:30,281 --> 00:32:33,351 communities, and our natural world brings us closer to 442 00:32:33,351 --> 00:32:37,789 solutions. There's this book called Climate Lyricism by Min 443 00:32:37,789 --> 00:32:41,292 Hyoung Song, and he says that he's trying to change the way people 444 00:32:41,292 --> 00:32:44,395 think about climate change so that it's emboldening rather 445 00:32:44,395 --> 00:32:48,599 than frightening. In Climate Lyricism, Song writes that "the 446 00:32:48,599 --> 00:32:52,003 practice of sustaining attention to climate change [...] refers to a 447 00:32:52,003 --> 00:32:56,040 perpetual project of making yourself and others aware of the 448 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,977 changes occurring in the physical world in myriad 449 00:32:58,977 --> 00:33:03,548 manifestations in the process, you and others together, 450 00:33:03,548 --> 00:33:07,051 physically and mentally, work out how to survive and even 451 00:33:07,051 --> 00:33:11,356 flourish in the midst of such changes." If we can't stop 452 00:33:11,356 --> 00:33:15,193 climate change, we have to learn how to live with it. That's why 453 00:33:15,193 --> 00:33:18,863 it's important that Néfur is archiving glacial soundscapes, 454 00:33:18,930 --> 00:33:22,233 and Andri is writing eco- memorials, and why it's 455 00:33:22,233 --> 00:33:25,670 important that Sean is empowering survivors, and 456 00:33:25,670 --> 00:33:29,140 Chantal is raising awareness, and Meghan is putting words on 457 00:33:29,140 --> 00:33:32,910 the experience. That's why it's important that I'm making this 458 00:33:32,910 --> 00:33:36,647 movie. It's important to me, at least. This is me living with it. 459 00:33:37,482 --> 00:33:40,451 I don't know if I can say I'm flourishing yet, to use Song's 460 00:33:40,451 --> 00:33:44,222 language, but I think I'm getting there, and I hope that 461 00:33:44,222 --> 00:33:48,292 talking about it helps someone else get there too. I didn't go 462 00:33:48,292 --> 00:33:51,963 from nihilism to this overnight, either, or even over the course 463 00:33:51,963 --> 00:33:55,800 of this project. It took me years of exposure to this exact 464 00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:59,570 kind of thing that I've been showing you here, and making here, 465 00:33:59,570 --> 00:34:03,374 to bring me over the tipping point. I do think we can beat 466 00:34:03,374 --> 00:34:06,444 climate change, and I do think that this is one of the ways 467 00:34:06,444 --> 00:34:10,882 we'll do it — by making art that educates and empowers people, 468 00:34:11,048 --> 00:34:15,019 whether they're already environmentalists or not. So in 469 00:34:15,019 --> 00:34:19,090 the name of sustaining attention, and sharing in art and beautiful 470 00:34:19,090 --> 00:34:25,930 things, here's a poem to end on. Thanks for watching.