Editorial

Why Artists Need to Know About Global Warming’s “Six Americas” and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

In preparing for a submission to an international art competition on climate change, I came across The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC), a dedicated program within Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Fascinated by their research on public climate change attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and policy preferences, I reached out to Associate Director, Lisa Fernandez, whose insights guided my application. What I learned from her and from studying the program’s data convinced me that the work of YPCCC is critical to artists of all disciplines whose art is focused on stimulating awareness of, and action against, man-made climate change. Specifically, Lisa called my attention to Global Warming’s “Six Americas.” I have been as guilty as other artists who may assume that their creative expressions against an alarming global threat will be endorsed by an audience of like-thinkers and will convert those who think otherwise. But, in fact, the research conducted by YPCCC indicates that it is not

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Climate Change

This article originally appeared in the Capital City Weekly on June 22, 2016. We were at the Fish House in Ketchikan early in April, talking about climate; the room was full and the conversation was lively. Outside, the berries were blooming and the snow was gone. Ketchikan was the third stop of the Tidelines Journey, a nine-town ferry tour organized through my work at the Island Institute, a Sitka based nonprofit dedicated to fostering resilience by promoting creative, collaborative explorations of the connections between place and community. I was traveling for the month with a group of storytellers, artists, and culture bearers, all of us working in our own ways to better understand the relationship between the changing climate and our changing cultures. A week into the tour it was becoming clear that other people in Southeast Alaska are as preoccupied with climate change as I am. For my entire adult life there’s been an environmental alarm in the background of my consciousness, sometimes

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On Earth Day 2014: Record the Earth

What can you do to celebrate Earth Day this year that shows your commitment to the well-being of our planet, contributes to scientific research and demonstrate an artistic sensibility to the environment that surrounds you? According to Dr. Bryan Pijanowski, Professor of Landscape Ecology at Purdue University, the answer is: Record the Earth. Through his website, Global Soundscapes, Dr. Pilanowski is calling on people from around the world to record one million soundscapes today. The recordings can be done using their app, Soundscape Recorder, and uploaded onto their server. Using the theory that acoustic signals are the prime marker of the health of our environment, these soundscapes will then be used to assess the dynamics and conditions of our ecosystems. So Happy Earth Day everyone. Now get out there and record! ______________________________ Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of science, policy, art, and climate change. She is the Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle – an organization created to support the writing,

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