Opinionated collection of 36 articles, films, podcasts and other artefacts related to the climate crisis.
Light pollution is an often overlooked environmental problem. In his “The Darkness Manifesto”, the Swedish ecologist Johan Eklöf describes the various problems the lid-up night sky has for animals and plants. But also the effects of screens and other light sources for humans.
It might not look like much but it's probably the most defining number of our time, one that will shape this century and many beyond it. It is the amount, in parts-per-million, of carbon dioxide in our planet's atmosphere. This project by Julian Oliver and Gardan Savičić displays this number on your smartphone.
“If we did go back to sleeping as much as we need to, as much as we did a century ago, then that would cause a huge recession as people would consume an hour less every day.” „Versetzen Sie sich für einen Moment in die nähere Zukunft, sagen wir ins Jahr 2141. Was passiert? Sie schauen zurück, nerven sich über die vergangene Zeit, lachen vielleicht. Sie blicken auf Ihre eigene Gegenwart, so wie Sie heute in einem Museum auf die Viktorianer oder Wilhelm Tell zurückschauen würden. Man fühlt sich dabei überlegen, weil man lebt und die anderen tot sind; weil man Dinge weiss, die die anderen damals nicht wussten; weil sie Fehler begingen, die in Zukunft offensichtlich sind. Wenn Sie dann wieder aus dem Jahr 2141 in die Gegenwart zurückkehren, dann werden Sie verstehen, dass auch Sie Teil eines historischen Prozesses sind, an den man sich später erinnern wird und den Sie mit Ihren Handlungen beeinflussen.“ The warming stripes by Ed Hawkins achieved what only few images and even less data visualisations did: they became an icon. Due to their simplicity they managed the gap between science and pop culture. They communicate their message without any explicit legend and reached a point where the pure display conveys a political message. And when the Reading FC football club wore the warming stripes on their jersey, they might have triggered the first climate change conversation during live commentary of a football match.
Some Brazilian scientists fear that the Amazon may become a grassy savanna — with profound effects on the climate worldwide.
“Climate change presents a near-term threat to the future of human civilization. The biodiversity crisis presents a longer term threat to the viability of the human species.” The story behind an ambitious new global agreement to protect biodiversity.
Marius Michusch photographs three police officers protecting Bagger 288 from protesters in the Lützerath open pit mine.
Der russische Angriffskrieg in der Ukraine hat bloßgelegt, was Klimaforscher_innen schon lange kritisierten: die Abhängigkeit von fossilen Energien (und von totalitären Regimen). Die ewigen Verschleppungstaktiken beim sozial-ökologischen Umbau der Gesellschaften hin zu einer nachhaltigeren Form des globalen Miteinanders können wir uns nicht mehr leisten. Wie lassen sich die miteinander verschränkten Krisen aus Krieg, Klimakrise und der Gefahr autoritärer, faschistischer Bewegungen analysieren und beantworten?
Scenarios about our future are generated with models that calculate climate impacts based on various variables like energy mix, policy decisions and population development. What if you could set these variables and let the simulation evolve? The planetary crisis panning game Half Earth Socialism allows for just that. Using the open-source model Hector, Francis Tseng and Son La Pham (with the help of other designers, researchers, and artists) created a format that kept me engaged for 4 hours straight with the myriad of tweaks and trade-offs of climate policy. The game is lovingly designed and embellished with myriad narrative details and an entertaining political embedding by borrowing from the book Half Earth Socialism. And when no settings you try, works out, a look at this IPCC figure might help.