UA News

Diana Liverman's essay about how the arts and humanities can evoke human in ways to connect with the natural world has been included in a new publication.

Creative arts and culture can play a pivotal role in conveying the urgency of climate change and galvanizing an effective response to the threat it presents, according to an essay by University of Arizona researcher Diana Liverman. 

Released Feb. 15 in London, the essay appears in "Long Horizons: An Exploration of Art + Climate Change," a collection of ruminations on art, artists and climate change.

The collection also includes thoughts by author Jay Griffiths, singer-songwriter and guitarist KT Tunstall, sculptor Antony Gormley and sustainable development professor Tim Jackson.

In her essay, "On Seeking Inspiration: a scientist turns to the cultural sector," Liverman reflects on the power of art and culture to resonate emotionally with human beings and catalyze change in a way that science-often steeped in jargon and sometimes seemingly sterile and irrelevant to everyday lives- cannot.

"Artistic endeavors can provoke us to question our humanity, create connections with others and with the natural world, and offer us a vision for alternative futures," writes Liverman, co-director of the UA's Institute of the Environment and geography professor.

The premise of her essay lies in the inability of scientists, despite their best efforts, to meaningfully penetrate the collective public consciousness with some scary news: Left unchecked, a continued spike in the concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions could significantly warm Earth in our lifetime, forcing glaciers and Arctic sea ice to recede further, spawning more widespread heat waves and drought, and threatening people and ecosystems.

In inspiring people to imagine and reach for a more sustainable future, writing, drawing, painting, music and even video gaming can bridge the disconnect that exists between scientists and society, pioneering cultural change and compelling action, Liverman says.

Long Horizons was commissioned by the British Council, an organization in the United Kingdom that encourages international cultural understanding and exchange of ideas. Julie's Bicycle, a non-profit dedicated to helping creative industries reduce their carbon emissions, curated the work. Liverman sits on the organization's board of directors.

Introducing the collection, Julie's Bicycle Director Alison Tickell writes that climate change has been integral to the lives of the five contributors.

"Each contributor has interpreted the relationship between art and sustainability personally, so that science and art, both calling on creativity of the highest order, blur as disciplines," Tickell says. "All of the contributors are writing as artists or as scientists-we need to listen to what they have to say."