e for emergence – Climate Denial Dynamics

Roundtable discussion featuring climate scientist Kajsa Parding

Free. Held in English. No step free access.

Anthropogenic climate change — that caused by the human carbon footprint — is in plain view. It is a longstanding, scientifically agreed fact that global warming represents an existential threat to human civilisation and current ecological systems. As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres put it, we are on the "highway to climate hell, and we have control of the wheel". 

The disconnect grows: Despite decades of research, comprehensive reporting and omnipresent communications from scientists, activists, artists and policymakers, the warnings fail to land. When science and politics come up short, it is tempting to look to the arts for initiating change and insight. Despite the unreasonability of this expectation, artistic strategies can be useful to examine human relationships to nature, technology and fossil fuels, and how to navigate towards a safer and more sustainable future. This discussion will address questions including: Why are many individuals and communities resistant to putting climate crisis awareness into accountable action? How do the roots of climate denial connect to racism? What role can art and artists play in shifting dialogues surrounding climate catastrophe?

Kajsa Parding is a research scientist in atmospheric physics and climate change living in Oslo. She currently works at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

e for emergence is a series of art and science dialogues convened by Anita Akbarzadeh Solbu and Susanne M. Winterling. It is held as part of PRAKSIS Hosts, a new initiative supporting artists and organisers seeking to create dialogue and build community.