Imagining Climate Change

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Original Air Date: 
August 12, 2017

“The climate crisis is a crisis of culture and thus of imagination,” says writer Amitav Ghosh. So what changes in our conversation about global warming when we tap into the imaginative worlds of artists? We ask some, including novelists Ghosh and Lidia Yuknavitch and visual artist Kambui Olujimi.

ruined boats
Audio

There’s a lot of scientific debate about the future of climate change. But have you ever considered the worst case scenario? David Wallace-Wells gives us one terrifying glimpse into the future.

Length: 
9:15
bamboo graffitt
Articles

If climate change is the most urgent problem facing humanity, why are there so few novels about it? Acclaimed novelist Amitav Ghosh believes that’s a big problem. He says climate change is less a science problem than a crisis of imagination.

Length: 
12:31
earth
Dangerous Ideas

Historian Iain McCalman’s Dangerous Idea? The Anthropocene — the idea that humans have fundamentally changed our global climate. It’s scary, but we’re also seeing people come together in unprecedented ways to solve planetary problems.

Length: 
2:32
Kambui Olujimi: The Drop, from the series InDecisive Moments, 2017. Glass, approx. 30 x 20 x 20 inches. Courtesy the artist.
Photo Gallery

It’s hard to wrap your head around climate change. How do you really take in the concept of planetary change over decades or even centuries? Visual artist Kambui Olujimi explores different ideas about time in his one-man show “Zulu Time.”

Length: 
7:08
earth from space
Audio

Lidia Yuknavitch’s apocalyptic novel “The Book of Joan” is one of the most stunning examples of climate fiction. It’s the story of a near-future where Earth is decimated and the last few survivors are stranded out in space.

Length: 
16:36
The original 1947 cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Articles

In 2018, we have a lot more to be anxious about than just nuclear weapons.

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August 12, 2017
February 10, 2018
November 24, 2018
August 31, 2019
Last modified: 
August 30, 2019