This document provides an overview of the connections between climate change, sustainability, and the arts. It discusses the science of climate change, highlighting the evidence that human activities are triggering changes to the global climate. It then explores how artists have addressed these issues through various mediums. Finally, it presents some initiatives and events that bring the arts and sustainability communities together to raise awareness and find ways forward on these important issues.

1. Climate change, sustainability, and the arts.
Théodore Géricault (1792-1824) , The Raft of the Medusa 1818- 1819
Guy Abrahams
Art + Environment
www.guyabrahams.com www.climarte.org

3. 1. The science
2. The arts
3. A way forward?
.

4. 1. The science
.

5. Source: Global Footprint Network www.footprintnetwork.org

6. “1. There is no doubt that the climate is changing.
The evidence is overwhelming and clear.
2. We are already seeing the social, economic and
environmental impacts of a changing climate.
3. It is beyond reasonable doubt that human activities – the burning of
fossil fuels and deforestation – are triggering the changes we are
witnessing in the global climate.
4. This is the critical decade. Decisions we make from now to 2020 will
determine the severity of climate change our children
and grandchildren experience.”
The Climate Commission, May 2011: http://climatecommission.gov.au/topics/the-critical-decade/

7. www.climate.gov/#dataServices/predictions

8. (Slide from Strange Encounters behind the 2°C Firewall: The Global Picture, Prof. H. J.
Schellnhuber CBE, FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Conference, Melbourne, 12 July 2011)

9. (Slide from Strange Encounters behind the 2°C Firewall: The Global Picture, Prof. H. J.
Schellnhuber CBE, FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Conference, Melbourne, 12 July 2011)

10. Source: ClimateInteractive.org

11. (Slide from Strange Encounters behind the 2°C Firewall: The Global Picture, Prof. H. J.
Schellnhuber CBE, FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Conference, Melbourne, 12 July 2011)

12. “You don’t build movements with bar graphs...”
Bill McKibben, August, 2010

13. 2. The arts
.

14. Picasso, Guernica, 1937

15. Picasso, Guernica, 1937

16. Rock Island Bend, Franklin River, South West Tasmania, 1979 (Rock Island Bend) (Peter Dombrovskis 1945-1996)

21. Source: NASA Eart h Observatory http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_IceCores/

22. From NASA Goddard - minimum Arctic sea ice extent from September 2007
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003400/a003464/index.html

23. ‘Melting Vitruvian Man’ September, 2011
Photo: Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace John Quigley

24. Jeff Carter

25. Jasmine Targett

26. Debbie Symons

27. Mandy Martin

28. Effect of Good Government (detail), 1338-1340, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Siena,

29. 3. A way forward?
.

30. Ash Keating, Copenhagen? 2009

31. CapeFarewell.com

33. The inaugural seven thousand oaks festival will host over 20 artists
exploring the issue of sustainability through music, visual art,
performance and installation throughout Winter 2010. Come along to
one or all of the festival programs and join the conversations of
sustainability in the cultural sphere.
June 17- July 24 2010, Melbourne
seventhousandoaks.org

36. Hot Science, Global
Citizens: the agency of the
museum sector in climate
change interventions
An Australian Research Council Linkage Project led by the University of
Western Sydney in partnership with Museum Victoria; the Australian Museum;
Powerhouse Museum; Questacon; Liberty Science Center, the University of
Melbourne and the University of Leicester.
Research & Programming Symposium 2011, Sydney, May 5-6 2011
http://www.hotscienceglobalcitizens.net/index.php/symposium

40. HEAT Art and Climate Change
12 September - 18 October 2008
Public Programs
KEN YONETANI
Artist Floor Talk
Friday 12 September 1.00 - 2.00 pm
Born and raised in Japan, Yonetani, who now lives
and works in Australia, is known for his fragile
sugar sculptures and ceramic panels. He has
been selected to represent Australia in the 2009
Venice Biennale. These incredibly fragile works
remind us of our precious reefs and marine life
affected by the heating of our oceans.
Free event.
CULTURES OF
Ken Yonetani, The Dead Sea,
2008. Photo: Julia Yonetani.
MARK WILSON
SUSTAINABILITY
Artist Floor Talk
Thursday 18 September 1.00 - 2.00 pm
English artist Mark Wilson and Icelandic artist
Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir explored the provenance
of stuffed polar bears in stately homes and
ART & SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH CLUSTER RMIT AND ASLE ANZ
museums in the UK.
PRESENT A ONE-DAY SYMPOSIUM 9am–5pm SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2008
In Australia they further explore the cultural
RMIT STOREY HALL 342 SWANSTON STREET MELBOURNE
implications of humans coveting these exotic
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: DR WENDY WHEELER
animals through taxidermy, while the polar bear is READER IN ENGLISH, LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
losing its habitat and facing extinction in nature. CREATIVE EVOLUTION: A THEORY OF CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
Taxidermy polar bear.
Photo: Mark Ashkanasy.
Free event.
REGISTRATION / INCLUDES LUNCH
ADVANCED REGISTRATION IS RECOMMENDED TO SECURE PLACES THE SYMPOSIUM WILL CONCLUDE
JILL ORR REGISTER AT: http://www.rmit.edu.au/art/culturesofsustainability WITH A PRIVATE VIEWING OF
Artist Floor Talk ENQUIRIES TELEPHONE 03 9925 2412 THE RMIT GALLERY EXHIBITION
Friday 19 September 1.00 - 2.00 pm HEAT: ART AND CLIMATE CHANGE
IMAGE GEORGINA READ,
Australian artist Jill Orr has delighted, shocked and FOR THE BABY DETAIL
moved audiences around the world through her Art & Sustainability
Research Cluster
performances and installations. For the past thirty
years, her powerful imagery has drawn on the land
and identity as it is shaped, in, on and with the
environment. RMIT FOUNDATION Gallery

45. “Erosion and gradual
inundation are already
occurring on the low-
lying Torres Strait
island communities of
Boigu and Saibai. Any
future relocation of
affected communities
will be socially and
economically
costly.”Gavin Briggs, Manager
Northern Australia Research Programme
“Approximately 27% of our
island communities are affected
by climate change and the
rising sea level right now, in
2009. For us, this is not a
phenomenon that we have the
luxury of reading about;
unfortunately for some of us, it
will become an even more real
part of our daily lives each
year.” Torres Strait Regional Authority’s Chair, Toshie Kris

54. 11 to 16 October 2011
Kino Cinema

56. CLIMARTE is an independent not for profit body that brings
the arts community together to tackle climate change.
www.climarte.org

57. Floods, Pakistan, 2010
Drought, Spain, 2010
Sea level rise, Carteret Islands, 2010 Wildfires, Russia, 2010

58. Australia

59. Maldives - today Melbourne - tomorrow?
Text
Sources:U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and
Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts,
Department of Climate Change

62. ‘Blue Marble,’ NASA, 2009

63. Neolithic cave painting c6000 BC

64. J.M.W. Turner Rain, Steam, and Speed-The Great Western Railway, 1844.

65. Photo by Andrew North of Cloud 9 Aerial Photography
Courtesy of L.I.V.E Locals Into Victoria’s Environment

66. Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci, 1487