Climate change is a story, or rather billions of interlinked personal stories. For the most part, however, we distance ourselves from climate change through the buffers of scientific data or political battles. As a result, many people relate to climate change only in the abstract, if at all. In order to reach people on a deeper, personal level, we need to hear each other’s experiences of climate change and normalize talking about the reality of our changing world, specific to our local community and the unique changes and impacts that we will face in Northeast Minnesota/Northwest Wisconsin.
Lisa Fitzpatrick, Director of the Motion + Media Across Disciplines/Viz Lab and Jonna Korpi, Director of the UMD Office of Sustainability have been awarded a 2023 SDG Research Grant through the U of M Global Programs and Strategy Alliance for their “Responding to Climate Change: Expressing Ourselves Through Conversation, Story, and Art” project. The MMAD Lab team (including Student Assistants Ethan Schurman, Brendan Rood, Haeun Lee and MMAD Lab Video Producer Dan Fitzpatrick) is currently recording climate conversations with the UMD and Duluth communities and creating climate art projects and events.
Addressing the climate crisis begins with talking about climate change topics openly, regularly, and in community. The team is creating an educational and artistic forum where individuals, students, and community members are invited to explore their personal experience with climate change and the emotional impact these changes are having.
There will be three avenues employed for such exploration:
1) Provide spaces to speak, ask questions, contemplate, and reflect on climate’s current local impacts
2) Integrate climate experiences into educational opportunities
3) Create and present artistic works that embody participants’ climate experiences.
This work will add to our community’s body of climate change education, awareness raising, and increase of human and natural capacity to address climate change impacts through mitigation, adaptation and resilience. The project directly supports outcomes for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) #3 Good Health & Wellbeing and SDG #13 Climate Action while also addressing issues related to SDG #10 Reduced Inequalities and SDG #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Climate Stories
Call for Participants! The MMADLab has received a grant on climate change story-telling and art. We are looking for exciting stories and experiences about nature, the outdoors and climate change. Please visit https://forms.gle/D83eJm9J7icHfa1N6 to sign up to share your experiences and thoughts.
Climate Clock Action Week!
