Through Wind and Ice: Communicating the Climate Crisis
This event is organised by Climate Crisis Thinking in the Humanities and Social Sciences Network

This presentation draws upon anthropological research on wind power development in Mexico and ice loss in Iceland to highlight alternative forms of climate communication that are research-driven and public-facing.

In October 2020, California experienced its first “gigafire” – a burn event of over 1,000,000 acres; but of course, this is just one instance of climatological precarity among a long and growing list of others. Stories such as these do motivate some people to action. But, we also see that much of the public discourse surrounding environmental deterioration continues to pivot upon policy and science messaging that, while substantively essential, may not always appeal to the affective, sensed or felt dimensions of the environmental harms multiplying around us. In this presentation, we draw from two of our anthropological research projects—the first on wind power development in Mexico and the other on the loss of ice in Iceland—to highlight alternative forms of climate communication that are research-driven and public-facing. Our work on aeolian politics in Mexico and our collaborative text, a “duograph,” begin the discussion and we close with reflections on our August 2019 installation of the world’s first memorial to a fallen glacier, Okjökull.

Read more here: www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/through-wind-and-ice-communicating-the-climate-crisis
Date: 18 November 2020, 14:30 (Wednesday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2020)
Venue: Online
Speakers: Cymene Howe (Rice University), Dominic Boyer (Rice University)
Organising department: The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)
Part of: TORCH: Climate Crisis Thinking in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/through-wind-and-ice-communicating-the-climate-crisis-tickets-125048247675
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Laura Spence