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Tag archives for culture

Culture helps us get the message

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Borneo-rainforest
Borneo’s rainforest, from the film and photo exhibition The Testament of Tebaran. Photo: Mattias Klum.

Ever since the big 350 concert evening a few weeks ago I have been thinking quite a lot about culture and art as a way of communicating the message of how urgent the ecological crisis is. Knowing the facts is essential, but somehow culture seems to have an ability to make us grasp things in a way that facts and figures doesn’t always manage.

“A tool that isn’t used enough”

Recently I read an interesting article in Nature, by the Canadian writer and journalist Sanjay Khanna, who explores this a bit more. He writes that artists, skilled in conveying ideas through the senses, can have an influential role in shaping public opinion about climate change.
One of the examples he brings up is the Swedish photographer Mattias Klum, who says that “Art is a tool that isn’t used enough to effect change”. During the climate meeting in Copenhagen in December Mattias Klum’s photo work The Testament of Tebaran will be exhibited to show the effect that deforestation has on climate change.

Palm oil destroying forests

The Testament of Tebaran is also a film where “the last man of a dying Bornean tribe tells his story while unassuming consumers shop for the products that cause his extinction.”
Klum and his colleague journalist Folke Rydén have dug into the facts behind palm oil, which is used for biodiesel. Biodiesel has been marketed as a green alternative to fuel in the west. But the problem is, palm oil production causes great destruction of the rain forests and the people who live there.
Read more about the film here.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

November 5, 2009

Three powerful digits, from science to culture

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Benny-Andersson-and-Ane-Brun
Former ABBA star Benny Andersson (to the left) after performing the song “SOS” together with Ane Brun (in blue dress).

Saturday was a global day of action to draw attention to the number 350, which is the safe limit of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. It turned out an intense day in many places of the world, and I was amazed and happy to see such a crystal clear link between what science says needs to be done and grass root actions.

Here in Stockholm the main square Sergels torg was filled with people forming the number 350, and inside the cultural center Kulturhuset seminars and workshops about climate change were held all day long.

Singing for 350

In the evening I went to see a grand gala with around 25 artists, which was arranged at a theatre, hosted by the artist Ane Brun. During the summer she attended a three day seminar about climate change. What she heard there made her decide she had to do something. The result was this concert. During 350 minutes some of Sweden’s finest artists put music to many of the feelings that the climate crisis can awake.

Below you can see Robyn’s contribution.

 

Serious message

All this has hopefully helped to put the number 350 up on the agenda. But, as professor Johan Rockström pointed out during a presentation of the Planetary Boundaries report a few weeks ago: This number requires action, and is a very serious message to the world that an enormous amount of things need to be done. The safe limit of CO2 in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million. Today we are at 387. That means it isn’t enough to emit less greenhouse gases – we actually need to suck CO2 out of the system.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

October 26, 2009

Same feeling — less CO2

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audience-in-vitabergsparken
People watching a theatre play in Vitabergsparken, Stockholm. Photo: Carl Thorborg.

After a dip in the weather, summer is once again reigning over Sweden, with lots of sun and temperatures that makes most of us very happy, although those who have just returned to work after their holidays complain about having to go inside. But even if you are working there are still plenty of ways to enjoy the summer.

Theatre in the parks

The other day I found myself in one of Stockholms parks, a beautiful warm evening, to see the group Sirqus Alfon play a hilarious performance. Standing among the euphoric audience of around four thousand persons, it once again occurred to me that culture is one of the least CO2 intensive pleasures there are.

If there were such a thing as a happiness meter I’m sure it would show the same level among those thousands who in the end of the performance jumped up and down, clapping their hands and shouting in chorus, compared to say somebody who steps on the gas of his or her motorboat out in the sea or feels the airplane touch the ground after a shopping weekend in some big city far away.

Energy-saving during the war

It might sound silly, but I think there are many ways of reaching the same feeling of content, it’s just that some of the so called simpler amusements seem to have disappeared in the shadow of the fancier and often CO2-intensive ones. Here I think culture has an enormously important part to play.

Lots of comparisons can be drawn to what happened already during World War I, when energy was a scarce resource. For example the British government ran campaigns to “Holiday at home” and invested big in local cultural events, such as dances, concerts, boxing displays, swimming galas and open air theatre.
In Stockholm there has been free summer theatre in the parks since 1942 and I know there are many other places, both in Sweden and in other countries, where these events are common. But maybe it should be encouraged even more?

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 7, 2009