No Exit: Ecological Limits and Climate Change

Apparently 53% of the public press is sceptical about the issue of climate change and global warming, whether they’re talking about the exact effects, the timescale or the magnitude of the causes. The amount of scepticism in academically refereed scientific journals, however, is 0%.

It is partly this scepticism that oil companies, car manufacturers and other industrial businesses support – it gives them an excuse to carry on as normal and they aren’t being put under enough pressure from the public to change their ways. Yes, we are now seeing the introduction of hybrid cars and cleaner fuel, but why wasn’t this started earlier? Whilst some facts may be exaggerated, essentially there is now a higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has ever been, going back hundreds of thousands of years. There is some controversy about whether rises in CO₂ concentration lead to rises in temperature or whether it simply drives it thereafter, but the shear amount currently in our atmosphere is clearly going to cause some problems.

The scale of the response to this huge problem is too small to make any real difference at the moment. The public have become almost desensitised to the facts as so many different pieces of information are being thrown at them every day, often inaccurately replicated in the daily papers. This is an area where designers can make a difference – passing on accurate scientific information in a way that will grab attention and make people think twice. In his essay published in Ökomedien Ecomedia, Roger Malina encourages designers to do more for scientists which is definitely the way we should be going, although I think he slightly exaggerates the importance of designers compared with scientists.

Designers can play a big role in the fight against climate change and I think they all have an obligation to work with scientists and raise awareness.

References

Malina, R. (2007) Lovely Weather: Asking What the Arts can do for the Sciences. In: Ökomedien Ecomedia. Oldenburg: Hatje Cantz

Images from www.flickr.com