The Powerful Need for Artists on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis
By Montana Black
Where do artists fit in the discussion of climate destruction and environmental issues? Answer: Everywhere. Artists have been calling out environmental, social, economic, and justice issues for as long as people have been picking things up to make marks. Before we talk about the important role artists have in the work toward creating environmental stability, let us define climate change.
NASA defines climate change as: "a broad range of global phenomena created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to Earth’s atmosphere. These phenomena include the increased temperature trends described by global warming, but also encompass changes such as sea level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic and mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flower/plant blooming; and extreme weather events."
Human activity is currently generating an excess of long-lived greenhouse gases that – unlike water vapor – do not dissipate in response to temperature increases, resulting in a continuing buildup of heat. Think of sitting in a car in summer with the windows rolled up. Pretty hot.
Our planet’s rapidly changing climate is causing devastating and increasingly unpredictable weather events across the globe with extreme drought leading to longer and more severe fire seasons, deadly heat waves, unprecedented flooding, and monster hurricanes. Air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuel in every industrialized nation causes four million people to die a year according to the World Health Organization. Climate change refugees will become more and more prevalent as people are forced to flee their homes to escape environmental instability. The U.S. Department of Defense has called climate change a “threat multiplier that weakens the ability of governments to meet the basic needs of their populations.”
It is not surprising that climate change is a subject that makes people want to turn off and disengage. As a result, our response to this crisis has been tragically slow and solutions on a national level have been deliberately hampered. Arts and cultural programs are in a unique position to help bypass the tendency to disengage and to inspire the political will needed that leads to action. Visual art, film, theater, music, poetry, and literature are powerful tools for communication, understanding, and transformation. Artists are essential in putting this scary and complex issue out into the community in diverse ways that inspire involvement and understanding.
True to form, artists have risen in mass to meet the challenges of this time. Individuals, art organizations, and groups dedicated to climate justice and saving the environment have exploded in the last few decades. Here are just a handful of exciting groups on the front lines: Artists Project Earth, Art Works for Change, Climate Arts, Climate Stories Project, Climate Visuals, Dear Tomorrow, Earth Matters on Stage, Eco Arts Foundation, Hip Hop Caucus, Julies Bicycle… the list is endless, and it needs to be. There is no “Planet B.” Getting involved in saving our earth has never been more exciting or urgent.
Montana Black was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in May of 1990. The artist finds inspiration and meaning for her art in the Mojave and desert places across the Southwest.
Climate Change Hopes and Fears: A Visual Discussion is on display online as part of the Nevada Humanities Exhibition Series. You can view Montana Black’s curator’s talk here. The exhibition will be on continuous display on the Nevada Humanities website.
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