For centuries, art has been utilized as a form of communication and human expression, and is directly intertwined with the earth. Nature provides the medium for artistic creations, such as clay and metal for sculpture, natural pigments for paint, natural sounds that provide inspiration for music, and many others. But nature does not play a solely passive role in art. The wonders of the natural world have been the muse of artists since the first known human settlements, with the oldest known cave painting created 45,500 years ago in modern day Indonesia depicting wild pigs (1). Modern times bring no change in this ancient pattern of the earth inspiring art, but climate change is on the rise, and biodiversity is seriously threatened, with 28% of all life on earth facing extinction (2).

Throughout the climate crisis, artists around the globe have risen to the occasion, creating sculptures, paintings, pottery, stories and visual media to inspire action and inform the population about climate change. This unique form of capacity building has great potential to move viewers into action, through the natural human psychological response to artwork. Studies show that during the perception process (e.g., looking at a painting or listening to a piece of music) the cognitive sensors in our brains register certain sounds, colours and objects that are personally identifiable to the individual through memories and associations, deepening their connection to the work and the artist (3). Through this process, many people place themselves sub-consciously into the artist’s shoes, seeing what they see. In this way, artistic works are more likely to stimulate tangible action and interest in the climate crisis in individuals than other forms of capacity building. 

Another way that art can facilitate climate action is through helping to alleviate eco-anxiety, a condition which three out of four Canadians are currently experiencing due to the worsening impacts of climate change (4). Art is commonly used as therapy for anxiety, including conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as eco-anxiety. Meditating on artwork that focuses on climate change and the natural world is also shown to help calm individuals by presenting the climate crisis in a centralized space, (e.g., a painting or documentary) allowing them to ponder tangible actions they can take (5). 

Home to a diverse artistic community, Canada is leading the charge of artistic expression as a form of climate capacity building. This includes innovative and imaginative works such as Vincent Ho’s Arctic Symphony, an ode to the changing Canadian arctic, with a gripping prelude, ‘Lamentations’ orchestrated to convey the melting permafrost and rising temperatures currently occurring in the arctic (6). A Canadian organization actively integrating art into their climate-based initiatives is the David Suzuki Foundation, a non-profit focused on ecological education, with projects devoted to capacity building on climate change and biodiversity loss, including showcasing the works of Canadian artists on their website, illustrating the climate crisis through the visual arts (7).

With the effects of the climate crisis worsening yearly, it is clear that traditional methods to stimulate action are not adequate for the task at hand. Art has the unique ability to influence us emotionally and psychologically, making the climate crisis more personal to individuals, bringing initiatives and climate-based policy into focus. With this new perspective, it is possible for individuals to step back and see the bigger picture, and in so doing help them realize how important their actions that they take in their everyday lives really are.

Sources:

1. World's 'oldest known cave painting' found in Indonesia. 2021. The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/13/worlds-oldest-known-cave-painting-found-in-indonesia

2. Global loss of biodiversity is significantly more alarming than previously suspected. 2023. Queen’s University Belfast

https://www.qub.ac.uk/News/Allnews/2023/Globallossofbiodiversityissignificantlymorealarmingthanpreviouslysuspected.html

3. Your Brain on Art: The Case for Neuroaesthetics. 2019. National Library of Medicine

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7075503/

4. Your heart may be breaking, but please take care of yourself. 2023. Canadian Climate Institute.

https://climateinstitute.ca/climate-anxiety/#:~:text=Three%20out%20of%20every%20four,ability%20to%20arrest%20that%20warming.

5. How Can Art Move Us Beyond Eco-Despair? 2024. American Scientist

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/how-can-art-move-us-beyond-eco-despair#:~:text=Ecologically%20aware%20art%2C%20presented%20in,viewer%20of%20our%20shared%20problem.

6. How I wrote a symphony about the changing Canadian Arctic. 2018. Canadian Geographic

https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/how-i-wrote-a-symphony-about-the-changing-canadian-arctic/

7. ART FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE. 2024. David Suzuki Foundation

https://davidsuzuki.org/art-for-climate-justice/

Photo Credit: Photograph of a cartography piece in the Map Room of the Vatican Museum by F. Brown