Masterclass - Possibilities for Environmental Action

Description

Presentation: Emergent Action in Climate Fiction
What can fiction do to represent and motivate environmental action? Rachel Watts will consider research into how readers respond to climate fiction and consider the dual roles of stillness and action in generating productive tension in ecological creative practice.

Masterclass: Possibilities for Environmental Action
According to the IPCC, human civilization has six years before global GHG emissions lock in dangerous climate heating (above 2C). While the urgency of the moment calls for radical, immediate action, most global leaders have not altered their fundamental economic and energy calculations, nor have populations in the world's largest emitting nations embraced decarbonization at the necessary pace. This begs the question: what possibilities for environmental action remain? Do environmental movements still have time to negotiate effective climate mitigation? Should change strategies focus primarily on cultural, political, or economic regimes? Bottom up, or top down? And considering basic injustices structuring climate change, how shall we evaluate the means necessary to force change? Does the urgency still permit agency?

In this IAS Masterclass, Visiting Scholar Drew Hubbell helps us pose these questions. Drew will open the class by drawing on his research into the poetics of environmental action. Historically, and in the current moment, narrative fiction (film, novels, theater, performance art) have mediated social change theories and strategy debates from scholars and environmentalists to the general public, helping to establish legitimation for environmental causes and tactics. At a time when a majority accept anthropogenic climate change as a crisis requiring fundamental action, and yet fear the costs necessary to avert that crisis, many have suggested that stories have the power to motivate action.

Period	31 Oct 2024
Event type	Workshop
Location	Crawley, Australia, Western AustraliaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Local