Responses to Thirteen Risks

This list is an interpretation of the risks of climate change identified by the 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.* I’ve come up with a set of possible responses to each of these risks. You could read this alongside my attempt to categorise all the types of cultural response to climate change.

*Note that the 4th Panel was based on science conducted up to 2005. The worst case scenarios projected for 2050 are now at the point of being reached in 2018. Ice at both poles is melting much faster than predicted, which is having many impacts including the release of methane from frozen tundra.

Risk 1: Danger to up to 118 million people losing their communities to the sea. (Note: 2014 models suggest the risk is faced by 600 million, which will need updating.)

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Explore the experience of people in places such as Bangladesh or Egypt, to understand the impact of severe flooding.
• Describe and promote engineering & ecosystem solutions e.g. the Delta Project to enable people to learn and adapt them.
• Record and interpret the threatened heritage of coastal, estuary/ flood-plain landscapes and peoples, so that a) we raise awareness of its value to help tackle rising sea levels b) preserve knowledge & rescue/move heritage artefacts.
• Help these communities face the threat to their homes and livelihoods by a) using cultural & creative means to help them understand the science/engineering behind coastal defence & climate change mitigation so that they can be active citizens and b) so that they are psychologically prepared to deal with change, loss and possible need to move home & business.
• Contribute to imaginative coastal defence and coastal living schemes, accessing science & cultural heritage knowledge & contemporary art/design thinking.
• Involvement in planning of new coastal/estuary cultural developments, build coastal defence into architectural & landscaping plans if the area is protected enough from erosion/flood to be a sustainable proposal. Work with artists and designers to explore alternative possibilities.

Risk 2: Famine due to the threatening of crops through aridity, flood, altered growth cycles and pests.

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Help communities learn about resilient and sustainable crops and about new approaches to food production such as permaculture.
• Contribute to seed and plant heritage projects.
• Develop the skills and capacities in communities to grow their own food in gardens and allotments.
• Reduce food waste and help people cope with food rationing by raising awareness of good nutrition, storage and cooking practices.
• Expose the connections between biodiversity/ecosystem destruction and climate change.

Risk 3: A large increase in the range of diseases such as malaria

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Explore the experiences of people where such diseases are more common and threatening.
• Design creative ways of resisting insect-borne diseases.

Risk 4: Ecosystem changes, in particular a growth of deserts and a reduction of forests. (Note that these ecosystem changes are also happening due to direct destruction e.g. logging, mining.)

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Help people understand interdependencies in ecosystems.
• Help people grasp the fragility of ecosystems by exploring how they have changed and collapsed in the past.
• Learn about the experience of people living in or escaping from deserts, especially recent deserts such as in China.
• Raise awareness of the vital contribution of forests and phytoplankton in ‘sinking’ carbon.
• Take part in schemes to reduce the destruction of forests and plant new ones, and marine conservation etc.
• Take part in schemes to record lost and changing landscapes and species (‘palliative curation’)

Risk 5: More crowded living spaces (and homelessness)

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Encourage debate about population growth.
• Be involved in regeneration projects to advocate needs of communities that may be ‘priced out’ or squeezed in their access to space.
• Learn from the past ways to design new solutions for living more densely in cities.
• Work with rural communities to adapt to influx of new developments and different people.
• Explore ways of sharing rather than defending private and ‘tribal’ space and resources.

Risk 6: More coexistence of cultures and languages in habitable areas

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Learn about and invent ways that diverse cultures have exchanged and lived harmoniously together.
• Support work to record artefacts, knowledge and language as they are lost, fragmented or adapted into new communities.
• Ensure that museums/cultural centres can adapt collections & programmes to increasing cultural diversity.
• Develop aptitudes of flexibility, tolerance of others and practical living skills.
• Make cultural resources available digitally and support digital inclusion initiatives so that content can be accessed by anyone anywhere.

Risk 7: A more nomadic lifestyle for many people

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Develop ‘positive deviancy’, or ‘imaginative resourcefulness’ – to thrive with less.
• Develop more digital and remote communication to allow displaced cultural groups to keep in touch

Risk 8: More competition for food and goods, and resource insecurity

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Encourage collaborative approaches to creating and sharing food and goods.
• Encourage permaculture approaches to growing food, to allow more sustainable supplies.
• Work with Transition Towns groups.

Risk 9: A greater and growing gap between rich and poor

Possible actions by cultural organisations:

• Use cultural resources and stories to explore alternative economic systems.
• Explore material culture from the past to understand the negative effects of excessive materialism.
• Use arts and cultural organisations as a base for philanthropy and social exchange schemes, to help narrow the gap.

Risk 10: A shorter life expectancy

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Help people understand, and take responsibility for their personal health.
• Use arts to encourage an agenda where wellbeing is valued above wealth.
• See above on contributing to solutions to increased diseases & food shortages.

Risk 11: A shift of public resources away from ‘inessentials’

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Find ways to help people make their own culture and enjoyment.
• Explore ways that public cultural resources can be used more efficiently, can share & reuse infrastructure, reduce new buildings & new initiatives that become money drains.
• Explore how green infrastructure can save money.
• Explore how revenue can be generated through imaginative eco-innovative designs and products.

Risk 12: Fundamental conflicts between those who respond with decadence and those with authoritarian moral stances

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Work with cultural & creative mediators to help people avoid fixing into extreme positions of either indulgence or repression of liberal values.
• Promote an approach to education and problem-solving that is based on dialogue, enquiry and pragmatism.
• Provide spaces for people from diverse backgrounds to share views on ethics in a changing situation.

Risk 13: Greatly increased threats of nuclear war and terrorism

Possible responses by cultural organisations:

• Sensitively explore the experiences and outcomes of nuclear and terrorist attacks.
• Use cultural diplomacy and other initiatives to promote international peace.