Van den Brule, J. (2019). Climate Consciousness: Artist Kito Mbiango on the Power of Art to Drive Action on Climate Change. Solutions 10(3): 44-51. https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/climate-consciousness-artist-kito-mbiango-on-the-power-of-art-to-drive-action-on-climate-change
Feature
Climate Consciousness Artist Kito Mbiango on the Power of Art to Drive Action on Climate Change by Jill Van den Brule
W
e have a climate emergency. Regardless of where one stands on this issue—this is our ‘inconvenient truth’. Yet the power to reach people has never been greater. Close to 3.2 Billion people today are online, about 2 Billion are from developing countries and over 89 million from least developed countries.1 Our currency today lies is in our culture, our capacity for mass mobilization and in the immense untapped power of our global neural network. We can literally put our heads and hearts together on this one! Yet, why do the majority seem paralyzed by the daunting challenge of tackling climate change? How do we move humanity beyond the denial and doom? How do we begin making changes in our daily lives to help us all not only thrive but literally survive? We are on the verge of extinction. Humanity has wiped out 60 percent of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, and the world’s experts warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens our very civilisation.2 It is getting harder to deny the truth that our consumption patterns are directly responsible for what’s happening. The biggest cause of wildlife losses is the destruction of natural habitats, much of it to create
farmland to support our lifestyles. Those of us tapped into the truth have a moral obligation to educate others about this crisis and get them to act. We desperately need a climate culture—a means by which we engage, communicate and create solutions to live sustainably. Culture gives us a language that transcends barriers and enables us to communicate about these issues within our families, communities and with our indigenous elders. When we look at certain indigenous cultures, such as the Inuit people, for example, we see they have over 50 words for snow.3 Linguists explain that this kind of linguistic diversity, demonstrates how languages evolve to suit the needs of their speakers. “These people need to know whether ice is fit to walk on or whether you will sink through it,” says linguist Willem de Reuse, “It’s a matter of life or death.”4 Our culture however, does not seem to have caught up with our environmental reality. There is a dire need support and accelerate this process, says Mbiango. Culture as we refer to it here is defined as ‘a way of life of a group of people—the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation
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to the next.’ Culture is symbolic communication. So why are we not moving more swiftly on the climate agenda? Why are Europe’s youth taking to the streets demanding change while the rest of society seems to be moving so sluggishly? It is said that we are experiencing “climate or ecological grief’5 which captures the feelings of loss, anger, hopelessness, despair and distress caused by climate change and ecological decline. This feeling of loss is impacting our psyches and mental health, but also making many realize that this means we will all need to make changes in our lifestyles and eating habits, which can lead to further denial and paralysis. In addition, “climate change and environmental movements have long been criticised for trying to motivate the population through negative narratives and doomsday scenarios and we have seen much of the movement shift in recent years towards more positive narratives of climate hope,” explains Rob Law in his recent OpEd in the Guardian.6
Climate Hope and the Timeless Power of Art In turbulent times we often turn to the artists and creatives to nurture our inner selves and help us construct and imagine new realities. Artists have been using the power of art