Abstract
In the task of ensuring that governments undertake the measures needed to mitigate the impacts of global warming today and in the future, it is necessary to activate the public worldwide to a much greater degree than has been the case over the last 25 years. The IPCC have published five reports providing the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change. Each summarized for policymakers and the press, to facilitate communication to the public. Given the inertia that characterizes the public’s response, it is legitimate to ask if sufficient emphasis has been placed on the means of communication. Whether, in activating the public, where communication takes place and how it is achieved is of equally importance to what is communicated. Museums as institutions have a number of characteristics, individually and collectively, that offer a unique possibility of disseminating both the local impacts of climate change and placing them in the wider context of the international nature of global warming. Examining storytelling as a means of activating local communities, the paper describes a museum project being developed in the Norwegian arctic and a burgeoning international initiative from museum professionals on three continents that aims to bridge the local global gap. The IPCC report for 2018 offers a window of opportunity to activate the global community. The paper concludes by outlining a possible scenario to achieve this, whereby the museum sector, offering both local museums as arenas for dialogue together with an international infrastructure for global communication, could play a significant role.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Janus was the Roman god of passages, bridges and transitions.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
References
Berger J (2016) Landscapes: John Berger on art. Verso, London and New York
Berger J, Sontag S (1983) John Berger and Susan Sontag/to tell a story (1983) (video file). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PcJR5MWrzc. Accessed 12th Jan 2017
Carson M (2016) #14 Marcus Carson think globally act locally (sound file). http://www.klimatpodden.se/uncategorized/14-marcus-carson-think-globally-act-locally/. Accessed 17th Jan 2017
Evens A (2017) The myth gap. Eden Project Books, London
Gardiner SM (2011) A perfect moral storm. The ethical tragedy of climate change. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Hietanen M (2016) Climate change rhetoric (video file). https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/climate-leadership/1/steps/122968. Accessed 2nd Dec 2016
Hoexter M (2016) A pocket handbook of soft climate denial. http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2016/10/pocket-handbook-soft-climate-denial.html. Accessed 18th Jan 2017
IPCC (2014) IPCC 5th assessment report. http://www.ipcc.ch/reports/ar5. Accessed on 20th Feb 2016
Janes R (2009) Museums in a troubled world: renewal, irrelevance or collapse? Routledge, New York
Janes R (2015) The end of neutrality: a modest manifesto. Informal Learn Rev 135:3–8
Leal Filho W (2009) Communicating climate change: challenges ahead and action needed. Int J Clim Change Strategies Manage 1(1):6–18
Leal Filho W, Mannke F, Schmidt-Thomé P (eds) (2007) Information, communication and education on climate change: European perspectives. Peter Lang Scientific Publishers, Frankfurt
Manchester Climate Monthly (2017) Event report: Kevin Anderson on informed hope trumping despair. https://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/2017/01/10/event-report-kevin-anderson-on-informed-hope-trumping-despair/. Accessed 15th Jan 2017
Marshall G (2014) Don’t even think about it: why our brains are wired to ignore climate change. Bloomsbury, London
Martin S (2015) Climate change: 40% of adults have never heard of global warming. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/climate-change-40-adults-have-never-heard-global-warming-1512744. Accessed 15th Jan 2017
Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (2017) That’s how fast the carbon clock is ticking. https://www.mcc-berlin.net/en/research/co2-budget.html. Accessed 15th Jan 2017
Payne K (2015) Portraying the political: contemporary art exhibitions and their engagement with climate change politics. In: Cameron F, Neilson B (eds) Climate change and museum futures. Routledge, New York
Rice-Oxley M, Milman O, Yuhas A, Slezak M, Hunt E (2017) Global warning: 24 hours on the climate change frontline as Trump becomes president—as it happened. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2017/jan/19/global-warning-live-from-the-climate-change-frontline-as-trump-becomes-president?page=with:block-5880d21ce4b01065cf598523#liveblog-navigation. Accessed 19th Jan 2017
Salazar JF (2011) The mediations of climate change: museums as citizens media. Mus Soc 9:123–135
Simms A (2017) ‘A cat in hell’s chance’—why we’re losing the battle to keep global warming below 2C. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/19/cat-in-hells-chance-why-losing-battle-keep-global-warming-2c-climate-change. Accessed 20th Jan 2017
Stoknes PE (2015) What we think about when we try not to think about global warming. Towards a new psychology of climate action. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction
Stoknes, PE (2016) How can we overcome barriers to climate change engagement? (video file). https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/climate-leadership/1/steps/123032. Accessed 2nd Dec 2016
Vetlesen AJ (2015) The denial of nature: environmental philosophy in the era of global capitalism. Routledge, New York
Wikipedia (2017) Museum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum. Accessed 2nd Dec 2016
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rees, M., Leal Filho, W. (2018). Disseminating Climate Change: The Role of Museums in Activating the Global Public. In: Leal Filho, W., Manolas, E., Azul, A., Azeiteiro, U., McGhie, H. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Communication: Vol. 3. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70479-1_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70479-1_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70478-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70479-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)