Abstract
This chapter addresses the question, “if art historians, artists, or scholars and educators in the arts and humanities were to respond to the serious and urgent issue of climate change, what options do we have for confronting this crisis?” This chapter’s response focuses on surfacing the deeply ingrained and largely unconscious positions and tropes that shape our relationship with the physical and natural elements that make up our ecosystem—our home. In this chapter, I argue that there is no innocent eye, only lenses through which we interpret the so-called “objective” phenomena like climate change. To be aware of these lenses is to develop a critical eye, one that will help us understand—reflexively and critically—climate change in its multiple dimensions. I will demonstrate these insights by sharing my experiences as part of an interdisciplinary team that teaches the General Education course “Disaster Risk Mitigation, Adaptation and Preparedness Strategies” (DRMAPS) in the University of the Philippines. In the process, I hope that the pedagogical frame and course delivery I will discuss in this paper will benefit policymakers and other teachers in the field of Education.
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Notes
- 1.
For more details on the works of Isaac Cordal, please see http://cementeclipses.com/Works/follow-the-leaders.com (Accessed 22 December 2022).
- 2.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084901 (accessed 25 November 2019).
- 3.
- 4.
First published by Routledge in 2012.
- 5.
- 6.
https://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U (accessed 29 November 2019).
- 7.
See for example: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.
- 8.
Garrard lists the tropes and positions as follows:
Tropes:
Pastoral Wilderness Apocalyptic Dwelling Positions:
Cornucopia: the dangers are deemed illusory or exaggerated.
Shallow ecology: anthropocentric view of nature, mechanistic Deep Ecology: biocentric, organismic view of nature.
Social Ecology or Eco-Marxist Ecofeminist.
Eco-phenomenology.
- 9.
- 10.
The Global Climate Risk Index 2015 listed the Philippines as the number one most affected country by climate change, using 2013’s data. Ibid.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
In a report on the Changing Politics of Climate Change, Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director of the Center for Public Management of the Brookings Institution, expressed concern about the public’s lukewarm response to climate change. One of the most telling pieces of evidence she cites on public indifference to the problem comes from the results of 30 years of open-ended polling conducted by Gallup. She reports that between 1989 and 2019, “Gallup has asked “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Jobs, the economy, and health care are often at the top of the list. “Environment/pollution” is not often mentioned. In fact, over a 30-year period, it was mentioned by anywhere from less than 0.5%–8% of the public. In the most recent 2019 poll (August), “the government/poor leadership” was mentioned by 22% of the public, and “immigration” by 18%. “Environment/pollution/climate change” garnered only 3% of the public. And in some earlier polls, climate change is not even mentioned by a significant portion of the public (although people could be including that within the term environment.)” She noted that, “over time, the most worrisome environmental problems are visible pollution problems. Water, soil, and ocean and beach pollution are at the top. These are things average people can see and smell. Global warming or climate change is toward the bottom…” https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-challenging-politics-of-climate-change/ (accessed 25 November 2019).
- 16.
In the lesson on psychosocial framework, students learn that attitudes to risk are personal and cultural. The apocalyptic, Pastoral, and Wilderness tropes can lead to attitudes towards risk, and the corresponding behavior. Using the terms of the Psychosocial framework, some of them are:
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dreadful risk playing on fear, which could lead to fatalism,
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unknown risk and indifference and therefore no change in lifestyle,
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acceptable risk (we know the risk but we find it acceptable due to the sheer beauty of the countryside, depicted in, for example, in the Amorsolo paintings).
-
- 17.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972. BBC, London.
- 18.
Morris Berman, The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University Press, 1981.
- 19.
Benedict Kervliet, Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Updated edition (March 1, 2002). Cited in Datuin 2014.
- 20.
Cynthia Zayas, “Land is Life and the Life is Land: Development, Resilience, Family and Knowledge for the Ayta of Mt. Pinatubo,” in THE CONSEQUENCES OF DISASTERS: Demographic, Planning, and Policy Implications, eds. Helen James and Douglas Paton. Ebook: https://www.ebooks.com/en-af/2483769/the%20%20%20-consequences-of-disasters/helen-james-douglas-paton/
- 21.
Flaudette May Datuin, “For the Birds,” The River Project. Exhibition Catalogue. Campbelltown Arts Center, Australia, 2015.
- 22.
I appropriate the ideas on intermodality and poiesis from my mentee and thesis advisee Zoila Gerente, who wrote about these concepts at length in her undergraduate thesis “Resyncing Capacities: Exploring The Role Of Art Practice In Post-Disaster Recovery.” (BA Art Studies, 2016).
- 23.
Gerente, ibid.
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Datuin, F.M.V. (2024). Reframing Climate Change: An Ecocritical Frame. In: Berse, K.B., Pulhin, J.M., La Viña, A.G.M. (eds) Climate Emergency in the Philippines. Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7804-5_16
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