Relative Risk

“Accelerating climate change hazards have adversely affected the wellbeing of North American populations and pose substantial risks to the natural, managed, and human systems on which they depend. Even if global warming is limited to 1.5°C, human life, safety, and livelihoods across North America, especially in coastal areas, will be placed at risk from sea level rise, severe storms, and hurricanes.” (Source: IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Fact Sheet-North America)

Sadly, we are not heading toward limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Hence, adaptation is our best hope.

While both the general public and governments remain non-responsive to climate crisis urgency, many regenerative initiatives utilizing the principles of biomimicry (design modeled on nature) are emerging.

One that I’ve been tracking for several years now, The Ocean Cleanup, employs the principles of both biomimcry and circular economy. First, the OC team envisioned a process to rid the oceans of plastic with a system that would leverage the forces of nature. Second, the OC team committed to a business model that, by re-purposing harvested plastic, would be self-funding.

Meanwhile, humanity-at-large remains unfazed, despite sea level rise and supply interruptions of food, water, and energy - two of many anticipated outcomes - and already being felt are impacts to the safety and well-being of millions, typically BIPOC and marginalized people.

One adaptation strategy, climate migration, is sporadically underway.

The Anthropocene, a label being considerd to identify the present, a period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment, is both a concept and a reality.

Artists, whether they realize it or not, carry a sizeable burden: on one hand, creating art (to increase awareness) inspired by issues of injustice (social, environmental, economic), and, on the other hand, recording (for posterity) the experience of life, in all its forms, at grave risk.