Posted on 26 November 2022 by John Hartz

Story of the Week

The Art at COP27 Offered Opportunities to Move Beyond ‘Empty Words’ 

In Egypt, visitors encountered creative works about climate anxiety, sustainability and ecosystem loss.

While the goal of effecting decisive global change proved largely elusive at the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the art at COP27 offered other road maps for moving forward.

“We don’t need more empty words,” said Jenni Laiti, a Sámi “artivist” whose five-minute video was shown at the World Health Organization’s Health Pavilion curated by the arts studio Invisible Flock. “We need action. Art is a way to see differently, but art is also a really important tool to find another solution,” she said in an interview after COP27 ended.

Laiti’s film is about the Atlantic salmon and its critical importance to the Sámi people who live in the Arctic regions of Norway and Finland. The Sámi way of life is gravely threatened by climate change. “We live with the end of the world every day,” Laiti said. “Our world, the Arctic, is dying and disappearing.”

Art, said Victoria Pratt, the creative director for Invisible Flock, can help us to move beyond human-centric ways of thinking. “We’re not the only species on the planet,” she said.

Bahia Shehab, an Egyptian-Lebanese artist who worked with Fine Acts on her COP27 project, “Heaven and Hell in the Anthropocene,” also spoke about the need for climate discussions to incorporate a wider array of perspectives. “You can’t keep having these conversations amongst yourselves as politicians and academics and scientists,” she said. “We’re not getting anywhere. We need to open up the conversation.”

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on Inside Climate News.

The Art at COP27 Offered Opportunities to Move Beyond ‘Empty Words’ by Kiley Bense, Inside Climate News, Nov 26, 2022;

Links posted on Facebook

Sun, Nov 20, 2022

• West Africa’s deadly rainfall in 2022 made ‘80 times more likely’ by climate change by Ayesha Tandon, Carbon Brief, Nov 16, 2022
• COP27 deal delivers landmark on 'loss and damage', but little else by Valerie Volcovici, Dominic Evans & William James, Business, Reuters, Nov 20, 2022
• How to Pay for Climate Justice When Polluters Have All the Money, Opinion by Bill Mckibben, Daily Comment, The New Yorker Magazine, Oct 19, 2022
• What are the key outcomes of Cop27 climate summit? by Fiona Harvey, Environment, The Guardian, Nov 20, 2022

Mon, Nov 21, 2022

• The Red Sea’s Coral Reefs Defy the Climate-Change Odds by Jenny Gross & Vivian Lee, World, New York Times, Nov 19, 2022
• ‘False solutions’: scepticism over Saudi carbon capture plan by Ruth Michaelson & Patrick Greenfield, Environment, The Guardian, Nov 19, 2022
• Inside the Saudi Strategy to Keep the World Hooked on Oil by Hiroko Tabuchi, Climate, New York Times, Nov 21, 2022
• COP27: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh by Staff, Carbon Brief, Nov 21, 2022

Tue, Nov 22, 2022

• Ending Amazon deforestation: 4 essential reads about the future of the world’s largest rainforest by Jennifer Weeks, The Conversation US, Nov 18, 2022
• World still ‘on brink of climate catastrophe’ after Cop27 deal by Fiona Harvey, Environment, The Guardian, Nov 20, 2022
• Cottingham: Europe's biggest battery storage system switched on by Staff, UK, BBC News, Nov 21, 2022
• Another bunch of helpful handbook translations published! by Bärbel Winkler, Skeptical Science, Nov 22, 2022

Wed, Nov 23, 2022

• How 2022 has substantially, and favorably, changed global climate outlook by Dana Nuccitelli, Policy & Politics, Yale Climate Connections, Nov 21, 2022
• Another bunch of helpful handbook translations published! by Bärbel Winkler, Skeptical Science, Nov 22, 2022

Thu, Nov 24, 2022

• After COP27, all signs point to world blowing past the 1.5 degrees global warming limit – here’s what we can still do about it by Peter Schlosser, The Conversation US, Nov 22, 2022
• Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert, Annals of a Warming Planet, The New Yorker Magazine, Nov 21, 2022
• Dimming the Sun to Cool the Planet Is a Desperate Idea, Yet We’re Inching Toward It by Bill McKibben, Annals of a Warming Planet, The New Yorker Magazine, Nov 22, 2022

Fri, Nov 25, 2022

• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2022 by Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack, Skeptical Science, Nov 24, 2022
• The World Could Be Entering a New Era of Climate War by Robinson Meyer, Science, The Atlantic Magazine, Nov 23, 2022
• COP27: Key outcomes for food, forests, land and nature at the UN climate talks in Egypt by Aruna Chandrasekhar & Daisy Dunne, Policy, Carbon Brief, Nov 24, 2022

Sat, Nov 26, 2022

• Canada unveils new climate adaptation strategy with more than $1-billion commitment, by David Thurton & Kate McKenna, Politics, CBC News, Nov 24, 2022
• The Global Methane Pledge could be our only realistic chance to slow down climate change within a few years–but time is already running out, Commentary by Graeme Malcom, Fortune Magazine, Nov 25, 2022
• The Art at COP27 Offered Opportunities to Move Beyond ‘Empty Words’ by Kiley Bense, Inside Climate News, Nov 26, 2022