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The arts, from paintings to literature to film, are a vital essence of human life. It captures the emotions and issues that we live through in our time. There are facts upon facts bobbing about the ocean climate change as a whole, but facts alone cannot unite us. If they could, they would have happened already.
The arts open up a sense of creativity and playfulness with thoughts and possibilities rather than sitting with the finality of facts. Therefore, we encourage you to put your brilliant mind to work. It doesn't matter if you don't have a lick of artistic talent, as this simply frequent engagement with your imagination of your environment will raise both your awareness and that of those around you to blue justice.
The arts foster attention and attachment to an idea, yet for as long as environmentalism has been in the public eye, there has been a disproportionate lack of creative output entering the public sphere. We want to flood the public consciousness with environmental awareness.
Artwork comes in all shapes and sizes - paintings, beach scraps, sketches, sculptures, making jewellery from rubbish, cartoons, string art. Embroidery using plastic fishing cord is shown on the right. A popular way to engage with environmental artwork is to use recycled materials, or do a beach clean and use what you've found to create a piece of art. Anything goes! And letting yourself be creative does wonders for your mental health too.
Silent Sea by Rachael Boast
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea
- ST Coleridge
Another vessel sheds the chrome
of its silver mile until a mile
meanders into three, triples again
over the reef. Nothing can breathe
under oil, nor register that
dark membrane's slick
over sight. We were the first
cracking the hull of the earth
open, our foolish husbandry
a metallurgy that's brimmed
with false gold too often
we can talk, and talk, and talk
but a ship in space, manned
by non-thinking from non-feeling,
says absolutely nothing at all.
The art shown so far has been material craft, which is easily accessible for anyone to do. However, there are other forms out there that can similarly engage the mind.
Poetry captures the beauty of our surroundings. It mightn't be everyone's cup of tea, but the written word can pack a punch as it summons up vivid imagery and real emotions. You wouldn't even have to form your thoughts into a poem's format, just conjure the colourful words to do your setting justice to the best of your ability.
The ocean has been an endless source of inspiration for poets throughout history, in all its vast magnificence and might.
Poetry
Artwork
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One Chance Left is the result of the University of Exeter's Green Futures project. Recognising the power of the arts, leading researchers have put together a collection of poetry capturing both the beauty of the environment and the very real threat it is facing. The two poems immediately above and to the right are lifted from their work.
Cinema
Slowly, there has been more engagement within the film industry to centre stories around people and their relationship with the environment. Avatar: The Way of Water is a direct commentary on the destructive nature of capitalism and the value of loving our ecosystems. Even superhero films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever have addressed indigenous people's struggle to protect their homelands and the skill of capitalism in pitting people against each other. Netflix's Don't Look Up is an especially prescient satire on the lack of urgency and political games facing the environmental cause today. These films have done phenomenally well at the box office, demonstrating that people have a real appetite for these stories, but more are needed. With all the money that goes into marketing films, it would be all the better if this advertisement was directed at a story all about environmentalism.
Music is a powerful agent of raising awareness. The most prominent songs out there about the oceans and its importance to people are from Moana, the 2016 Disney film. The songs were written by Opetaia Foa'i(pictured to the left), a Samoan singer. The songs Tulou Tagaloa and Innocent Warrior in particular address the sheer significance of the ocean to a people's history and identity. English translations can be found on his website https://www.opetaiafoai.com/.
Songs are especially easy to bring to the fore of people's daily lives, so let the blue fill the music scene.
Music
Books and other literature
"Cli-fi"
There are a great many fiction books and spiritual books out there in relation to the environment, but it often is a background theme rather than the forefront issue driving the plot. Books are probably one of the most immersive forms of craftsmanship at our disposal, and characters generate huge empathy from their readers as they are pulled into their world. They can also weave the science and the fiction together, make the possibilities facing us that bit more tangible.
Some excellent examples of literature come from Rachel Carson, the American scientist and author who wrote several highly influential books, seen below. Dune, by Frank Herbert, is gaining prominence in the media as the film adaptations have begun to emerge. That book is impossible to read without walking away having gained a sense of reverence for the water we cannot live without; and also immense respect for the people who have long understood their responsibility to future generations to give them the hope of a better world.
Recent books such as Kim Stanley Robinson's New York: 2140 tackles the issue of sea level rise and the huge adaptation required to live with the consequences of our current inaction today.
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Of course, like with every form of art discussed thus far, books and writing won't work for everyone. But every form from the arts to the science will work for someone, as we look to cast as broad a net of awareness as possible across the public. One art form which hasn't been listed is that of the performing arts, the future actors and scriptwriters. Plays are especially useful to connect to the school community and get plenty of young people involved.
Let us all put our minds to the task and let this artistic momentum serve as a bridge between the scientific and the broader creative communities. Let our voices, in all their diversity and range, become one unignorable wave for change, out of love for ourselves, our home, and our future. This starts with communities as a whole getting involved, and from there, momentum can only grow even more.
"There is no difference between healing ourselves and healing the earth."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Ten Love Letters to the Earth
“The winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities... If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.”
- Rachel Carson
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