Artists graphically convey dangers of climate change.At an April 20 panel discussion in Washington, D.C., three artists and a communications professional spoke about the unique ways art can be used to raise public awareness of global climate change. Held at the Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress is a progressive American political policy research and advocacy organization. Its website describes it as "...a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. , the event, "Climate and Culture: Using the Arts to Galvanize gal·va·nize tr.v. gal·va·nized, gal·va·niz·ing, gal·va·niz·es 1. To stimulate or shock with an electric current. 2. the Public on Global Warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. ," provided a forum for participants to showcase and discuss their varied work. Gary Braasch, a photojournalist whose work has appeared in Time, Life, and National Geographic, has documented such realities as the encroaching ocean on Tuvalu (a small Pacific island) and starving polar bears in the Arctic. He said he gets the strongest emotional reactions from his glacier comparisons, which show recent snapshots alongside historic images dating back to the late 19th century. The differences are striking: miles of open land or lakes exist where sheets of ice used to be. Dramatic changes can even be seen between photos from the 1990s and those taken after 2000. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Another featured project was Melting Planet, an effort by award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand to champion the unsung heroes of the fight against global warming. A clip of the work-in-progress showed Hollywood actors Salma Hayek and Jake Gyllenhaal in Alaska collaborating with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a human rights activist who organizes on behalf of Inuit communities. Helfand hopes the personal stories featured in the documentary will "link the hearts and minds of the audience to people who are on the ground." Other speakers included Nicole St. Clair, director of communications Director of Communications is a position in the private and public sectors. The Director of Communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications. for the Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense, who spoke about her organization's collaboration with the Ad Council to create public service announcements they hope will imprint the urgency of the global warming crisis on the American psyche, and Kim Stanley Robinson  The of this article or section may be compromised by "weasel words".You can help Wikipedia by removing weasel words. For the late American actress, see . , a science fiction novelist who writes about the dangers of an environmentally destructive, dystopian dys·to·pi·an adj. 1. Of or relating to a dystopia. 2. Dire; grim: "AIDS is one of the dystopian harbingers of the global village" Susan Sontag. Adj. society. The first two books in his Science in the Capital trilogy, which explores a world reacting to abrupt climate change Abrupt climate change refers to an event where large and widespread shift in climate occurs within a short period, perhaps a decade. The phrase was coined because of worldwide, centuries-long events seen in ice cores of past climate. , are already released, and the final volume is due out in 2007. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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