The Arts and Humanities on Environmental and Climate Change examines how cultural institutions and their collections can support a goal shared with the scientific community: creating a climate-literate public that engages with environmental issues and climate change in an informed way.
When researchers, curators, and educators use the arts and humanities to frame discussions about environmental and climate change, they can engage a far wider public in learning, conversation, and action than science can alone. Demonstrating that archival and object-based resources can act as vital evidence for change, Sutton shows how the historical record, paired with contemporary reality, can create more personal connections to what many consider a remote experience: the changing climate. Providing valuable examples of museum collections used in discussions of environmental and climate change, the book shares how historic images and landscape paintings demonstrate change over time; and how documentary evidence in the form of archaeological reports, ships logs, Henry David Thoreau’s journals, and local reports of pond hockey conditions are being used to render climate data more accessible. Images, personal records, and professional documents have critical roles as boundary objects and proxy data. These climate resources, Sutton argues, are valuable because they make climate change personal and attract a public less interested in a scientific approach. This approach is underused by museums and their research allies for public engagement and for building institutional relevancy.
The Arts and Humanities on Environmental and Climate Change will be most interesting to readers looking for ways to broaden engagement with environmental and climate issues. The ideas shared here should also act as inspiration for a broad spectrum of practitioners, particularly those writing, designing, and curating public engagement materials in museums, for wider research, and for the media.
Author(s): Sarah Sutton
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 120
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Museums’ Humanities Resources as Allies for Science
The Use of Proxy Data for Making the Invisible Visible
Why Don’t We Do This More?
How This Book Is Distinctive
Why This Book May Be Valuable to You
References
Chapter 1: How Collections Materials Can Document Change over Time
Museum Collections as Environmental Change Resources
Natural History Museum Collections as “Durable Snapshots”
Documenting Climate Change in Collections Materials
Proxy Data
Dendrological Materials
How to Use Non-instrumental Proxy Data
Using Scientific Collections Materials as Proxies for Climate Change
Multi-factor Authentication
Museums’ Cultural Heritage Collections as Climate Change Resources
References
Chapter 2: How Humanities Materials Are Proxies for Documenting Climate Change
Documentary Climate Proxy Sources: Instrumental and Non-instrumental
Instrumental Proxy Data
Instrumental Proxy Data with Narrative Proxy Data
Building a Fuller Picture
Mixed Proxy Data
Ships’ Logbooks
Non-instrumental Proxy Data
Municipal Records
Archaeological Collections
Wooden Materials
Images and Depictions: Photographs, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Basic Documentary Proxy Materials in Museums
Reasonable Use and Expectations of the Data
Quantity
Fluctuations
Influences and Accuracy
Researcher Bias
Observer and Collector Biases
Observer and Collector Context
Weather Noise
Sampling
Historical Context
Interpreting Environmental versus Climate Context
Identifying Human Environmental Interference versus Human-driven Climate Change
Noise in the Data
Local Disparities—Noise or Better Data?
Humanists’ Role in Recognizing Environment versus Climate
Accuracy, Trust, and Completeness in the Data
Accuracy in Maps
Accuracy in Art and Images
Emerging Approach to This Work
References
Chapter 4: Untapped Potential for Public Engagement
Ours, Theirs, or Both
Local Context
Experience
Stories
Objects
Exhibits
Early Spring, the Concord Museum
Landscape of Change, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science
Ice
Weather Rescue at Sea
TEMPEST Database
United Kingdom Tidal Data
Angling for Data on Michigan Fishes
Botanical Data
The Palaeontologist and the Gingko
The Future of Climate Change Representation
References
Chapter 5: The Value of Cultural Heritage to Cultural Climate Diplomacy
Cultural Diplomacy as a Resource for Climate Diplomacy
Cultural Heritage as a Boundary Object for Climate Diplomacy: Cultural and Climate Diplomacy among Neighbors and Nations
Neighbors
Indigenous Peoples and the Federal Government as Neighbors/Nations
Global Diplomacy: Toward Meaningful Engagement
Negotiations
The Trouble with Numbers
The IPCC Reports
References
Chapter 6: Next Steps for Documentary Climate Proxy Data
Intellectual Access
Researcher Awareness
Materials Identification
Source Identification
Datasets, Digitization, and Databases
Methodologies
Practical Access
Researchers
Funding
Final Thoughts
References
Index
