towards a guidebook for ecocritical graphic design
Bachelor Thesis
2020
Graphic Design
Royal Academy of Art,
The Hague
Berglind BrĂĄ JĂłhannsdĂłttir
Supervision by Dirk Vis
What are the aesthetics of green?
I am here to answer that question and to hold graphic designers accountable for addressing, visually and conceptually, the nuances of the ecological crisis. Visual culture has neglected the issue for a long time, which has resulted in a lethal lack of public attention and discourse*. Neglect in a form of literal neglect, not touching** the issue, as well as neglect in the form of repetition, in allowing it to become a static visual of green nature, femininity and non-human-culture. A static visual that predominantly appeals to a certain type of person. Which in turn causes it to appeal less to other types of people... The fear of being stereotyped is a force to be reckoned with! And I have grown bitter.
Since 2018 when Greta Thunberg and her protest sign, black on white âSkolstrejk för klimatetâ, started gaining momentum, the climate crisis has become a hot topic. Since then practices and projects related to the issue have popped up all over the field of graphic design. A new generation has managed to get out of the rut, and seems to be aiming to keep it cool. Hopeful devotion.
What does this hopeful devotion enlist? And how should it be continued? How can I start an argument about it in order to shape it?
What should I be aware of when dealing with this issue as an environmentally responsible graphic designer, moving forward?
I am facing my bitterness so I can move on with my life.
Notes:
* I am well aware that there are a billion more factors, but I will claim that this âneglectâ or oversight has been impactful in determining the (low) level of public interest. The power of graphic design should not be underestimated!
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According to the Cambridge Dictionary, nature is âall the animals, plants, rocks, etc. in the world and all the features, forces, and processes that happen or exist independently of people, such as the weather, the sea, mountains, the production of young animals or plants, and growthâ.1
âIt is very easy to sit at a bar in, say, La Scala in Beverly Hills, or Ernieâs in San Fransisco, and to share in pervasive delusion that California is only five hours from New York by air. The truth is that La Scala and Ernieâs are only five hours from New York by air. California is somewhere else.â2
(I had to involve California somehow. Everybody dreams of California. Everybody has that T-shirt, or saw somebody wearing that T-shirt today. Iâm wearing that T-shirt as I write this! It is the common denominator.)
Iâll say: It is very easy to sit at a CafĂ© in, say, The Hague, and to share a picture of the burning Amazon on facebook and caption it ânature is dyingâ. The truth is that the Amazon is dying. Nature is not.***
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Notes:
*** When I started writing the Amazon was burning. Now Australia has been handed the torch.
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âGreen has become our synonym for sustainability, but such a colorful ascription begs the question of exactly what mode of being we are attempting to sustain, and at what environmental cost.â3
This is a quote from the introduction of a book I recently bought: Prismatic Ecology, Ecotheory beyond Green. It is a collection of essays that each look at the climate crisis and the ecosystem we, humans, live in through a certain color — White, Red, Maroon, Pink, Orange, Gold, Chartreuse, Greener, Beige, Brown, Blue, Violet-Black, Ultraviolet, Grey, Black and X-Ray.
White-ecology, on silence, ice, music and — though briefly — white people.
Red-ecology, on blood, animal slaughtering, waste and rupture.
Blue-ecology, on depression, literature and the ocean.
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If I were to write an ecological essay from the perspective of one color, I would probably (if I werenât writing this one on green right now) be on Purple, the same purple as royalty wore in olden days because it was so rare and âhard to handleâ and got deeper and more vivid as time passed.3
Or greenscreen-green, or Magenta.
Any colour that is in danger of going extinct with us humans as our selfinflicted doom nears. I would not put the color green in that category.
But this essay is not that essay. This is my green essay.
I must say that I am inspired by Erykah Baduâs dj set for a NTS series on the sound of colors. Erykahâs set is The sound of Green5, and each time I listen to it (I have replayed it enough times to say âeach timeâ), I am reminded of how multifacited the color green is. And how much I love it. And how sad it is that I have developed a deep hatred or bitterness towards it through environmentalism.
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So what does green mean?
Money, Capitalism, Dollar-Bills, Greed, Weed, Poison, Bad Smell, Fart, Envy, St. Peters Day, Frogs, Kermit the Frog, Aliens, Lime...
Left green political parties, âGreen New Dealâ, Nature, Sustainability, Eco, Environmentalism, ...Climate Crisis?
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It is ironic that green stands for both Capitalism (Money) and Environmentalism (Nature). Capitalism is built on consumerism, which is rooted in Romantisicm6. Romantisicm, as well as creating Consumerism, shaped poets that have insipired modern environmentalists to action with their work about the sublimity of nature and manâs corruption of it7. Modern environmentalism and modern capitalism were both born out of romance. They are love-children. They are love-siblings.
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In the Romantic period, the concept of nature became sublime8. Some felt it in a form of transcendence of the human experience, when becoming âsuddenly, painfully aware of her radical material identity, her likeness to Earthâ9. Others have been more critical of itâs human-inclusiveness, stating that the natural sublime has often been theorised as a âpowerful authorityâ rather than a system that humans experience themselves a part of. When faced with the natural sublime they âbecome suddenly, painfully aware of their radical powerlessness, their distance from Earthâ. The sublime nature as a magnificent large thing that one can see over there which makes one feel very small, distant and ordinary in their ordinary world. Timothy Morton calls this an authoritarian sublime. âItâs a sublime of âget used to it, we are in power, you are notâ. [...] Itâs irrational, thereâs no arguing with it. [...] You canât reason with it.â8
This division between the sublime nature and the ordinary human allows for the human to become a consumer of the sublime nature. It creates subject (human consumer of nature) and object (nature), and the object, being more powerful, overwhelmes the subject. The object is not something the subject can fully grasp, so instead the subject ideolizes the object. The subject treasures the object as a concept. âYour consuming the idea of consuming. Thatâs the essense of consuming.â8 Nature is a Birkin bag. I know I will never get a hold of it, but I will forever dream.
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In order to become a consumable object, the thing has to become concrete. And that is exactly what ideology shapers, from the Romantic poets of the days of yore to the graphic designers of today have made of environmental consiousness. Concrete, knowable, distinguishable, sellable. It has been made into a fixed, consumable, object, that can be taken or left. Never joined. It isnât a web of different styles and subjects and things, itâs not a web at all, itâs ânatureâ. An object in a form of style that consumers are made familiar with and can either take or leave. I canât count the times I have been complimented for my environmentalism as if I were being complimented for a cute outfit, the compliment coming from somebody who can very comfortably appreciate my âstyleâ without feeling any need to apply it to themselves. In this way enviromentalism has become a posterchild for consumer-culture. If environmentalism and capitalism are love-siblings, then capitalism is the older sibling and environmentalism is the younger sibling that copies everything capitalism does. How can we step away from our over-consumer culture when our means of doing so, and our visual inspiration, is through an ideology identical to the broken one, of an objectified other?
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This objectified concept of nature as sublime is more often than not one of âpureâ nature.
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This is an image of nature. Taken by North-American photographer Ansel Adams in Yosemite National Park in 1938. Adams claimed to never âtakeâ landscapes as he considered the word to contribute to âthe humanisation process which leads only to the exploitation and ruin of nature: âlandscapeâ is where nature ends.â In other words, nature ends where humans begin. âThe America offered by Adams is one which appears almost unaware of the arrival of Columbus.â10
This idea that pure nature is what nature looked like when white men (Columbus or Cook or Lewis and Clark arrived in their colonies is a misconseption. That âpureâ nature had in fact more often than not been altered by the people who lived there before their arrival.11
Besides the fact that our idea of âpureâ nature is not untouched nature, the idea of âuntouchedâ nature pushes nature outside of cities, âout of reachâ (Gabrielle) of âcommon peopleâ (Pulp). It becomes elitist. Nature gets reserved for the wealthy few who can travel, and in some cases pay, to see it. This is the kind of âglossy, super glossy, high glossâ edited nature you can see in documentaries like, as Emma Marris pointed out especially, âPlanet Earthâ. If what we see on Planet Earth is nature, then what is my pot plant, what are the mice in my kitchen, what are the pigeons-lovebirds on my balcony and what am I? Insignificant at best. âthere has long been research to support the kind of common-sense notion that if you watch a lot of porn youâll stop finding your wife beautiful, and thatâs whatâs happening with nature. If you watch a lot of nature porn you will stop finding your garden and your street beautiful. And itâs a damn shame and I hate it.â12
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This idea of nature as something beyond human reach, literally as the endgoal seems to be to have it (consume it) completely untouched, is completely paralizing. This eludes to the common environmentalist attitude, sometimes referred to as the ecocriticâs epiphany, that â(1) nature, which is refreshingly simple, is good; and (2) that culture, which is tiresomely convoluted, is bad; or (3) at least not so good as nature.â13
Good object nature and evil subject society7. Although this division is obsurd, it is omnipresent, and the situation is then treated by putting the good on a pedestal and dismissing the evil, as is apparent if you search for image results for any environmentist related word you can think of. ,,EinhversstaĂ°ar verĂ°a vondir aĂ° veraâ14 (e. âthe evils have to be somewhereâ), and following this strategy within this dualist ideology, the evils are nowhere to be found.
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Within this inescapable dualist green culture I have encountered a few common principles.
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Firstly.
Nature is, in most cases, female.
Mother Earth, Mother Nature, âUniversal Motherâ, âGaiaâ, Ăsafold, I could go on...
She often appears in contrast to God who is a Father. (Traditionally, looking at Christianity here specifically, because that is what I was raised with and I think it is safe to claim that a large majority of the heavy-carbon-dioxide-emitting-people of the world grew up around some kind of Christian religion). (On the flip side, some also believe that the climate crisis is happening not because we are sinning against mom, earth, but because we are sinning against dad, god, and he is punishing us by increasing the birth pangs of the return of Jesus Christ.)15
To quote Octavia E. Butlerâs character in Parable of the Sower: âA lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God. They believe in a kind of super-person.â16 And this is how many people view Nature as well, a super-person, a big-mama-Nature.
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While man-made towers are looked upon as phallic powerstructures, each rupture or tunnel on the surface of earth can somehow be a potential vulva or vagina, be it an ancient cave in France or an drill-hole for oil. Although this idea has itâs charms â the femininity of nature â it is quite patriarchal in practice. âThroughout pre- and early modern Christianity, women were associated with the body, its porousness, openness, and vulnerability. Female bodies were believed to be more labile and changeable, more subject to affective shifts, and more open to penetration, whether by God, demons, or other human beings.â17 Historically, woman has the vulnerable, penetrable body > man has the mind and the power to penetrate, ...and those are the two genders. By that reasoning, Nature as feminine has the vulnerable, penetrable body > Human as masculine (or even big-daddy-God) has the brains and the power to penetrate. I am very aware that I am reaching for old gender stereotypes here. Although they might not still apply so clearly, traces of them remain. Eco-feminists have stated that âThe social mentality that leads to the domination and oppression of women is directly connected to the social mentality that leads to the abuse of the environmentâ18 and with this clear feminization of nature, along with the treatment and mixture of disinterest and mystification of it, it is hard to disagree.
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âExactly 40 years ago, scientists from 50 nations met at the First World Climate Conference (in Geneva 1979) and agreed that alarming trends for climate change made it urgently necessary to act.â19 A year before that meeting, Anglea Miles, in a text about Susan Griffins literature, wrote: âthe source of womenâs central role in progressive struggle today, lies in our recognition of the deep separateness of womanâs world from manâs world. When women move we move from a unique position on both sides of the man/nature divide (and all other divisions of society as well). Our struggle for liberation is not merely linked to the ecology or environmental struggle, but is the deepest and most profound expression of that struggle. Our affirmation of ourselves is necessarily the beginning of the integration of all the dichotomies which structure and divide the male dominated and alienated world.â20 A year before the writing of this thesis, Elvia Wilk wrote: ânon-men, constantly made aware of their physical penetrability, disallowed from forgetting their bodies and bodily boundaries, have been producing empathic knowledge regarding the confrontation with the unknowable for centuries.â17 This division between man and nature on the one hand and man and woman on the other, along with the cultural connotations of nature=woman and society=man are a destructive blend. One that has a deep impact on the way that people, and graphic designers, approach the climate crisis.
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The de-masculinization of Nature could be one of the reasons why men often have a hard time connecting to environmentalism. Take veganism for example, one of the most effective lifestyle changes a single person can make to combat climate change. The main reason someone would become vegan is to either protect animal rights (Nature) or to reduce their carbon footprint. In Iceland — or not in Iceland, on Facebook rather, but in Iceland base community on Facebook — there is a like-page called âVegan Ăslandâ. It is for vegans, soon-to-be vegans and vegan-curiousâs. One of the admins of the page wrote an article earlier this year stating that according to estimations, 65-78% of all vegans at that time were female. He also pointed out that only 14% of worldwide participants in Veganuary (a challenge where participants are vegan for the month of January) were men. He then narrowed the view down to that specific facebook page and reveiled that memebers of the group were 63.1% female, 0.3% other and 36,6% male. Out of those members not all are active vegans and a lot of people are only there to âwatch the discussion and correct misunderstandingsâ, and in most cases those people are men. When the article was published, the group had 1.286 people blocked/banned from the group due to inappropriate behaviour, such as making fun of veganism or encouraging meat-eating. He claimed that about 90% of those people were Icelandic men and boys and the other 10% were foreign spammers or fake accounts.21 This masculine hostility towards veganism might stem from an inability to emphasize with a female representing Nature, which is enforced through visualisation. Nature is soft, cute, light-green, feminine, fertile, kind, blooming, caring, vulnerable... All things non-typically-masculine.
Now, my point is not to encourage toxic masculinity by suggesting we not use feminine connotations. But I think we, environmentalist visual communicators, need to branch out. The climate crisis is not a womenâs problem (although it affects women disproportunately22), and linking it this strongly to exclusively feminine values in a, still, patriarchal society will not solve it/slow it down in 11 years (10 years when this is published). Also, why should nature be assigned a gender?
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Iâve established that environmentalism, most importantly right now the fight against the climate crisis, is visually âGreenâ, âNatureâ-al and âfemaleâ.
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I have found that within this structure of Nature (âGreenâ, âfemaleâ) good, Culture bad there is nuance of dinamic between the two, that lies in the question of who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist, or victim, if you will. The outcome depends on how you categorize Nature. She can be categorized as either A) passive or B) aggressive. We either need to protect her or tread lightly around her so that she wonât take revenge on us.
A) Passive, good, innocent, fragile, hurt (Society: bad, pretator. You: potential white knight). This category holds phrases such as: âSave the planetâ, âThe Planet is dyingâ. (The words ânatureâ and âplanetâ are used interchangeably in this context. The Planet is kind of an expansion of Nature, it is Nature in a larger context. However, The Planet is still a far cry from society.) Environmental activist and Grease icon, Olivia Newton-John, even went so far as to say that humans are the Planetâs parents21. Yikes.
Visuals: cute, friendly, caring, open palms holding earth/nature, protecting hands around earth/nature (this disproportunate size of hands around a tiny earth eludes again to the âwe are the parents of the earthâ idea from ONJ, Earth as a tiny little newborn baby), leaves, colourful drawings, cute animals, flowers, diy, amateur crafty, childish, rough stencils, cardboard, tape, green, green, green.
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B) aggressive, angry, punishing, a bitch holding a grudge, authority, beast (Society: naugty, guilty. You: remorseful). âGaia Screamsâ 90âs animal rights zine. Marvin Gayeâs âMercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)â. In a panel discussion I watched on the Anthropocene, the topic of whether we, humans, were poking or stroking the beast was briefly discussed.7 I can furthermore think of a handful of poems which all beg Nature for forgiveness for our sins. Nature as a whole is percieved as âgreater than the sum of [itâs] partsâ and transforms into âsome kind of gigantic invisible being that is inherently hostile to little us. We are about to be subsumed, the drop is going to be absorbed into the ocean)â24
Visuals: weeds growing through sement, against all odds, fire, volcanoes, floods...
This category is a bit harder to spot visually. Itâs often rather the subtitles or transcript that place Nature as the perpetrator. But nature is always a character. (Like New York is a character in SATC, but more blatantly obvious.) Nature is constantly placed up against Culture. And Nature will always prevail.
It is interesting to learn that many of the major environmentalist leaders in the history of the movement, for example Julia âButterflyâ Hill who I mention later in this text, were brought up within a evangelical religion. Just as the main character in Octavia E. Butlerâs earlier mentioned book, âParable of the Sowerâ, many of them gave up their faith, often as an act of ârebellion against their fathersâ, and applied their method of religion instead to a worship of nature. This evangelic culture might be part of the common tendency within environmentalism to feel as if we must fear nature, and repent, as it holds the power of damnation. However, this âJerimiadâ way of presenting the problem only speaks to a very limited public.26 This idea of authoritarian nature, nature we must respect in order for it to leave us alone, might be getting in the way of us realising that we have the power of choice and with it we hold the power of damnation. There is no authority, we are not under or over nature, we are equal to it and part of it. And we can choose to live on within it.6 In houses, with electicity and art on the walls and curtains for when we want to hide away from the rest of it all. New visuals should, as far as I'm concerned, help us as a collective understand that.
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When analysing imagery from the recent Global Climate Strikes these categories are quite prevelant. This past December I searched for âglobal climate strike 2019â on Google. Here are examples to be found on the first images that popped up:
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Octavia E. Butler, wrote in Parable of the Sower:
âAll that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.â 16
âOne should not say, âthe tree is green,â but âthe tree greensââ27 Emile Brehier wrote. And to that Stoic ideology John Cage added, the world âis not, it becomes! It moves, it changes! [...] The world, the real is not an object. It is a processâ 28. Charles Ives, stating that âA painter paints a sunsetâ asked himself âcan he paint the setting sun?â29.
Apparently, a Native American word for "beautiful" is "alive".30 You could say that once something becomes, it dies. ,,HĂșn er öllâ you can say about someone who has died (in Icelandic), âshe is all", or "she has become all she will be". Once something has been for a while and is no longer becoming in any sense — once it no longer attracts any new narratives — it dies. Once a visual culture becomes stagnant, it's ideology suffers recession. The dynamic which attracts attention and interest is lost.
âWhat is the truth of ecology, insofar as this truth is addressed by literature and art? and How wellâhow ably, how sensibly, how thoroughlyâdo literature and art address this truth? Both questions have usually been ruled out of court in literary and cultural studies, thanks to a widespread skepticism about and blasĂ© attitude toward the natural world. I share with other ecocritics a negative feeling about this blasĂ© attitude, and I understand their scorn for what sometimes seems to me, too, to be a cheap skepticism. However, I think a more effective counter to cheap skepticism than the renewal of belief in the veracity of the text is a skepticism that does its fair share, earns its keep, and pays its way, while never lapsing into indifference. So I would like to add another question to the ecocritical agenda, a question inspired by Umberto Eco. Does the truth of ecology lie âinâ literature and art?â31
Probably. Truth is what we make of it. The scientific âtruthâ, or consensus, concerning the climate crisis is clear. The cultural âtruthâ on the other hand has become outdated and should be renewed to match the scientific one. Therefore what is lacking in the âtruthâ is the artistic side of it, the cultural side. And that side can only be found within the field of literature and art. There it lies. Beside itself.
I would like to hold graphic designers accountable for contributing to the general inaction of the last 50-years-or-so with their neglect in addressing, visually and conceptually, the nuances and human-side of the issue, resulting in a lethal lack of public attention and discourse. They have failed to nurish this âtruthâ.
The lack of aesthetic and ideological diversity when it comes to ecological problems is due to a lack of ecology-related art. The ecological crisis is such a recent phenomenon [somewhat... not so very] that the arts and politics havenât had enough time to digest it, to throw back and forth ideas, fight and argue about concepts, ideology and visuals. Until recently, the job of discussing the climate crisis has been mostly left to scientists and journalists, but when forming cultural concepts, people from all different fields have to contribute to the discussion: graphic designers are as important as novelists, statisticians, geographers, mathematicians, politicians, economists, anthropologists and philosophers. Bruno Latour divides the stages that a problem has to go through in order âto render us publically sensitiveâ into:
1. The scientific aesthetic. Which has not been lacking when it comes to the climate crisis.
2. The artistic aesthetic. Art has to âdefine the charactersâ of the problem that are to âplay on the political sceneâ. This has been lacking, leading to the fact that âwe donât know even what the issues are. Itâs very difficult to visualize them.â In this aspect, artists, including graphic designers, have failed.
3. The political aesthetic. Latour suggests that the problem with the ecological crisis is that the concept went into politics prematurely. That it hadnât been well enough rounded by the artistic fields before it got thrown into the political world. That the difficulty of grasping the concept had been wildly underestimated as well as âthe speed of which it needed to be domesticated so to speak and made politically relevant.â âThere is no political sensitivityâ because there is no artistic sensitivity. 32
According to Dana Phillips, ârejecting theory leaves ecocriticism without a rationale for supporting its own assertions and minus the tools required to develop such a rationale: it canât get started. Meanwhile, the treatment of nature as something insubstantial by literary and cultural theorists bears us away from the shores where, despite all the things weâve done to ruin them, we still must live.â She goes on to argue that we should thrive to âdisenchant ecocriticismâ. That we must try to stop idealizing nature as something sublime and perfect in order to be able to start a discussion and, essentially, an argument about it. âIt needs to involve both vigorous internal debate and the painstaking working out of new insights that might make ecocriticismâs argument more persuasive to outsiders and to insiders, too, than it has been thus far.â31 The environment is in desperate need of more conflict sprung from artistic differences.
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Artists and designers have collectively procrastinated on this topic for centuries, with few exceptions. Latour suggested that the âclimate is something so complex and big and hard, so we need many years of art and scientific collaboration to begin to have the right characters for politics.â32 But I would argue that this lack of nuance is not due to lack of time, but rather lack of interest. A lack of interest due to boring (in my humble opinion) and repetitive, exclusively "nature"-related visuals and connotations. Along with, quite frankly, a fear of the hippie label. The first Earth day was held in April 1971, and that same year Greenpeace was founded. Marvin Gaye released âWhatâs Going Onâ with singles such as âSave the Childrenâ and previously mentioned âMercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)â.
âFather, father, everybody thinks weâre wrong.
Oh, but who are they to judge us simply because our hair is longâ33
Hippies were going out of style. Carol Kingâs âItâs Too Lateâ was a hit.
Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were dead.
Jefferson Airplaneâs âWhite Rabbitâ was 4 years old.
That year, the year The Mamas and the Papas broke up, my parents were born. And their generation, the generation of 80âs teenagers in the hayday of artific and capital, grew up viewing hippies as weirdos, people who refused to grow up and face the real world. Being called a hippie, in their lifetime — and mine for that matter — has seldom been considered a compliment.
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The hippie stereotype brewed into the late ninetees, when Julia âButterflyâ Hill lived in a tree for two years (and saved it from being logged), and stuck to anybody who cared for nature. Environmentalists were hippies and treehuggers****. Even to this day. Recently I had a conversation with a friend who was worried about the U.S. Democratic Partyâs chances of getting elected in the 2020 presidential elections if their candidate were to be some radical âhippieâ type. And sadly, he might be right. The stereotype is strong, the stereotype of an environmentalist is basically [although tides are changing] a euro-hippie. A white kid with dreadlocks wearing baggy clothes and listening to reggae. Not what many people neccessarily strive to be equiated to. Not the best look. Not that any look is necessarily the best look.
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A beast of burden is an animal, often an ass or a donkey, that is used to carry heavy loads.34 It can also be used to describe â aside from an âoverweight and gruesome female that has not been blessed in the physical appearance departmentâ â someone who carries other peopleâs loads.35 The environmentalist is a beast of burden. They carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, because they are that type of person. And I mean this in a sense of environmentalism being their âtĂœpuĂĄlagâ, or roughly translated âstereotype loadâ. âTĂœpuĂĄlagâ is a load that one carries as part of their personal style, which is always shaped by a larger group of people (it is not personal in a sense of it being singular but as it being assigned to a person). It is something you feel you should wear, do or care about in order to be recognised as the type of person you want to be known as. It is a responsibility toward yourself, a responsibility you hold yourself accountable for in order to become who you want to be. And this is what environmentalism has become. It is a topic that people care about because it fits the certain stereotype mold they are comfortable with. Since environmentalism became a thing, the visuals connected to the environment have mainly catered to people who feel a deep connection to Nature as a concept, who feel themselves a bit of an outsider to society and as somehow a mediator between the two, nature and culture. Yes, it is important that people that identify with that stereotype care about environmental issues. But visuals that only reach that type of person, and that keep those environmentalist stereotypes afloat, are highly unsufficient to inspire humans as a collective to survive the 21st Century. We need to branch out. We need all stereotypes of people to carry the burden. We need visuals that are exciting, beautiful, striking, pink, ugly, punk***** ... etc. etc. etc. all that you can imagine. Something for everybody. Appeal accross the board.
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Notes:
**** The treehugger I have in mind when I think about the word looks something like Julia âButterflyâ Hill, however the original treehuggers come from a very different background.
In 1700s India, king Jodhpur gave instructions to cut trees to make way for a new palace in Rajasthan. He was confronted by a religious environmental conservation group, the Bishnois, who believed that killing an animal or cutting a tree was blasphemy. A woman from the group protested with her body by hugging one of the trees and refusing to let go. More joined in and eventually 363 people were killed for hugging. When the king heard of this he stopped the operation and the trees were saved. In the 1970âs the Chipko Andolan (the movement to hug trees) was formed in India when people, inspired by the Bishnois, continued the tradition of huggin trees in order to save them from being cut by lodgers.36
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***** On my quest for fresh environmental visuals I found a 00âs punky zine, connected to far left green anarchism. âGreen Anarchy: An Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and Actionâ, a magazine based in Eugene, Oregon in 2000-2008.37 This I was not aware of before and was happy to find, although the movement reaching far left anarchist activists is not such a large step from the euro-hippie, stereotypically thinking.
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Richard Lanham calls our economy an âinformation economyâ. The currency of choice in this economy is human attention, it is âthe most precious resourceâ38. I would argue that part of the reason is the fact that attention has become directly scaleable.
âIt is very easy to sit at a CafĂ© in, say, The Hague, and to share a picture of the burning Amazon on facebook and caption it ânature is dyingâ. After having done so, I can see â in digits â exactly how much human attention it attracted, and I can use that data to compare it to other posts or, if I get enough attention and that is my shtick; sell it to a third party and make a living. Ultimately, what determines how much attention my post will receive, and how large I can live accordingly, is style. My personal style, and the style of the post. Aesthetics. Style regulates attention, as Lanham has suggested, âattracting attention is what style is all aboutâ. In this information economy, the role of âstuffâ has been taken over by information, the role of substance has been replaced with style 38. If we think of attention as value, then we can think of the style of that attention as itâs currency, like Euroâs or Yenâs. Right now environmentalism is only available through a chosen few currencies.
It should be available in all...
âIn an economy of stuff, science and technology rule, but in an economy of style, arts and humanities take over. âThey are the disciplines that study how attention is allocated, how cultural capital is created and traded.â Aesthetics and design represent the most potentially valuable economic mechanisms today.â38
...and graphic designers can make that happen.
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Since last year (when written), 2018, when Greta Thunberg and her protest sign, black on white âSkolstrejk för klimatetâ, started gaining momentum (as Severn Cullis-Suzuki tried to in Rio in 1992 but artists didnât follow suit), the climate crisis has become a hot topic. Since then practices and projects related to the issue have popped up all over the field of graphic design. A new generation has managed to get out of the rut, and seems to be aiming to keep it cool. Hopeful devotion.
Now, 11 years from doom (again, 10 when published) eco-design is becoming more diverse in style, appealing and alive! With designers and initiatives such as: Adapt, Itâs Freezing in L.A., Hot Hot Hot!, no Planet no Fun, Do The Green Thing, Worm, The Earth Issue, The Beam, Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, The Sunrise Movement. The topic has been featured in magazines such as Dazed, AnOther and Itâs Nice That and multiple social media, particularly instagram, lifestyle and meme accounts such as Fashion Revolution, basicenvironmentalist and climemechange have grown in popularity. And the list goes on. I will also mention Vivienne Westwood in this category, although not part of a new generation she has been fighting the good fight for some years now and has been a large inspiration for me when it comes to working with this topic. I found reassurance stumbling upon her activism at a time when it felt like nobody within the artistic field cared about the topic.
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The questions remain:
Is this new wave strong enough to rock our nonchalant world?
Is it a single wave or is it a new permanent condition, a changed climate?
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What does this hopeful devotion enlist? And how should it be continued? How can I start an argument about it in order to shape it?
What should I be aware of when dealing with this issue as an environmentally responsible graphic designer, moving forward? Whith what do I replace my bitterness?
On my quest for guidance, I found a few rulebooks. The first one looked like this:
94 
Rendering me instantly uninterested.******
So I went with another one.
The guidebook I will rely on is âClimate Visuals: Seven principles for visual climate change communication (based on international social research)â and was published in 2016 by Climate Outreach and Global Call for Climate Action (GCCA). They work in collaboration with climatevisuals.org, an organization that has created a evidence based database of climate photography for use in communication.
In the guidebook they claim that âwhile research on the verbal and written communication of climate change has proliferated, our understanding of how people interpret visual images of climate change is limited to a much smaller number of academic studies, which do not provide much in the way of practical guidance for communicators. As a result, the iconography of climate change has remained relatively staticâ. After social experimentation, they came up with seven principles for visualising climate change:
â1. Show âreal peopleâ not staged photo-ops:â
They found that people respond most to imagery of real people, âauthenticityâ is key. Staged images are considered âgimmicky or even manipulativeâ and politicians hardly get any attention. This speaks to idea of the stereotype. People relate to other people who they feel are similar to themselves. So, more environmentally concerned relatable people! Enough endangered wildlife for now, it has become quite apparent that very few people really care.
â2. Tell new stories:â
ClichĂ©âs âsuch as smokestacks, deforestation, and polar bears on melting iceâ, were found to be prone to catch the viewers attention, however they did not show any sign of sparking a âdeeper debateâ as they would rather tend to trigger âcynicism and fatigueâ within discussion groups. âThey are effective ways of communicating to an audience that âthis story is about climate changeââ, and they may be âuseful for audiences with limited knowledge or interest inâ the topic. But they are tiresome.
The team found that âless familiar (and more thought-provoking) images can help tell a new story about climate change, and remake the visual representation of climate change in the public mind.â And I think this reaffirms the point that I have been trying to make throughout this essay. That the movement is in dire need of new visuals that tell different stories. Stories not of ânatureâ but stories of âcultureâ. Stories of a culture that does not live in a glass jar with a closed lid like a sourdough starter, but a culture that that is open and pours over and affects all other cultures, be they âpureâ or âwildâ or ânaturalâ or âsocietalâ. A culture that is responsible, whether it takes responsibility or not. A culture where the burning Amazon has just as much to do with Coachella or Kim Kardashians Westâs social media presense as it has to do with endangered koala bears or plastic oceans â if not more.
[embed twitter post from Kim K âclimate change is real (broken heart)â.]
â3. Show climate causes at scale:â
âWe found that people do not necessarily understand the links between climate change and their daily lives [understandably, since most of their lives donât take place in ânatureâ]. Individual âcausesâ of climate change (such as meat-eating) may not be recognised as such, and if they are, may provoke defensive reactions. If communicating the links between âproblematicâ behaviours and climate change, it is best to show these behaviours at scale â e.g. a congested highway, rather than a single driver.â It is the system that is broken, so presenting the chain instead of individual links of the chain does make sense and is worth trying. (However, this instant tendancy towards defence needs further analysation, in another essay.)
â4. Climate impacts are emotionally powerful:â
People tend to be âmoved more by climate impacts â e.g. floods, and the destruction wrought by extreme weather â than by âcausesâ or âsolutionsâ. Images of climate impacts can prompt a desire to respond, but because they are emotionally powerful, they can also be overwhelming. Coupling images of climate impacts with a concrete behavioural âactionâ for people to take can help overcome this.â
â5. Show local (but serious) climate impacts:â
âWhen images of localised climate impacts show an individual person or group of people, with identifiable emotions, they are likely to be most powerful. But there is a balance to be struck (as in verbal and written communication) between localising climate change (so that people realise the issue is relevant to them) and trivialising the issue (by not making clear enough links to the bigger picture).â
â6. Be very careful with protest imagery:â
âImages depicting protests (or protesters) attracted widespread cynicism and some of the lowest ratings in our survey. [...] images of (what people described as) âtypical environmentalistsâ only really resonated with the small number of people who already considered themselves as activists and campaigners. Most people do not feel an affinity with climate change protesters, so images of protests may reinforce the idea that climate change is for âthemâ rather than âusâ. Protest images involving people directly affected by climate impacts were seen as more authentic and therefore more compelling.â This might have changed a bit since 2016 with Greta Thunbergâs influence and the Global Climate Strikes. I would argue that the recent protests would mostly fall into the latter category, the category of âpeople directly affected by climate impactsâ, as they are notoriously populated by young people who see their own future in flames.
So yes, be careful with protest imagery. But use it nontheless. Give protestors the attention they are begging for. But seek out the protestors that are atypical or have innovative or curious points of view. Place protestors that expand the visual connotation of the climate crisis in the spotlight. Show something new.
Welcome new takes. We need them.
â7. Understand your audience:â
In their final point, they stated that âimages of âdistantâ climate impacts produced much flatter emotional responses among those on the political rightâ, and that âimages depicting âsolutionsâ to climate change generated mostly positive emotionsâ.
More importantly however, they stated that the level of concern or scepticism each audience had about the climate crisis, ultimately determined how they reacted to the imagery presented.40 So simply, if you are already concerned with the topic you will respond well to the imagery, if you are not you will not. This clearly shows that there must be some attention factor missing in the visuals. If the visuals we rely on to âtell the storyâ cause the story to only reach those who already know the story, then why bother? In order for the story to be heard by a larger audience (which is vital in order to get people into power that are serious about the issue), we need to get serious about creating new visual cultures around it.
The old ones are not sufficient.
They do not spark new interest.
They lack conflict, they lack diversity and they lack dynamic.
âSensual experience is embedded in the very idea of sustainability,â38 It is the driving force. Sensual desire is what urges us, and all other creatures, to act â in any way. Lack of appeal is unsustainable and lethal. (A fully recycled and recycleable book about recycling can do more harm than good if itâs ugly.)
Which leads me to point nr 8., which I would like to add to the list along with points number 9. and 10.
8. Use appealing visuals (relative) rather than traditional ones:
I suggest this knowing that each designer will have a different idea of what is appealing. I would suggest they throw all notions of what green design****** looks like out the window and simply make what looks appealing to them at each time, never allowing the visuals to stagnate.
Look for climate related influences within your own interests, visual, concrete or conceptual, and bring them into the web of climate crisis references. First and foremost, look to expand the topic. Take a topic that has become concrete and objectified and try to liquify it, allow it to flow between different styles and ideologies. It is a completely overarching topic so it should land easily wherever you choose to touch ground. Surround it with a compelling web of references and styles. Everything applies. The further fetched the better. Strive to make the most outrageous connections. Fetch away!
9. Be very careful when assigning a gender to the problem:
Be aware of the patriarchy and understand that once you label the âobjectâ as female, the issue it faces is likely to be considered less urgent and more nichĂ©. It is absurd write this, an abselutely ridiculous point to have to keep in mind, but here we are nontheless.
10. Avoid nature purism:
At all cost avoid seperating human culture from the climate crisis. Do not overemphasize Nature.
It has been tried. It didnât work.
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Notes:
****** Sorry to call a specific publication out like this. In my own defence, I did just call for more artistic differences and conflict.
******* "Contract magazineâs 2008 interiors awards jury remarked that the Haworth furniture showroom in Washington, DC, âshows you can create something thatâs environmentally sensitive but doesnât look like it.â In other words, looking green looks bad, so hide it, dress it up. The online design magazine Inhabitat proclaims that designer Yves BĂ©harâs projects âhave always exhibited a deft balance between stunning aesthetics and sustainable design.â Beauty and sustainability need to be balanced, as if designing green requires a compromise or trade-off with looking good. Another Web site refers to âthe constant battle between aesthetics and sustainability,â as if the two unavoidably conflict. [...] âIn the apparent tug-of-war between sustainability and beauty, which should win?â38
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So what are the aesthetics of green? What is green design?
As I sit and write I scan my room in search of green. I was expecting to see it everywhere now that I am actively looking, but all the green I see are plants, an eco friendly soap bottle, the grass on a Mumin cup and illustrations/logos on a two different tote bags on one of witch is written âhome on earth; inspired by natureâ and on the other âverantwortung; fĂŒr mensch und naturâ accompanied by a tree. I guess I am that type despite my resistence.
In the past I have spitefully stripped my environmentalism of all green, I have made it a point to not include it in any climate related work. Now I am ready to re-establishing the connection, on new terms, with a clean slate. I have come to the conclusion that green is just green. It is just a colour. Anything can be green. It doesnât have to be soft, friendly or natural.
I have come to terms with green being a colour of environmentalism, but with that acceptance I will pledge to stretch the meaning of environmental green as far and wide as I possibly can. Green aesthetics, if you want to call them that, are aesthetics that take the effect that they will have on the environment, and the climate crisis, into consideration, with the goal of making some kind of positive difference, large or small. Simple as that.
With or without green.
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1. ânatureâ definition by Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/
2. âNotes From A Native Daughterâ from âSlouching Towards Bethlehemâ, book by Joan Didion. Published in 2017 by 4th Estate. Page 171.
3. âPurpleâ episode hosted by Ernie Rea and produced by Catherine Earlam for series âBeyond Beliefâ on BBC4. Released 17 December 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/
4. ââIntroductionâ to âPrismatic Ecology; Ecotheory beyond Greenâ, book edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Published in 2013 by the University of Minnesota Press. Page xx.
5. âThe Sound of Green by Erykah Baduâ hosted by Erykah Badu, published 5 November 2018 as part of series âThe Sound of Colourâ presented by NTS, Sonos & Hay. https://www.nts.live/
6. âBeautiful Soul Syndromeâ episode by Timothy Morton for podcast âLiterature and the Environmentâ. Published in Fall 2008 by UC Davis.
7. âCEC14 / Closing Panel: The Anthropocene - an Engineered Age?â Climate Engineering Conference featuring Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Klaus Töpfer (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies), Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology), Prof. Clive Hamilton (Charles Sturt University), Prof. Thomas Ackermann (Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean), and Oliver Morton (The Economist) in the Haus der Kulteren der Welt in Berlin in 2014. Published August 28th, 2014, by IASS Potsdam. https://www.youtube.com/ ca. minute 39:21
8. âConsumerismâ episode by Timothy Morton for podcast âLiterature and the Environmentâ. Published in Fall 2008 by UC Davis.
9. âIntroductionâ to âEnvironmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Centuryâ, book edited and introduced by Stephanie LeMenager, Teresa Shewry, and Ken Hiltner. Published in November 13th, 2012, by Routledge.
10. âThe Complete Essays 1973-1991â book by Luigi Ghirri. Published in 2016 by MACK. Page 152
11. âThe Future of Nature: Conservation in the Anthropocene with Emma Marrisâ lecture by Emma Marris at the University of California. Published May 16th, 2019, by University of California Television (UCTV). https://www.youtube.com/ ca. minute 1:34
12. âEmma Marris and Ellis Erle | Dialogue | The Anthropocene Project. An Openingâ dialogue between Emma Marris (Autorin, Columbia) and Erle Ellis (Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore) at Haus der Kulturen der Welt on January 12th, 2013. Film and Production by Dusan Solomun. Published January 24th, 2013, by HKW Anthropocene. https://www.youtube.com/ ca. minute 44:26
13. âThe Truth of Ecology; Nature, Culture and Literature in Americaâ book by Dana Phillips. Published March 27th, 2003, by Oxford University Press
14. âUm Drangeyâ article by Ărni Ăla. Published September 2nd, 1934, by LesbĂłk MorgunblaĂ°sins. Full quote by GuĂ°mundur biskup Arason âĂegar GuĂ°mundur biskup Arason vĂgĂ°i sigstaĂ°ina Ă Drangey, ljet hann ĂŸetta berg ĂłvĂgt, ĂŸvĂ aĂ° bergvĂŠttur ĂĄtti aĂ° hafa kallaĂ° til hans og mĂŠlt: âHĂŠttu aĂ° vĂgja, Gvendur biskup, einhversstaĂ°ar verĂ°a vondir aĂ° veraâ.â http://timarit.is/
15. âMary Colbert: Sin, Not Climate Change, Is Causing Extreme Weather and Natural Disastersâ article by Kyle Mantyla for Right Wing Watch. Published June 11th, 2019, 1:54 pm. https://www.rightwingwatch.org/
16. âParable of the Sowerâ book by Octavia E. Butler. Published in January 2007 by Grand Central Publishing.
17. âThe Word Made Fresh: Mystical Encounter and the New Weird Divineâ article by Elvia Wilk for E-Flux, Journal #92. Published June 2018. https://www.e-flux.com/
18. âPost-colonial Women Writers: New Perspectivesâ book written by Sunita Sinha. Published in 2008 by Atlantic Publishers & Dist. Page 10
19. âWorld Scientistsâ Warning of a Climate Emergencyâ by William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M. Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William R. Moomaw, and 11,258 scientists signatories from 153 countries (List in supplemental file S1) for BioScience, Volume 70, Issue 1. Published November 5th 2019. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ on November 5th, 2019
20. âWomen and Nature: The Roaring Inside Herâ SUSAN GRIFFIN, New York: Harper and Row, 1978, Pp. 263â article by Angela Miles, York University. Further source unknown.
21. âKarlmenn og kjötâ article by Ragnar Freyr for FlĂłra Magazine, published December 4th, 2018. https://flora-utgafa.is/
22. âHow Climate Change Impacts Womenâ article and video published March 1st, 2017, by NRDC. https://www.nrdc.org/
23. âLetâs Talk About Tomorrowâ song written by John Capek, Amy Sky and Olivia Newton-John. Single on album âThe Rumourâ, released August 1988.
24. âDark Ecological Chocolateâ lecture by Timothy Morton for Sonic Acts - 2017
25. âNature Is Speaking â Julia Roberts is Mother Nature |Conservation International (CI)â film by Conservation International (CI). Published October 5th, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/
26. âWeather and Imaginationâ roundtable discussion featuring Deborah Coen, Sheila Jasanoff, Anthony Leiserowitz, Stephanie LeMenager, and Ben Orlove. Published January 17th, 2008, by philoctetesctr https://www.youtube.com/
27. âLa theorie des incorporels dans Lancien stoicismeâ by Emile Brehier (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1970), pages 20-21. Bernd Herzogenrath translation for his essay âWhiteâ in book Prismatic Ecology, book edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Published in 2013 by the University of Minnesota Press. page 15.
28. âFor the Birds: John Cage in Conversation with Daniel Charlesâ by John Cage. Published in 1981 in Boston by Marion Boyars, Page 80.
29. âEssays before a Sonata, the Majority, and Other Writings, ed. Howard Boatwrightâ by Charles Ives. Published in 1999 in New York by Norton. Page 71
30. âElaine Scarry, Opening Lecture: âBuilding and Breath: Beauty and the Pact of Alivenessââ opening lecture by Elaine Scarry for the J. Irwin Miller Symposium, âAesthetic Activismâ. Published November 2nd, 2016, by YaleUniversity. https://www.youtube.com/
31. âThe Truth of Ecology; Nature, Culture and Literature in Americaâ book by Dana Phillips. Published March 27th, 2003, by Oxford University Press.
32. âWhat are the optimal interrelations of art, science and politics in the Anthropocene?â lecture by Bruno Latour. Published Noveber 22nd, 2017, by Bifrost Online. https://www.youtube.com/
33. âWhatâs Going Onâ song by Marvin Gaye, Al Cleveland and Renaldo Benson. Produced by Marvin Gaye. Released January 20th, 1971.
34. âbeast of burdenâ definition by Merriam Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/
35. âbeast of burdenâ definition by Urban Dictionary. https://www.urbandictionary.com/
36. âThe Chipko Movementâ chapter in âThis Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environmentâ book edited by Roger S. Gottlieb. Published 1996 by Psychology Press. Page 160-161. https://books.google.nl/
37. âIntroduction by John Zerzanâ blogpost by John Zerzan for Green Anarchy Magazine. Published June 5th, 2012. http://greenanarchy.anarchyplanet.org/
38. âThe Shape of Green; Aesthetics, Ecology, and Designâ book by Lance Hosey. Published September 26th, 2012, by Island Press.
39. âFraming Nature Toolkitâ guidebook written by Ralph Underhill, illustrated by @cartoonralph, designed by Richard Hawkins & Ralph Underhill. Published in 2018 in the United Kingdom by the Public Interest Research Centre Limited.
40. âClimate Visuals: Seven principles for visual climate change communication (based on international social research)â by Corner, A., Webster, R. & Teriete, C. Published in 2015 by Oxford: Climate Outreach.
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1. Shellâs Twitter post, screenshot taken on July 30th, 2019. https://twitter.com/
2. Work of @jessica.duggan published by The Art Issue, August 30, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
For more about the work see https://www.jessicaduggan.com/
3. Picture taken from article âI Rockefeller si uniscono alla difesa del clima e dicono addio al petrolioâ, published 22 September 2014. https://www.repubblica.it/
4. âWanderer above the Sea of Fogâ by Caspar David Friedrich, 1817, Kunsthalle Hamburg.
5. 1 oz. Pure Silver Coloured Coin â Glistening North: The Polar Bear â Mintage: 7,500 (2017). Designed by Canadian artist Glen Loates. https://mint.ca/
6. Photo credit: Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN)https://globalecolabelling.net/
7. Google image search results for âenvironmentalistâ, screeenshot from my personal google account, December 12, 2019.
8. Photograph taken by Ansel Adams in Yosemite National Park in 1938. COPYRIGHT © 2019 THE ANSEL ADAMS GALLERY
9. A still from âPlanet Earth II, Episode 4: Desertsâ. Taken from: https://www.bbcearth.com/
10. A notification for an email with a newsletter from Ecohustler, https://ecohustler.com/, screenshot taken on my personal mobile phone ca. October 2019
11. âMountain Beautyâ painting by Jim Warren http://jimwarren.com/
12. âOriginal Costume Idea for a Pregnant Couple: Mother Earth and Father Timeâ Homemade costume idea posted by Ashley A. to https://www.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/
13. âQueen of Coins; Jordâ from âThe Giantsâ Tarotâ card deck. Picture taken from: https://www.asphodelpress.com/
14. âYoung Daughter of the Pictsâ c.1585, painting by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues
15. âHilda behind a vase of flowersâ by Duane Bryers
16. âShades of South San Francisco - Weddingâ Wedding party, South San Francisco, CA, 1966. L-r: Ann Petracosta, unidentified, Beverly Bonalanza, Roberta Cerri Teglia (bride), Alfredo Cerri, Deborah Cerri, unidentified, Susan Cerri. Preserved by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP). California State Library, California History Room, 900 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Picture taken from: https://archive.org/
17. âMiss Floribundaâ profile picture on Life&Times, Hyattsville; Hyattsvilleâs Community Newspaper. Taken from http://hyattsvillelife.com/
18. âHow Luke P. owns the Bacheloretteâ by TMG Podcast Highlights. Screenshot from youtube recommendations page, taken July 2019.
19. Cover of âOur planet, our future; Fighting climate change togetherâ part of EU publications. Authors: Directorate-General for Climate Action (European Commission). Published 2018-09-19.
20. Cover of Olivia Newton-Johns album âGaia; one womanâs journeyâReleased 1994.
21. Stills from âMoanaâ movie released 2016. Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.
22. Picture taken at Royal Library den Haag by myself
23. Gaia Screams 1 (1995), Memphis TN. https://archive.org/
24. Andivra the Ancient Earth Goddess by Qodaet, or Ăder Santos. https://www.deviantart.com/
25. Google image search results for âglobal climate strike 2019â, Screenshot from my personal google account, December 12, 2019.
26. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images News/Getty Images
27. Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images
28. REX/Shutterstock
29. Jenny Evans, Getty Images
30. Photograph by Julian Meehan
31. âHundreds of Thousands Demand Climate Action in Massive Youth-Led Strikes Around the Worldâ article written by Alejandro de la Garza and published by Time Magazine on September 20, 2019 6:27 PM ET. Still from video which appeared with the article. https://time.com/
32. Nic Botham / EPA-Shuttershock
33. AP Photo/Rick Rycroft
34. Samuel CorumâGetty Images
35. Solarized photograph of Ringo Starr by Richard Avedon, 1967. Commissioned by Beatles company NEMS Enterprises Ltd and licensed for sale through three outlets - LOOK magazine in America, the Daily Express in the UK and, Stern Magazine in Germany. I took the licence to change the blue to green for this rendering.
36. Poster for âEarth Day Celebrationâ at Oak Tree Campus, 18847 Oak Tree Road in Nevada City, California which was held on April 22, 2018. Designer unknown. https://yubanet.com/
37. âDorothy Goldsmith and Rita Webb squirt Kenneth Opat with oil in 1970 at Tulane University in New Orleans, where students tagged Louisianaâs oil industry with the âpolluter of the monthâ award. The demonstration on April 22 of that year was part of the first annual observance of Earth Day.â Caption from edition.cnn.com. Picture owned by Associated Press.
38. Earth Day Pin, from Affordable Community Energy. https://www.affordablecommunityenergyservices.com/
39. Julia Butterfly Hill photographer unknown. Picture taken from https://www.agoravox.it/
40. Work by Nicholas Baccari. Picture taken from his Instagram account, @mr.babies, posted November 17, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
41. âHĂĄdegisfundurâ Facebook event banner, event held by âBĂŠndasamtök Ăslandsâ. Image posted to facebook on December 5th, 2019. https://scontent-ams4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/
42. âGlĂłpahlyÌnunâ facebook-page. Screenshot taken November 19th, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/
43. Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty https://im.indiatimes.in/
44. Vivienne Westwood in 1994 wearing plastic Vivienne Westwood store bag as a rain hood. Used as cover photo for book âVivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Lifeâ by Jane Mulvagh, published November 2003. Photographer unknown.
45. Photograph credits David M. Benett / Getty Images https://www.gettyimages.ca/
46. Drawing by Vivienne Westwood from book âGet a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwoodâ. Published October 13, 2016 by Serpentâs Tail.
47. Image by Vivienne Westwood taken from http://climaterevolution.co.uk/
48. Climate Revolution Charter for Vivienne Westwoodâs Climate Revolution, http://climaterevolution.co.uk/
49. Cover of âGet a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwoodâ. Book published October 13, 2016 by Serpentâs Tail.
50. Photograph taken at Vivienne Westwoodâs Red Label SS13 Show, for Climate Revolution. Taken from https://www.10magazine.com/
51. Pictures taken by myself in unknown shop in London, October 2019.
52. âItâs Freezing in L.A.â magazine, Issue 3. Photograph by myself.
53. âItâs Freezing in L.A.â website. Screenshot from https://www.itsfreezinginla.co.uk/ taken January 24, 2019.
54. âItâs Freezing in L.A.â retweet of Garrett Bladâs twitter post. Screenshot taken on May 2, 2019 from https://twitter.com/
55. âno Planet no Funâ website. Screenshot taken August 18th, 2019, from https://www.noplanetno.fun/
56. no Planet no Funâs instagram feed, screenshot from August 18th, 2019 https://www.instagram.com/
57. no Planet No Funâs instagram post, screenshot from November 25th, 2019 https://www.instagram.com/
58. Illustration by No Planet No Fun, taken from https://www.itsnicethat.com/
59. Adaptâs instagram account, screenshot from June 19th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
60. Adaptâs instagram post, screenshot from August 20th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
61.-62. Jessica Dugganâs instagram post, screenshots from August 30th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
63. Adaptâs instagram post, screenshot from November 18th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
Photographs taken by Oliver Halstead and the works shown are by @patricksavile, @floriane.rousselot and @sarahboris_ldn
64. Adapt on NTS show Questing w/Zakia screenshot taken December 16th, 2019. https://www.nts.live/
65. Extinction Rebellion on NTS, screenshot taken September 14th, 2019. https://www.nts.live/
66. âA future world; Why the man-made climate crisis is a womenâs issueâ article by Yomi Adegoke for Dazed Digital. Published May 14th, 2019. Screenshot. https://www.dazeddigital.com/
67. âThe strange story of Mort Garsonâs magical album Plantasiaâ article by Martyn Pepperell for Dazed Digital. Published June 19th, 2019. Screenshot from https://www.dazeddigital.com/
68. Man-Made Disaster website, by âDo The Green Thingâ. Website by Area 17. Screenshot taken April 17th, 2019. https://manmadedisaster.art/
69. Global Climate Strike Logo, can be downloaded from https://drive.google.com/ along with other languages and more graphics.
70. Hot hot hot!âs instagram account, screenshot from March 20th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
71. Hot hot hot!âs instagram post, screenshot from July 25th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/
72. tomgalleâs instagram post, screenshot from October 31th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
73. yfoeememesâs instagram post, screenshot from November 9th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
74. chicksforclimateâs instagram post, screenshot from August 20th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/ Illustration by @ailiebanks
75. chicksforclimateâs instagram post, screenshot from August 4th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
76. basicenvirnmentalistâs instagram post, screenshot from December 6th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
77. Jenifer Lewisâs instagram post, screenshot from December 14th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
78. Jenifer Lewisâs instagram post, screenshot from December 14th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
79. The Beam Magazineâs instagram post, screenshot from June 7th, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
80. Dazed and Confused Magazineâs facebook post, screenshot from August 29th, 2019.
81. Nownessâs instagram post, screenshot from June 3rd, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
82. Nownessâs instagram post, screenshot from June 3rd, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
83. Dazed and Confused Magazineâs facebook post, screenshot from August 20th, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/
84. Dazed and Confused Magazineâs instagram post, screenshot from May 31st, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
85. Response and Responsibility section of âItâs Nice Thatâ âs website. Screenshot from https://www.itsnicethat.com/ taken December 16th, 2019.
86. âEnvironmental Activism: Why We Need To Shake Up the Visualâ article by Claire Matthews for Itâs Nice That. Published April 23rd 2018. Screenshot taken September 14th, 2019. https://www.itsnicethat.com/
87. Illustrated recycling icons by Two Degrees Creative. Picture taken from https://the-brandidentity.com/
88. Two Degrees Creativeâs instagram post, acreenshot from November 1st, 2019. https://www.instagram.com/
89. âCoast to Coast Shore to Shoreâ typeface by Johan Elmehag, 2018. Screenshot from https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/
90. âFossils: A Retrospective Study of Early 3rd Millennium Pro-Waste Lobbyingâ four pages of the Beam Magazine designed by Huot & Vallentin. Taken from http://huotvallentin.com/
91. Worm art + ecology website, screenshot taken November 14th, 2019. http://www.wormworm.org/
92. Low â Tech Magazine website, screenshot taken December 16th, 2019. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/
93. âKrĂsaâ or âCrisisâ, drawing by myself, ca. October 2019.
94. Details from âFraming Nature Toolkit; A guide to how words can help wildlifeâ, written by Ralph Underhill, illustrated by @cartoonralph and designed by Richard Hawkins and Ralph Underhill published by Public Interest Research Centre in 2018.
95. Shellâs Twitter post, screenshot taken October 10th, 2019. https://twitter.com/
