Cape Farewell helps us understand how climate change and culture connect

I

n 2001 the artist David Buckland created the Cape Farewell project to instigate a cultural response to the climate challenge. Cape Farewell is now an international not-for-profit programme based at the University of Arts London: Chelsea, with a North American foundation based at the MaRS centre in Toronto.

David Buckland.

Working internationally, we bring creatives, scientists and informers together to stimulate a cultural narrative that will engage and inspire a sustainable and vibrant future society. Using creativity to innovate, we engage artists for their ability to evolve and amplify a creative language, communicating on a human scale the urgency of the global climate challenge.

Our complex societies have evolved dependent of fossil fuel for our energy. It is now proven that carbon dioxide and other emissions from the burning of these fuels is causing potentially devastating damage to our habitat. Our developing Cleantech industries can replace our dependency of fossil fuels and deliver a cleaner, healthier culture.

Cape Farewell asks the best of our creative minds to engage with this challenge and to build a vision for a sustainable future.

Learn more about the Cape Farewell Project here: "What does culture have to do with climate change? Everything."

A day for us to think deeply about the water upon which we depend

W

ater. It covers 71% of our planet's surface, which is really something special: the Earth is the only known planet with large, stable bodies of liquid water on its surface.

Water and energy are inseparably intertwined and today, on World Water Day, we acknowledge our obligation—and our need—to ensure they innovate and improve together.

As a society, we use a tremendous amount of water to generate electricity...

 …and a tremendous amount of electricity to pump and purify our water.

Demand for water is expected to grow 40% by 2030—and as climate change makes water more scarce in many regions, it's absolutely critical that we use water with maximum efficiency.

Today, the next time you take a drink of water or turn on the lights, take a moment to appreciate it and make a commitment to yourself to protect it.

Changing the economy to adapt politics and technologies

Throughout history economies have constantly had to adapt to changing preferences, politics and technologies.

 

Such shifts have driven changes in investment in energy, cities, land use and transport.

Public institutions and financial services have had to innovate to adapt.

 

Over the past few decades economies and technologies have changed rapidly and profoundly, and the next few decades will see continuing transformation. Countries now face radical choices that will shape their economies, including their cities, energy systems and land use, in decisive ways for decades to come.

 

This chapter, “Economics of Change”, is about these choices.