RSS
by Max Boykoff
Inside the Greenhouse
December 5, 2015
Despite a current ban on a ban on public demonstrations the Paris area – and particularly around the Champs-Elysees in central Paris and in Le Bourget through the end of next week (two days after the scheduled end to the Paris round of negotiations) – creative communications on climate change at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) this past week have proliferated.
Look no further than the ‘silent march’, organized by Avaaz and other organizations, where 20,000 pairs of shoes were laid out in Place de la République to provide symbolic public pressure for climate policy action at COP21.
Entering the venue in Le Bourget, the maps themselves represented forms of creative communication on climate change.
Common and integrated spaces were limited to permissible/tolerated locations. Nonetheless, the photo below depicts a ‘Divestment/Keep it in the Ground’ noontime demonstration in front of the replica Eiffel Tower.
In more formal spaces, there were many events and activities such as a Connect4Climate-sponsored ‘Youth4Climate’ session featuring the upcoming 2016 film ‘An Inconvenient Youth’ (by Slater Jewell-Kemker) along with a panel Kumi Naidoo, Bianca Jagger, Fernando Mereilles, and moderator Max Edkins.
Furthermore, the ‘ArtCOP21’ – in Gaîté lyrique and connected to others around the world in solidarity – has convened many creative communicators, and featured many art works where, through their activities, they pronounce ‘Climate is culture’.
In addition to many spirited and creative events, there are seemingly countless informal interactions and confrontations as well, from the riff of ‘Arche de Noe’ in an exhibit inside the COP21 – commissioned by the French Ministry of Environment and Development – to more renegade and subversive work of UK-based ‘Brandalism’, who called attention to corporate-influence in mainstream discussions of options for climate action through their 600 fake outdoor advertisements throughout central Paris. Read more …
