Inside the Greenhouse

Standing up for climate change

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 17:45:39 +0000

Standing up for climate change Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/04/2020 - 11:45

In this episode of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ Where You Are, Beth Osnes and Max Boykoff discuss the power of humor to start a productive conversation about climate change.

Boykoff, who directs the Environmental Studies Program, and Osnes, a professor of theatre and dance, also discuss Inside the Greenhouse, describing the initiative as an effort to spawn "creative spaces so that we and the students with whom we work and the external partners whom we also work with can then experiment with effective was to find common ground to bridge what can be at times politicized and polarized dimensions of climate change.

At the top of the page is a screen shot of a student video in which the narrator, in the style of a naturalist video, marvels at some "newborn hatchlings" that are, in fact, Coke cans nesting in a bed of aluminum foil.

See the full video below:

[video:https://youtu.be/vdEVo4jDDdg]

In this episode of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ Where You Are, Beth Osnes and Max Boykoff discuss the power of humor to start a productive conversation about climate change.

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Inside the Greenhouse, climate discourse cools down

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 16:40:38 +0000

Inside the Greenhouse, climate discourse cools down Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/07/2017 - 10:40

Clint Talbott

Professors in theatre, biology and environmental studies team up to focus on creatively communicating climate science through the arts and social sciences

Where one stands on the validity of climate change science depends largely on where one sits on the political spectrum, surveys show. This fact vexes people who respond to climate science doubt by producing more data.

But relying solely on facts doesn’t necessarily advance the discussion, and, thanks to confirmation bias, can actually harden opinions. This is one reason a trio of scholars at the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ is practicing and teaching ways to advance climate discourse through the arts and social sciences.

Barbara MacFerrin in Churchill, Canada. At top of page, Rebecca Safran, Max Boykoff and Beth Osnes. Top photo by Casey Cass.

��ƷSM��ӰƬ’s Inside the Greenhouse project describes itself as a “collective of professors, students, scholars, practitioners” who creatively frame climate change issues in ways that emphasize people’s common ground. The trio of faculty members who launched the project teach courses in creative climate communication and in climate change and film.

The project’s mission is to “to deepen our understanding of how issues associated with climate change are/can be communicated, by creating artifacts through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art, television programming, and appraising as well as extracting effective methods for multimodal climate communication.”

Associate Professors Max Boykoff of environmental studies, Beth Osnes of theatre and dance, and Rebecca Safran of ecology and evolutionary biology, say their initiative springs partly from the fact that climate change discourse often breaks down.

“People keep throwing scientific information at people, thinking that’s going to change their behavior, and we see time and time again that it doesn’t,” Osnes recently told Colorado Public Radio.

Osnes and her colleagues believe better discourse is possible. Students who’ve taken Inside the Greenhouse courses concur.

Barbara MacFerrin, who graduated with a master’s in technology, media and society from the ATLAS Institute this year, has taken Osnes’ Creative Climate Communications class and Safran’s Climate Change and Film course. A professional photographer herself, MacFerrin wanted to fuse her passion for photography and film with a desire to communicate climate change information effectively.

While in the class, she created a video for the “More Than Scientists” project, a nonprofit initiative that disseminates short video interviews with climate scientists that strives to show the humans working in climatology.

MacFerrin’s film (below) featured her husband, Mike, a research glaciologist at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ, and highlights his feelings about the dramatic melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

[video:https://youtu.be/6ISzoVMGn4o]

MacFerrin later worked with the city of Boulder Youth Opportunity Advisory Board, where she helped develop and produce a short film about climate change mitigation in Boulder. She also traveled to Churchill, Manitoba, last year to film polar bears in the wild.

She praises the program: “I think Inside the Greenhouse is a great initiative, is effective in getting students creatively involved with climate change communication efforts, and offers many opportunities to get engaged.”

Curtis Beutler

Curtis Beutler, who earned his bachelor’s in environmental studies in 2016 and is now a field and data assistant at the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research program, focused his studies on the natural sciences behind environmental issues.

“But even with the majority of my coursework focused on science and research, the topics of outreach and communication kept coming up,” he said. In particular, having the chance to interact with climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—and hearing them stress the importance of public outreach—“spurred my interest in taking on the role of communicator.”

Boykoff’s class focused on “translating our already proficient working knowledge of atmospheric and climate science into meaningful and effective outlets,” Beutler said. This work focused on mass media and studying how to break down personal barriers to polarized topics, he said.

“Inside the Greenhouse, in my experience, thoroughly exceeded its mission to push interdisciplinary students out of their comfort zones and regular roles as to become storytellers and active participants in the dialogue on climate change,” Beutler said. “No matter their background, students learned how to utilize the pathos (emotional reasoning) of a community to convey a message of scientific rationality and humanitarian importance.”

Meagan Webber

Meagan Webber, who earned her bachelor’s in environmental studies in 2016, is now a graphic designer living in Malaysia.

She took the Creative Climate Communication class because, “I had come to realize the importance of properly framing and delivering messages about human-caused climate change and wanted to hone my skills in that area.”

She wanted to learn more about video editing in particular.

Before taking the class, Webber recalled, “I thought that if people would only listen to the facts, then we could solve the issue of human caused climate change more easily. Taking this class taught me how to really step into my audiences’ shoes and see the messages from their eyes.”

Webber noted that the “More Than Scientists” project aims to help viewers who don't have strong opinions about climate change “connect to the issue on a human level” through the eyes of the scientist.

Webber and a team of fellow students interviewed Mark Serreze, director of the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ National Snow and Ice Data Center, an expert on Arctic sea ice, professor of geography and one of the university’s most highly cited researchers.

About the founders

Max Boykoff’s research and creative work focuses on cultural politics and environmental governance, creative climate communications, science-policy interactions, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.

Beth Osnes’ research focuses on using theatre as a tool for women to empower their voices for self-advocacy and civic participation and employing community engagement through performance for city planning for resilience.

Rebecca Safran is an integrative evolutionary behavioral and evolutionary ecologist whose research focuses on the evolution of biological diversity, from molecular, individual, and population perspectives.

Instead of focusing mostly on the data that he studies, “we framed the interview around his personal connections to the issue, starting with his childhood memories of playing in the snow and ice of Maine winters.”

Serreze discussed an ice cap that he had studied as a graduate student and noted that it has shrunk significantly since then. He is emotionally attached to the ice cap and is upset that it’s vanishing.

“The goal is for viewers to relate to those memories spent playing in the snow as kids or the attachment to a special place in the natural world that may be disappearing,” Webber said. “If they can relate on that emotional level, the urgency of acting on climate change may become clearer.”

She added: “Art has the power to touch people's hearts and minds, inspiring them to live to their highest potential and improve their communities. This makes artistic expression, from videos to dance to comedy, an important vehicle for communication about such a grave topic.”

Clarissa Coburn, an English major who took Creative Climate Communication in spring 2016, concurred.

Before taking the class, she thought conveying the scientific data was all that was necessary. “This class showed me that the science is just the beginning,” Corburn said. “All the climate science in the world won't help us if people do not know, do not understand, or do not care about the information.”

For more information on Inside the Greenhouse, click here.

Professors in theatre, biology and environmental studies team up to focus on creatively communicating climate science through the arts and social sciences.

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So three polar bears walk into a bar…

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 16:38:01 +0000

So three polar bears walk into a bar… Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/14/2017 - 10:38

Clint Talbott

‘Stand Up for Climate Change’ event to fuse the sober topic of climate change with the unifying power of humor

Climate change is about as amusing as death, but the gallows can inspire a kind of humor. Consider this, from late-night jokester Conan O’Brien:

From left to right, Beth Osnes, Max Boykoff and Rebecca Safran founded the Inside the Greenhouse Project at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ. ��ƷSM��ӰƬ photo by Casey Cass.

“Yesterday, a group of scientists warned that because of global warming, sea levels will rise so much that parts of New Jersey will be under water. The bad news? Parts of New Jersey won't be under water.”

Rising sea level is no laughing matter. Teasing New Jersey, however, is. Such humor can help those with different perspectives find common ground, at least to the extent that they laugh together.

That’s a rationale for “Stand Up for Climate Change: An Experiment With Creative Climate Comedy,” a comedy showcase scheduled for 7 p.m., Friday, March 17, in the Old Main Chapel at the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ. The event is free and open to the public.

The event’s organizers contend that humor is underutilized in climate-change discourse and that comedy has the “power to connect people” on this topic.

Friday’s event will include stand-up comedy, sketch and situational comedy. Also, there’s a video competition featuring videos from students in this semester’s “Creative Climate Communications” course and from contenders elsewhere.

The course, taught by Associate Professors Max Boykoff of environmental studies and Beth Osnes of theatre and dance, is part of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ’s Inside the Greenhouse project. Inside the Greenhouse describes itself as a “collective of professors, students, scholars, practitioners” who creatively frame climate-change issues via video, theatre, dance and writing.

Inside the Greenhouse, founded by Osnes, Boykoff and Rebecca Safran, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is an interdisciplinary project. It reflects the fact that climate-change discourse can amount to little more than a dueling fusillade of talking points.

People keep throwing scientific information at people, thinking that’s going to change their behavior, and we see time and time again that it doesn’t."

Comedy is another way to communicate, Osnes added. “Comedy has been taking on serious issues for a long time,” Osnes said. Bringing her background in the stage to bear, she cited “Lysistrata,” the comedy by the Greek playwright Aristophanes, who wryly advanced a “preposterous idea” for the Greeks to solve a big problem, the Peloponnesian War:

Lysistrata, a strong woman, convinces the women of Greece to stop having sex with their husbands until the men forge peace with Sparta.

“Through comedy, we can introduce preposterous ideas that then can become reality and can become a better version of our shared humanity,” Osnes said, adding that Lysistrata’s idea was adopted by war-weary Liberian women in 2003, and that this apparently preposterous idea helped end a war.

In the ��ƷSM��ӰƬ Creative Climate Communications class, the goal is for students to identify and expose incongruities in climate discourse, “not in a way that seeks to humiliate, but in a way that seeks to share our common challenges and our foibles.”

“We’re seeking to make these issues more relevant, more meaningful, more accessible for more audiences through humor,” Boykoff told CPR.

Students themselves say the assignment is rewarding and also fun. The winning entry in last year’s video competition was a skit called “Weathergirl Goes Rogue.” It began with a routine weather report and escalated as the TV meteorologist’s recapitulation of key climate trends was met with the anchor’s inane banter.

Clarissa Coburn

Clarissa Coburn, an English major who took the Creative Climate Communications course last spring, said the comedy and climate assignment was the one she feared the most. But she said this assignment yielded some of the class’s most “most innovative” work.

“Constructing comedy is always an interesting challenge, and to have this complicated by the serious subject matter of climate change made for a difficult assignment,” Coburn said.

“But we did it. We put on a comedy show. People came, and they laughed.”

In comedy, there’s no higher praise. Furthermore, Coburn noted, doing the project “brought a lot of hope and excitement to our class.”

Coburn added: “Truthfully, I took this class as it fulfilled a requirement for (environmental studies) and because it fit into my schedule. If I had known what I would get out of the class, I would have signed up regardless of requirement.”

Curtis Beutler, a senior majoring in environmental studies, took the course last year and also said the comedy assignment was daunting, particularly the idea of “making strangers laugh about an inherently sober topic, while trying to educate the audience.”

But on performance night, Beutler said, “I think we were all surprised by the energy we brought as performers and the remarkably receptive audience.”

Sean McManus

Sean McManus, who earned his bachelor’s in environmental studies in 2016, also took the class and said the comedy assignment was “honestly one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever had to do.”

That was partly because McManus’ team chose to do stand-up comedy.

“Our group met multiple times off campus just trying to brainstorm some funny jokes and translate them into a two-man standup routine,” McManus said. Boykoff chipped in with a system of fine-tuning and rehearsing groups’ routines.

“After weeks of practicing my lines to myself, it started to come naturally, and the whole show was a big hit,” McManus said, adding: “Well, I didn’t choke and was really proud of myself.”

For good measure, McManus shared some of his material:

“In 30 years from now, Indonesia will be underwater, and nobody really cares. But the second T-shirt prices start going up, that’s when everyone will start caring.”

For more information on Stand Up for Climate Change, click here. For more information on Inside the Greenhouse, click here.

[video:https://youtu.be/TmfcJP_0eMc]

"Weathergirl Goes Rogue" is last year's winning video.

‘Stand Up for Climate Change’ event on March 17 to fuse the sober topic of climate change with the unifying power of humor.

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