Fine art can communicate the impacts of climate change more effectively than scientific graphs, according to a recent study.
A survey conducted by science communicators, published in the journal “Communications Earth & Environment,” shows that paintings can overcome political biases that sometimes surround the science of climate change.
“Showing data is not always working,” said Nan Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Because this is such a polarized issue, a lot of times people will rely on their preexisting attitudes toward this issue to interpret the evidence.”
“This study examined how visual art, especially art that combines fine art and data visualizations, can be used as an alternative way to communicate climate change to a mass audience,” she said.
Li was inspired to conduct the study by Philadelphia artist Diane Burko, who for more than a decade has made paintings depicting the impacts of climate change. A landscape artist, she has made abstract works based on glacier melt, the decimation of coral reefs, and increased atmospheric heat.
In 2021, Burko had a major show at the American University Museum in Washington D.C., and at the time, appeared in a webinar at the National Academies and Science, Engineering, and Medicine. It was there that Li discovered the artist.
“I learned a lot from Diane,” Li said. “The idea of using aesthetic experiences to engage people in the first place. Once people are engaged in that kind of aesthetic, is there a chance to increase people’s interest in seeing the information and maybe evoking some kind of emotion that will help them learn better?”
