What We Can Do Right Now

Goes without saying for many of us, but the questions around craft, making, and simply how we choose to be alive in the world are bursting into the forefront of our everyday experience. The urgency is upon us to think and act differently – hence my interest in pivoting my own [textile-based] practice into something more expansive, both in terms of the material included and also the implications of material use. It’s not that artists alone (through changing material consumption, for example) can shift the frameworks around consumption and capitalist economies, but we do have a pulpit from which to share ideas and influence behavior.

“At the end of February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report so dire that the Secretary-General of the United Nations called it “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” and said that “the world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home.” But, for many people, the report quickly joined the frightening and overwhelming mass of news they are confronted with about the climate emergency. As Bill McKibben writes, “Even people trying to pay attention can’t really keep track of what should be the most compelling battle in human history.” And so he proposes a way to reframe the fight—offering an urgent, precise, and practical analysis of what we can be doing right now to stop the burning of fossil fuels, and how we can keep track of our progress. The challenges the world faces in reaching what McKibben calls “an end of fire” should not be underestimated. But the battle is far from hopeless, and this piece lays out the steps we can take to win it.” (This from a New Yorker newsletter, March 2022)

Follow the link above to The New Yorker article – even if you’re not a subscriber you should be able to read one or two articles a month for free.