Expressing the impact of climate change

The book Climates. Habitats. Environments. explores how environmental change has led to spiritual and cultural loss. Credit: NTU CCA Singapore.

Discourse surrounding the world’s climate crisis is rooted in climate science and economics. But there are many overlooked perspectives, including how environmental change has led to spiritual and cultural loss, as well as existential anxieties.

Climates. Habitats. Environments. is a book that explores these issues and the consequences of human actions on people, especially in the Asia-Pacific. It does so through art projects, exhibitions, photos and essays by artists, curators, researchers and writers across disciplines such as ethnobotany, anthropology, the history of consciousness and philosophy.

Edited by Prof Ute Meta Bauer with chapter editor Dr Anna Lovecchio, Founding Director and Assistant Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore) respectively, the book reflects on the natural not just as an environment but also as a posthuman habitat where people coexist with flora, fauna and other forms of life.

The chapter “The Natural” includes urban landscapes in Singapore where overlooked wildflowers and weeds thrive.

“The Supranatural” is a chapter that looks at people’s spiritual beliefs, as well as their fears and the impact of cultural loss at a time where climate change accelerates into climate crisis.

“The Oceanic” chapter focuses on the connection between people and the ocean, such as radioactive residues caused by nuclear testing in Pacific waters affecting people and marine life alike.

---

The book Climates. Habitats. Environments. is published by NTU CCA Singapore and MIT Press (2022). The artworks, projects and most of the text in the book were commissioned by CCA.

The article appeared first in NTU's research & innovation magazine Pushing Frontiers (issue #21, December 2022).