Friday, April 19, 2019
What’s Your Vision for a Post-Carbon Arts Sector?
HowlRound Theatre Commons: Sounding an alarm in October 2018, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a special report to warn the world about the impact of the smallest decimal point changes in global warming temperatures above pre-industrial levels. The report also stated that, in order to prevent even larger scale human suffering than we are currently on course to collide with, the world has to commit to drastically reducing global emissions starting now until 2030, or face a point of no return for humanity. This hard deadline implies not just a profound shift in our current lifestyles, but also the creation of entirely new systems and cultural values for how our civilization operates.
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I am not sure I have ever heard the term “postcarbon” before. It is a bit alarming, to say the least. When we hit peak oil, I was hoping to see some sort of global awakening, a rapid movement towards sustainability and conservation of resources, but it has since then become clear that most of the powers that be are only interested in the bottom line. Mathew and Howlround are trying to work out a way to make the arts sustainable, to keep art and collaboration going after we can no longer use airplanes. I think that is admirable, certainly, but part of me wonders if once we reach that point it will still be ethical to even make art on a large scale. I do not think art or performance will or should ever go away, but as long-distance travel becomes less viable, our communities will become more localized. I think art will and should become also become more localized, more personal, and smaller.
I find it interesting that this article focuses on air travel as the primary source of pollution coming from the theatre industry. I mean I do not know the numbers or science regarding the air pollution and traveling in an airplane, so perhaps it is a massive contributor to the larger carbon footprint the theatre industry, but the solutions to this problem seem pretty straight forward, and are laid out in the article. Video calls are obviously not ideal when there are models and such that want to be shared and because discussing things in the same room face to face can help foster more ideas, but Skype is free and it eliminates the travel. Even if the creative switches to traveling a longer time on a land based vehicle, why can’t the process be expanded to accommodate that? I understand that designers take on many projects and this is just the way the industry has worked, but if we wanted to change the impact we have on the environment as an industry, the structure of the industry is going to need to change. People are going to need to start switching over to eco-friendly materials so that they gain traction and become mainstream. Timelines are going to have to change to accommodate slower travel. It’s either change, or continue to be a part of the problem, and while I don’t know how to get that ball rolling, I think its definitely a ball that need to be placed on the track and acknowledged by the people that are going to be major drivers.
I am still constantly astounded at the lack of immediate action people seem to believe is acceptable when it comes to climate change issues. So many people I encounter, both my peers, work colleagues, and teachers seem often oblivious or reluctant to make small changes to their routines for the benefit of the environment. These changes require many steps of convincing a person, urging a person, and then final implementation. There is something which I believe especially reinforces this reluctance-- which is once you start really facing climate change head on, and recognize how real it is, it’s fucking terrifying. I think people often choose to try and not really deal with it. They acknowledge its existence, and with the comfort in moral high ground, they comfortably sit back. I understand the fear, and even the feeling of which to talk about climate change at all is a lot for people. However it is no longer the time to be futzing with our fingers, and not making any change. Every single person is responsible for themselves, for what they can do. I really hope to see a head on attitude, of seeing people actually start on implementations of more eco conscious decisions, especially in this high-waste environment which is the arts. Our art has no future, if we have no future.
Reducing our carbon footprint might be the single greatest challenge that the industry will face in the next decade. I imagine it will be a wrenching transition, if it happens. So much is built around travel, even as the industry is moving towards video conferencing and file sharing tools like Dropbox and google drive to reduce the need for commutes and face to face meetings. Even if designers can communicate and submit designs without ever being in the space, however, most will still need or want to be on location for a few days of tech, and I would imagine that most like seeing their shows. Tours seem just about impossible without huge transportation usage. It seems far fetched, but I wonder if some truly creative and unthinkable solution will come to light, like tour houses and shops with huge, bio-degradable or reusable 3D printing capability, so that a touring show might send a file rather than a fleet of trucks. It’s outside of our technology now, but in a few years, novel solutions like this might become feasible and necessary. Alternatively, I wonder if projections and media might become more prevalent in lieu of huge set pieces.
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