Nature Gone Wild?
Conceptions of Nature and climate change are entrenched in the visuals we use to represent them. As climate change alters our relationship with Nature, it is all the more important to look at what these conceptions are and at the consequences for understanding and counteracting climate change.
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Four climate change cover stories (clockwise): National Geographic, September 2004; Time magazine, April 2006; The Economist, August 2018; Time magazine, March 2019
glaciers and rising sea levels? Which crops and trees to grow in a warmer climate? How to cope with extreme weather events that happen more often and with greater severity? Conceptions of Nature and climate change are entrenched in the visuals we use to represent them. As climate change alters our relationship with Nature, it is all the more important to look at what these conceptions are and at the consequences for understanding and counteracting climate change. Ironically, such images often re-evoke a dualistic idea of Nature and Culture, which stands in contrast to the messy and complex reality of human-climate relationships. For example, the polar bear is often shown, iconically, as a representative of Nature; it is easily anthropomorphised, a subject of identification that arouses pity and the need for protection, yet also presents Nature as removed from human society. By contrast, in images of catastrophic events, Nature does not seem very human. In pictures of fires devouring forests Nature seems wild and indomitable. Burnt crops and cracked-up soils foster the idea of a cruel and pitiless Nature. Images of flooded streets and fields evoke a Nature threatening to humans and cultural achievements. And showing storms or the devastation after they have passed reminds us that Nature is an uncontrollable force. Within such images of catastrophic weather events, Nature becomes the ‘other’ to humans, a hostile and opposing force to humanity. These images evoke emo-
tions of fear because they remind us of our vulnerability. Nature can be merciless. This conception complements the idea of a Nature, untouched by culture, as sublime. Once spoilt by the blights of civilisation, Nature will strike back. Both these ideas of Nature – as unspoilt and repelling civilisaton – are two sides of the same coin, reinforcing a dichotomous relationship between Nature and Culture. Alluding to the uncontrollability of Nature they also implicitly suggest that it should and could be controlled. The images therefore do not do justice to the complex interrelationships between humans and Nature. Indeed, the issue of climate change itself transcends the Nature-Culture divide, being anthropogenic in origin yet pertaining to natural phenomena. To tackle climate change it will be necessary to foster new conceptions of Nature. We should come up with visuals and representations that do justice to the interconnectedness of Nature and Culture. We need to start seeing Nature in humans and the human in Nature. Showing humanity and Nature as inherently connected and interwoven may foster an understanding of the structural causes of climate change. Only identifying these causes will help us truly address the changing climate.
