鈥淩aging Floods.鈥 鈥淐limate Migrants.鈥 鈥淐oral Reefs Gone.鈥 These are the kinds of stories spanning today鈥檚 headlines. As temperatures are rising globally, morale is steadily sinking.
New solutions are needed to combat this crisis, environmentally and emotionally. 嘿嘿视频 creative writing master鈥檚 students and professors say that creative storytelling and art may be the keys to helping the world process these changes, and that collaborations with scientists can give rise to new, innovative solutions.
鈥淎rt and poetry are going to play a pivotal role in adapting human behavior to these new circumstances that are vastly different from anything we鈥檝e known,鈥 said poetry master鈥檚 student .
Imagining a better (or worse) future
Free of limitations, art is a portal to reimagine the world.
In 2020, 嘿嘿视频 English professor and geology professor took graduate students on a white water rafting trip down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. They also invited two famous science fiction writers, andboth of whom write about a climate-apocalyptic world.
鈥淭he advantage science fiction writers have is that they have license to completely reimagine things,鈥 said Ziser. 鈥淭hey can just pose a solution and think about how it may work out. It encourages people to imagine, what world do they prefer to be a part of?鈥
![Rafting boats parked at a river in the grand canyon with several people organizing them.](/sites/default/files/media/images/Screen%20Shot%202024-04-23%20at%204.35.03%20PM.png)
The authors and students entered the Grand Canyon on March 10, 2020. They emerged two weeks later to a world shut down amid a global pandemic. The merging of science and science fiction felt all too relevant.
Bacigalupi鈥檚 thriller novel, The Water Knife, tells a dark, futuristic story where the Southwestern U.S. is engaged in a violent war for water. Bacigalupi attended the Grand Canyon trip with graduate students studying the same river system he wrote about drying up.
Robinson's novels also explore what the future may look like under continued corruption and failure to address world crises like climate change. On the trip, students read Robinson's Pacific Edge, part of his series depicting the future of California.
By inviting these authors, Pinter and Ziser hoped to encourage the merging of art and science and to give graduate student scientists a new way of looking at the future of their study systems.
鈥淎ny channel by which we can get more people from different walks of life to be thinking about these problems, the better,鈥 said Ziser. 鈥淭hese problems require our coordinated response as a civilization.鈥
![Kim Stanley Robinson on a white water rafting boat](/sites/default/files/media/images/Screen%20Shot%202024-04-23%20at%204.35.19%20PM.png)
Collaborations between scientists and artists can generate solutions that one party may not have been able to accomplish on its own.
鈥淓veryone is being asked to hyperspecialize, and I think that age is over,鈥 said Ziser. 鈥淲e need to keep a multi-pronged approach to understanding the world.鈥
To poetry master鈥檚 student Bashaw, the divide between art and science isn鈥檛 clean cut, and separating the two can limit progress.
鈥淭he sciences and the arts have a lot to learn from each other, in terms of knowledge bases and methodologies,鈥 said Bashaw. 鈥淭he writer鈥檚 workshop is a lot more similar to a lab than people may realize; a lot of scientific discoveries were made through creative accidents; and art is pushed forward by technological advances.鈥
With collaborations like these, new ways of thinking can emerge. Art can be a limitless tool toward furthering scientific discovery.
鈥淓verything is trapped by its genre. But when we try to imagine something radically different, we create something bigger,鈥 said Pinter.
Where processing has a place
For creative solutions to be acted upon, policymakers, scientists, and the public need to reach common ground. 嘿嘿视频 creative writing master鈥檚 students contend that art and writing not only generate innovative solutions, but also open gateways to these solutions.
鈥淲ith climate change, there鈥檚 a lot of grieving that we need to do as a community,鈥 said Bashaw. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we have even emotionally accepted it鈥檚 occurring.鈥
Bashaw thinks that only when humanity can process the climate crises can the world come together to carry out solutions. To them, art is where processing has a place.
鈥淚n art and poetry, there can be more room for love and feeling and all of these things that make us human,鈥 said Bashaw.
In their own writing, Bashaw draws parallels between processing the queer experience and processing the climate crisis. They describe their writing as 鈥渜ueer eco-poetics,鈥 which focuses on how individuals relate to nature and constructed environments.
鈥淧oetry can transform what feels scary into all kinds of different things and bring a sense of peace,鈥 said Bashaw. 鈥淚 want people to feel seen without shame. I think of my writing as home-making and finding peace within place.鈥
![Trevor Bashaw headshot wearing sunglasses and a denim jacket](/sites/default/files/media/images/IMG_0850.jpg)
![Trevor Bashaw's writing space and typewriter](/sites/default/files/media/images/IMG_0912.jpg)
Connie Pearson, a creative nonfiction master鈥檚 student at 嘿嘿视频, also believes that art can bring to life the human emotional experience within major world crises.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a real sweet spot: seeing what鈥檚 going on, combined with how somebody is processing,鈥 said Pearson.
Pearson鈥檚 work comprises personal essays centered around her experiences being an animal activist. By diving into her vulnerable and personal experience, she hopes to humanize the activism she鈥檚 been part of since 1980.
鈥淰ulnerability is so crucial in writing,鈥 said Pearson. 鈥淚 connect so much more to pieces written from the personal lens.鈥
Processing and healing
Climate change is a global phenomenon, and will require everyone working together to reach a solution. This is a daunting task, but with solutions posed by both scientists and artists together, and with a shift in mindset, the future could heal.
鈥淎rt allows you to sit with the unknown and ambiguity in a way that鈥檚 not paralyzing, but exciting,鈥 said Bashaw. 鈥淲e need to help people process and confront this looming phenomenon.鈥
Malia Reiss is a science news intern with 嘿嘿视频 Strategic Communications. She studies environmental science and management at 嘿嘿视频.
Media Resources
Kat Kerlin, 嘿嘿视频 News and Media Relations, 530-750-9195, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu