The Arts and Humanities on Environmental and Climate Change: Broadening Approaches to Research and Public Engagement

121 Pages·2022·11.496 MB·English

by  Sarah Sutton

THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES ON
ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
The Arts and Humanities on Environmental and Climate Change examines how cultural institu-
tions and their collections can support a goal shared with the scientific community: creating
a climate-literate public that engages with environmental issues and climate change in an
informed way.
When researchers, curators, and educators use the arts and humanities to frame dis-
cussions about environmental and climate change, they can engage a far wider public in
learning, conversation, and action than science can alone. Demonstrating that archival and
object-based resources can act as vital evidence for change, Sutton shows how the historical
record, paired with contemporary reality, can create more personal connections to what
many consider a remote experience: the changing climate. Providing valuable examples
of museum collections used in discussions of environmental and climate change, the book
shares how historic images and landscape paintings demonstrate change over time; and
how documentary evidence in the form of archaeological reports, ships logs, Henry David
Thoreau’s journals, and local reports of pond hockey conditions are being used to render
climate data more accessible. Images, personal records, and professional documents have
critical roles as boundary objects and proxy data. These climate resources, Sutton argues,
are valuable because they make climate change personal and attract a public less interested
in a scientific approach. This approach is underused by museums and their research allies for
public engagement and for building institutional relevancy.
The Arts and Humanities on Environmental and Climate Change will be most interesting to
readers looking for ways to broaden engagement with environmental and climate issues.
The ideas shared here should also act as inspiration for a broad spectrum of practitioners,
particularly those writing, designing, and curating public engagement materials in museums,
for wider research, and for the media.
Sarah Sutton is a long-time museum professional with significant expertise in environmen-
tal and climate issues. She is the CEO of Environment & Culture Partners, a nonprofit
organization that accelerates change in the global cultural sector by designing and leading
cooperative projects in climate action for global benefit. Sutton is also the author of
Environment Sustainability at Historic Houses and Museums, and co-author of two editions (as
Sarah Brophy) of The Green Museum, a Primer on Environmental Practice.

THE ARTS AND
HUMANITIES ON
ENVIRONMENTAL AND
CLIMATE CHANGE
Broadening Approaches to Research
and Public Engagement
Sarah Sutton
Cover image: Fishing journals, including two from Dr. William L. Sutton. Photo
by Taylor Brophy
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Sarah Sutton
The right of Sarah Sutton to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-367-49144-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-49145-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04476-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003044765
Typeset in Bembo
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
CONTENTS
List of figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Museums’ Humanities Resources as
Allies for Science 1
The Use of Proxy Data for Making the Invisible Visible 2
Why Don’t We Do This More? 3
How This Book is Distinctive 6
Why This Book May Be Valuable to You 7
1 How Collections Materials Can Document Change over Time 9
Museum Collections as Environmental Change Resources 9
Natural History Museum Collections as “Durable Snapshots” 10
Documenting Climate Change in Collections Materials 13
Proxy Data 14
Dendrological Materials 15
How to Use Non-instrumental Proxy Data 16
Using Scientific Collections Materials as Proxies for Climate Change 18
Multi-factor Authentication 20
Museums’ Cultural Heritage Collections as Climate Change Resources 21
2 How Humanities Materials Are Proxies for Documenting
Climate Change 24
Documentary Climate Proxy Sources: Instrumental and
Non-instrumental 26
Instrumental Proxy Data 26
vi Contents
Instrumental Proxy Data with Narrative Proxy Data 29
Building a Fuller Picture 29
Mixed Proxy Data 30
Ships’ Logbooks 30
Non-instrumental Proxy Data 31
Archaeological Collections 32
Wooden Materials 32
Images and Depictions: Photographs, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints 33
Conclusion 36
3 Basic Documentary Proxy Materials in Museums 38
Reasonable Use and Expectations of the Data 38
Quantity 38
Fluctuations 39
Influences and Accuracy 39
Weather Noise 43
Sampling 44
Historical Context 46
Interpreting Environmental versus Climate Context 46
Identifying Human Environmental Interference versus Human-driven
Climate Change 48
Noise in the Data 49
Local Disparities—Noise or Better Data? 51
Humanists’ Role in Recognizing Environment versus Climate 52
Accuracy, Trust, and Completeness in the Data 52
Accuracy in Maps 53
Accuracy in Art and Images 55
Emerging Approach to This Work 55
4 Untapped Potential for Public Engagement 59
Ours, Theirs, or Both 60
Local Context 61
Experience 62
Stories 64
Objects 66
Exhibits 67
Early Spring, the Concord Museum 68
Landscape of Change, Mount Desert Island Historical Society 72
Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science 76
Ice 77
Weather Rescue at Sea 77
TEMPEST Database 77
Contents vii
United Kingdom Tidal Data 78
Angling for Data on Michigan Fishes 78
Botanical Data 78
The Palaeontologist and the Gingko 79
The Future of Climate Change Representation 79
5 The Value of Cultural Heritage to Cultural Climate Diplomacy 83
Cultural Diplomacy as a Resource for Climate Diplomacy 84
Cultural Heritage as a Boundary Object for Climate Diplomacy:
Cultural and Climate Diplomacy among Neighbors and Nations 86
Neighbors 86
Indigenous Peoples and the Federal Government as
Neighbors/Nations 87
Global Diplomacy: Toward Meaningful Engagement 88
Negotiations 90
The Trouble with Numbers 91
The IPCC Reports 92
6 Next Steps for Documentary Climate Proxy Data 95
Intellectual Access 95
Researcher Awareness 96
Materials Identification 96
Source Identification 97
Datasets, Digitization, and Databases 98
Methodologies 100
Practical Access 100
Researchers 100
Funding 101
Final Thoughts 102
Index 104
FIGURES
1.1 Peregrine eggs at the Field Museum. Photo by J.M. Bates. 11
1.2 Horned Larks, 1904–1926, Field Museum, 2015. Carl Fuldner and
Shane DuBay. 12
2.1 Ward Wells Collection, Anchorage Museum, B1983.91.S118.R1.
Knik Glacier before break up, undated. “Perhaps best known as the
filming location for the 1991 film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country, Knik Glacier has receded in recent years, causing a lake to
form in front of it” (Berman 2018). 35
4.1 Early Spring exhibition at the Concord Museum. Courtesy
of the Concord Museum, Photograph by Cherrie Corey. 70
4.2 Early Spring exhibition at the Concord Museum. Courtesy
of the Concord Museum, Photograph by Cherrie Corey. 70
4.3 Early Spring exhibition at the Concord Museum. Courtesy
of the Concord Museum, Photograph by Cherrie Corey. 71
4.4 Early Spring exhibition at the Concord Museum. Courtesy
of the Concord Museum, Photograph by Cherrie Corey. 72
4.5 Early Spring exhibition at the Concord Museum. Courtesy
of the Concord Museum. 73
4.6 Camp Pemetic, 1881, photograph by M.P. Slade. From the collection
of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. 74
4.7 Weather records taken by members of the Champlain Society
July 13 and 14, 1880. In the collection of the Mount Desert
Island Historical Society. Photograph by Jennifer Steen Booher. 75
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many kinds of supporters in climate work and in writing: the cheer-
leaders, the team members, the information sources, and the co-thinkers. I would
like to thank them all. This includes every single museum and cultural heritage
colleague in this climate fight—keep on it!
My special thanks and debts go to Elizabeth Wylie who started me on this
life-changing journey, Sarah Nunberg who boosted it in the middle, and Stephanie
Shapiro who has been there nearly from the beginning and is now making all the
difference in scaling the work beyond my hopes and dreams.
For getting this book to print, my deepest thanks go to Denise Mix who is, for-
tunately for me, willing to partner again and again to create something that makes
us both proud.
For his journals and his example, I send my love to Dr. William L. Sutton.
For contributions of inspiration and information I’d like to thank Bonnie Styles,
Kirstin Drzwiza, Ben Haavik, William Flynt, Raney Bench, Catherine Schmitt, David
Wood, Carol Haines, Jessica Desany Ganong, Monica Shah, Torrey Rick, Carter
O’Brien, John Bates, Naomi Slipp, Nick Merriman, Todd J. Braje, and Timothy Walker.
And for thinking with me, I’d like to thank Erica Lawton and my students, only
some of whom I am able to include here, in my Harvard Extension School classes
for The Anthropocene isn’t just for scientists: Elizabeth Abrahams Riordan, Christine
McKinnon, Anne Scott-Putney, Jayme McLellan, Kate Tallman, Emma Rodgers,
Anna Barber, Sophie Viandier, Brendan McLean, Rachel Hawkins, Tara Pawley,
Brittany Brama, Kimberly Spencer-Baltzley, Tara Landers, Winona Van Alstyne,
Porter Lesiv, Alexandra Carlson, Adam Davi, Christine Mondor, Sasha Myerson,
Cassandra Baron, Jarek Adamczuk, Joe Perry, Anna Mudd, and Lisa Parrish.
I extend my sincere apologies for any errors or omission in acknowledging the
support by anyone listed here, or not. Please let me know, I will gladly resolve this
for the next edition.