Visualizing the Climate Crisis:
Climate Migration

This is the fifth talk of the series, Visualizing the Climate Crisis, which explores the potential and the role that contemporary photography, together with different disciplines, can have in addressing the multi-layered theme of climate change. The series features visual journalists doing evidence-based, research-informed, image-led reporting on climate issues. They are in conversation with other professionals representing a diverse range of disciplines, trying to explore the possibility of thinking beyond photography in a genuinely trans-disciplinary approach to expand reach, involve the wider public, and move people from being inspired to taking action. 

This talk features Alessio Paduano (Documentary Photographer) and Federica Fragapane (Information Designer), in conversation with Maria Teresa Salvati (Founder and Director of Everything is Connected), moderated by Paul Lowe (Reader in Documentary Photography at UAL, London).

Ph. Credit Alessio Paduano

Climate change is driving extreme weather events and their consequences, leading to a rise in the number of climate refugees. In the worst-case scenario, 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050 due to natural disasters and other ecological threats, according to The Institute for Economics and Peace. Over 370 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by floods, windstorms, earthquakes, or droughts since 2008, with a record 32 million in 2022 alone.

National and international responses to this challenge remain limited, and protection for those affected is inadequate, despite some steps in the right direction. Most importantly, there is no clear definition of a climate refugee, nor are climate refugees covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention. This means that climate cannot currently be cited as a reason for seeking asylum or refugee status.

How can climate migration be visualized? How can we shift perception about this phenomenon? Can visual stories and data visualization work together to tell the whole story to the public?
 
This series is organized by Everything is Connected; UAL, University of the Arts London; and VII Insider.

Through the eyes of children

Education – Public Space – Social Innovation – Visual Art

Do we live on or are we part of a planet? - Frederic Hanusch

Education – Science

Planetary Health and Visual Culture - David Cross

Education – Science – Visual Art

The need for a Xenourbanism - Rossella Ferorelli

Education – Public Space – Science

Secret Sarayaku - Misha Vallejo

Education – Social Innovation – Visual Art

Photography and the climate emergency - Symposium III

Education – Science – Visual Art

Empathy and Connection in Environmental Storytelling

Education – Science – Visual Art

Beyond photographic limits - L. Fritz Magazine

Mass Media – Visual Art

Alternative Aesthetics in Environmental Storytelling

Education – Science – Visual Art

How to make the invisible, visible? AIR by Marina Vitaglione

Science – Visual Art

Towards Trans-disciplinarity

Education – Public Space – Science – Visual Art

How photography can address climate crisis as a social justice issue

Education – Mass Media – Visual Art

Contemporary Photography
and Public Engagement

Education – Public Space – Science – Social Innovation – Visual Art

Visualizing the Climate Crisis:
Ocean acidification

Science – Visual Art

Visualizing the Climate Crisis:
the Fashion System

Education – Mass Media – Visual Art