Creating empathy for the more-than-human under 2 degrees heating

• Published in: Journal of environmental studies and sciences Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 735 - 743
• Main Authors: Rock, Jenny, Gilchrist, Eleanora
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Climate change; Climate change communication; Earth and Environmental Science; Emotions; Empathy; Environment; Environmental Education; Heating; Marine organisms; Students; Sustainable Development; Viewing; Climate change; Science communication; Empathy; Student learning; Creative; Arts
• ISSN: 2190-6483; 2190-6491
• DOI: 10.1007/s13412-021-00718-w

Engaging with climate change involves broadening our empathetic understanding outside our own immediate experience to include more-than-human organisms. In addition to direct experience, storytelling through emotive, visual narratives can generate empathy, and is a skill in climate change communication worth developing in our students. We explore a case study of postgraduate students involved in an assignment to creatively articulate the effect of ocean heating on local marine organisms, in order to build empathetic understanding in a viewing audience. The resulting student works are described in terms of their conceptual diversity, their media form, and their effectiveness in building empathy. We share student perspectives on personal impacts of making the work, as well as the effect of the collective works on a viewing audience. Finally, the teaching approaches and learnings from an instructor’s perspective are explored. Collectively, these observations document a pedagogical model for integrating the arts and sciences to build empathic understanding about climate disruption affecting life beyond that of our species.