These magazines are helping us imagine a better future for climate and society
There is no shortage of disaster narratives surrounding the climate crisis.The western United States is in Talk about the drought This strained the water supply system and caused uncontrolled wildfires. The back-to-back hurricanes that hit Central America in 2020-after years of drought-have Lead to food insecurity.
Without rapid and thorough reforms to the energy system and the global economy, these and other effects may only worsen in the coming decades. There is a huge gap between knowing that everything must change and implementing those changes. Imagination can help bridge this gap.
Before graduating earlier this year, students in the 2020-2021 class of Columbia University’s Master of Climate and Society have worked hard to build a bridge.As part of Application in climate and societyAs one of the core courses of the program, they created some magazines in the spring semester, imagining that the world will truly be on track in 2030, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Zines is part of the self-publishing subculture and has a rich history (most of which consist of Barnard Magazine Library), although compared to term papers, they are not as common as the final projects of the course. But this is the point.
“We don’t want to do term papers or traditional final projects-there is no shadow on term papers,” said Brian Kahn (Brian Kahn), the co-instructor of the course. “Zines provides an opportunity to break traditional academic thinking and open up new ways of imagining the future. Most importantly, we need these new futures to be tangible to the public.”
This year’s magazine showcases a wide range of interests, futures and methods of storytelling. From dreams to tool kits, from children’s books to festivals, the choice of this year’s class proves all the different paths leading to the new future in front of us.
Festival of the future, By Max Elling, Maddie Healy, Emily O’Hara and Jordan Welnetz
Green New Magazine, Authors: Sal Brzozowski, Abby Meola, Nick Pelaccio and Katy Wilson
New York: Toolkit for 2030, Courtesy of Courtney Jiggetts, Sanketa Kadam and Sheri Kusatzky
Inspired by dreams, Authors: Michael Ascari, Tony Gallardi, James Kahn and Jordan Pares-Kane
Traveling carbon dioxide molecules, Chunyu Liu, Muhajir Lesure, Hiroaki Morikawa, Rhiannon Stephens and Jess Wang
This story is Originally published Obtained a master’s program in climate and society in September.
