The Truth About Climate Change

Joanne Artman Gallery
Sep 20, 2018 9:46PM

Much like the way in which a prism bends pure light into the spectrum of color, the truth becomes fractious once it passes through the prism of the news cycle. Every time a catastrophic climate event such as a hurricane, tropical storm, spreading wildfire, earthquake or tsunami unleashes a wave of destruction, rapid media coverage is an ever present source of information, panic, and eventually, some kind of resolution. Yet, the nature of our climate is that it is an ever present concern, and due to the perceived slow progression of its effects, much of media coverage is reserved for cataclysmic incidents that present an immediate danger. Additionally, much like other news labeled as part of a liberal agenda, climate change coverage is often overshadowed by any single inane tweet by Donald Trump.

Melting ice caps and glaciers in Greenland (Image Courtesy of WikiCommons)

Yet, the media does produce a clear picture of the disparity between reality and our perception, when grouped together. In no particular order:


Financial Times: Exxon and Chevron join industry climate change group

The Guardian: 'It's hyped up': climate change skeptics in the path of Hurricane Florence

The Atlantic: Studying Greenland’s Ice to Understand Climate Change

TIME: The Frightening Lesson Hurricane Maria Taught the World About the Politics of Climate Change


Both heartening as well as discouraging, the preceding headlines suggest that though slow, there are positive outcomes to be achieved through continued action.

The headline of this post is misleading in its intent on purpose. The truth about climate change is that it is a cumulative constant. Our perception of it however, is something that is ever waning and waxing depending on current events. Through critical analysis and a personal investigation it is however possible to construct a modicum of the truth.

Although perhaps the direct connection is tenuous, parallels to this type of synthesis and approach can often be seen in the driving force of artists who produce work within the realm of contemporary pop art. Artists like Greg Miller, Jane Maxwell and Charles Patrick appropriate the paper ephemera of the digital age, re-purposing it as a means of achieving a new construct. While the original intent of the material is lost, news headlines misplaced, words re-constructed out of order, or in no order at all, the end result is often an accurate representation of our absorption and disorientation caused by the constant deluge of the media. In art, as in life, our perception is often subjective to our own experience.

Joanne Artman Gallery