A new photographic exhibition on climate change confronts us with the human impact rather than dealing in the usual abstract what-ifs, writes Roberta Gray
A group of men marches through a dusty city street, their leader flanked by gunmen, weapons pointing left and right, ready for action. The image by Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie could at first glance be from a war zone, but the enemy here is not of the human kind and what comes from the guns is not bullets but mosquito spray. Increasing temperatures, the photograph's caption informs us, are speeding up the rate of parasite development in the mosquito, increasing rates of malaria transmission. Given that many commentators now believe that climate change is as dangerous a threat to our planet - if not more so - as global terrorism, mistaking health workers for soldiers may have a certain strange logic to it.
Wylie's photographs are part of a touring exhibition, NorthSouthEastWest, for which photographers from the acclaimed Magnum agency travelled to 10 different regions of the world to look at the effects of climate change, as well as the various responses being made internationally.
Commissioned by the British Council in association with the Climate Group, a British non-governmental organisation, NorthSouthEastWest is part of a broader campaign, ZeroCarbonCity, which aims to promote awareness, discussion and creative thinking on the issue of climate change. It's in the middle of a two-year world tour: following a run at the University of Limerick last week, accompanied by a series of public discussions, it can currently be seen at the Cultivate Centre in Dublin's Temple Bar.
The time is ripe for discussion and debate on the subject of climate change, and the exhibition's Irish leg comes just a week before UN leaders meet in Montreal in Canada to focus on the issue. And while recent natural disasters such as the southeast Asian tsunami and hurricanes cannot individually be directly linked to global warming, they have focused the attention of the general public - and the media - on the threat. "We've all seen the pictures of the ice caps melting," points out Lloyd Anderson, director of science with the British Council and one of the driving forces behind ZeroCarbonCity.
But while melting ice caps are the most visually dramatic face of global warming, the human impact is much more complex, something NorthSouthEastWest aims to explore. A handful of images in the exhibition are starkly self-explanatory - the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro with the patchy remains of the snow cover that once gave it its Swahili name, "Shining Mountain"; an obsolete marker that once measured levels of a now dried-up river in Tanzania - but most require more intellectual engagement.
Questions are prompted: what will happen to a growing population in China if a change in rainfall impacts on rice production? How can you tell fishermen in Greenland that global warming is a bad thing when the melting of ice is giving them access to greater fish stocks? Where will the Marshall Islanders go when rising sea levels engulf their paradisiacal archipelago? And what lessons can be taken from a solar-powered funfair ride in California?
One of the tragedies of climate change, says meteorologist Ray McGrath, who will be speaking on the subject at an open discussion on Thursday, is that the worst impacts of global warming are most likely to be felt in the countries that can least afford to protect themselves.
Mary Robinson, writing in the exhibition's catalogue, describes climate change as "a subtle form of human rights violation". But while the exhibition throws up challenges to a public raised on a belief in consumption without consequence, touring the exhibition around the world has raised some pleasant surprises, says Anderson.
"One thing I found amazing is how much young people really care about their environment. Kids are very aware of the issues and want to know what can be done. And when we took ZeroCarbonCity to the States, we found that the government might be taking one position, but an awful lot of people are very accepting of the fact that climate change is a reality and something needs to be done about it. California is one of the most progressive places in the world in terms of trying to mitigate climate change." California has introduced a law stating renewable energy must be the source of 20 per cent of the electricity sold there by 2017.
Discussion of the issues raised - and of the Republic's role in reducing carbon emissions - will be on the agenda at events scheduled around the exhibition. Schoolchildren at Dublin's The Ark will redesign a more sustainable city while events at the Cultivate Centre include seminars for politicians and business people and an inter-faith climate change discussion. "It's an informal environment and intentionally as conflict-free as possible," says Davie Philip of Cultivate. "We're all in this together, and these pictures will remind us about what we can do to move forward."
NorthSouthEastWest is at the Cultivate Centre, 15-19 Essex St West, Temple Bar, Dublin, until Nov 26th. For info tel: 01-6746415 or visit www.cultivate.ie