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Signpost Creation to Envision a More Just, Safe Climate Future
A rapidly changing climate has prompted an urgent call for engagement from citizens across all facets of society:
- In 2019, over 11,000 scientists warned of ‘untold suffering’ due to the climate crisis unless major transformations are made across society.
- Over 1,700 governments, representing 820 million citizens have signed climate emergency declarations.
- In 2019, three entire islands disappeared.
- Youth and/or those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) who are on the front lines of impacts from climate change have been taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers to demand climate justice.
- The global Fridays for Future movement is continuing, despite a worldwide pandemic.
These illustrations of the mounting severity of climate change have created the need for new language, symbols and cultural ‘signposts’ to indicate the significance of the crisis and possible directions forward. ‘Climate emergency,’ declared by Oxford Dictionaries as the 2019 word of the year, is one such signpost that has seen a recent surge in use. This phrase calls attention to the grim reality we are now all collectively living in.
Signposts are important because they help unite society against a shared challenge, and emphasize the need for urgent, specific collective actions implemented at the speed and scale of the crisis. Signposts can be understood as directional symbols that encourage individual and collective action, pointing to possible futures. These include visions of alternative futures of what ‘should happen’ in response to crises, envisioning inspiring futures worth fighting for.