Events

Past Event

Creative Communications for a Changing Climate

March 22, 2022
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
America/New_York
Faculty House, 64 Morningside Dr., New York, NY 10027 Garden Room 2

Please join us for the second event in our Columbia Climate School Speaker Series:

CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE: Linking Science and Action through Games, Humor, and Thermochromic Art

How can we harness the power of humanity to understand and address changing risks?  In this intensely interactive session, we will explore the powerful opportunities offered by integrating creativity into risk communication. Focusing on disasters, climate and development initiatives carried out in collaboration with Columbia’s climate experts and other partners, we will share recent innovations in how to engage in serious-yet-fun, fruitful conversations about what we know and what we can do. We will enjoy Games that help people and organizations experience the complexity of future risks and tough decisions, as well as tailor-made Humor (including a live cartoonist co-creating original work with participants!), and our most recent exploration: Thermochromic Art (paintings using a special pigment that changes attributes when temperature exceeds a certain threshold). Building on examples from rural Kenya to the White House and from the Vatican to Nasa, we will jointly brainstorm: how can researchers, artists and designers work with you, government,  humanitarian and development organizations?  Given evolving hazards and vulnerabilities, let’s chart the way forward to mobilize both the intellect and the emotions of decision makers at all scales.

Dr. Pablo Suarez is innovation lead at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, as well as visiting fellow at Boston University, and artist in residence at the National University of Singapore. He has consulted for the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, World Bank, Oxfam, and about twenty other international humanitarian and development organizations, working in more than 60 countries. A consistently original and engaging communicator, his current work involves creative approaches to risk management – ranging from financial instruments for faster disaster preparedness, to self-learning algorithms for flood prediction, to collaboration with professional humorists to inspire thinking and action. Pablo holds a water engineering degree, a master’s degree in planning, and a Ph.D. in geography. 

The program will run from 4pm-5pm, with a reception to follow from 5pm-6pm.

This event is open to CUID holders. Please register with your UNI. 

Contact Information

Adrienne Kenyon