Looking Back at Tempers and Temperatures: A Climate Truth Symposium

Climate Truth Crisis

The symposium, organized by the Master Non Linear Narrative, was part of the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership ‘Climate Truth Crisis,’ a project that investigates how climate change skepticism impacts democracy and public trust. Together with staff and students from seven partner academies in The Hague, Reykjavík, Barcelona, London, Vilnius, Tallinn, and Sarajevo, the research project explores the relationship between climate change denial and the unequivocal rise of autocracy across the globe. The symposium featured an outstanding line-up of speakers, including Gabriele Colombo, Mijke van der Drift, Sophie Dyer, Joey Grostern, Jennie King, Sabine Niederer, and Sorab Roustayar.

Rage bait and the return to Arcadia

The first thematic session explored how climate narratives are shaped by power, ethics, and disinformation. Jennie King, co-founder of Climate Action Against Disinformation (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, London), was the first guest speaker, tracing the rise of climate conspiracy via the fossil-fuel-lobbyist to social-media-rage-bait pipeline.

Next was Mijke van der Drift, a philosopher and educator from the Royal College of Art, London, who seeks the ways through which we can return to ‘Arcadia’, the mythical land of pastoral harmony in Greek mythology — namely by leaving, dismantling, or destroying the institutions that reinforce and reproduce hierarchy.

Examining how AI feeds climate misinformation

The second session focused on how climate data enters the public domain through journalism, media, and artificial intelligence. Speakers Sabine Niederer, Professor of Visual Methodologies (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), and Joey Grostern, (DeSmog) both interrogate how generative AI simultaneously feeds and feeds-on climate misinformation.

Through reverse engineering prompts, Niederer delved into how biodiversity functions in the AI sphere while Grostern spotlighted the growth of AI slop content, in which companies, research bodies, and experts are generated whole-cloth in the support of the fossil fuel industry. Though many of the examples presented were amusing, beneath it was a serious message — today ‘truth’ is up for debate, decided upon by those with the most power.

The final session examined strategies to foster resilience and cultivate shared imaginaries for climate action with designer/researcher Sophie Dyer and Sorab Roustayar, union member and community leader (Fite Qlub, Amsterdam).

How do we make real change?

While some speakers were hopeful that institutions could be changed from inside out, others were adamant that the whole system needed to be torn down, to start afresh. However, the overarching message remained consistent: that building and strengthening community is how we can begin to make real change. Moderator Victoria McKenzie invoked Fred Moten’s Undercommons, stating “how we are when we get together to try and figure it out, is how we’ll be in the place, when we’ve figured it out,” — in other words, the steps we take together now are already part of our future.

When asked what she would take with her from symposium, Anna Lebedieva, a student moderator from Non Linear Narrative said, “Understanding how tools work changes everything. By DIY-ing, taking them apart, rebuilding them, you can make them yours. Somewhere in that was a reminder that you don't have to wait for institutions to act. Build trust locally, organise, and start somewhere small!”

Students expand their perspectives at KABK

In an art academy such as KABK, the ability to listen, be together, and create bonds is a key part of the learning experience — something that students take with them long after graduation. A master’s degree especially gives students space to deepen and diversify their perspectives, exemplified by the international reach of the Tempers and Temperatures symposium. Rather than isolating themselves within the institution, the students who study at The Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, look outwards together.

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