GloSAT scientists at University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) have collaborated with artist Gennadiy Ivanov in the creation of a 10-metre-long mural commissioned by Norwich City Council. The Climate Mural For Our Times was unveiled at Norwich City Hall at a launch event on Friday 25th November.

Climate Mural For Our Times depicts the impacts of a changing climate on Norfolk and Norwich from 66 million years ago forwards to the end of the next century, over a series of six panels. The artwork features renderings of the impacts of climate change on the local landscape and its human inhabitants. It also includes a record of global temperature over time represented in the hues of the sky, and informed by CRU’s climate science, supported by NERC through the GloSAT project.

GloSAT scientist Michael Taylor undertook novel work to extend the global temperature record both backwards and forwards in time by bringing together the paleo and instrumental records with future climate projections up to 2200 to cover the period spanned by the mural. Each stripe shows the temperature relative to the pre-industrial climatological baseline average during 1850-1900. Timescales and colour ranges of the climate stripes vary across the six panels of the mural from millions, to thousands, to yearly intervals, to accommodate the increasingly detailed information available as we move forward in time.

Dr Michael Taylor said: “The climate stripes of the mural span the Age of Mammals and two simulated futures: one where we carry on with business as usual and risk destroying our civilisation, and another where we act now to collectively mitigate against the worse impacts of climate change. We hope this mural will change hearts and minds and move those who view it to help deliver a just transition to a sustainable world for future generations.”

 

Panel 6 of the Climate Mural For Our Times

The final panel of the mural shows two possible climate futures, one where tough action has been taken to reduce CO2 emissions and the second in which temperatures rise towards levels similar to those before the extinction of the dinosaurs. Credit: Gennadiy Ivanov

 

The artist Gennadiy Ivanov said “I am privileged to have worked so closely with scientists, using the finest climate research, and being continually informed by the history of Norwich and Norfolk… I hope the mural helps people understand what has happened, is happening and may happen, and that it contributes to us all choosing a better future.”

The project is the outcome of a collaboration between Norwich City Council, CRU, the Transitions Art-Science Project, and Global Water Futures and as such, is a novel coming together of art, science and local democracy, and is intended to be the first step of an ongoing art-science project involving local community groups and organisations. It is hoped that the work will serve as a visual "rallying call" to us all to keep the climate in mind when considering our actions and decisions.

To find out more about the project and the science behind it visit crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/climate-mural/