Some people might find it naïve to talk about poetry as a climate solution, but the arts represent one of the more powerful ways that people transform deeply held worldviews and beliefs about the natural world, according to Julia Bentz, who runs the project Art for Adaptation, which looks at the relationship between the arts and climate change.
“The natural sciences alone are not capable of fully addressing the challenges that we're facing in this time,” she said.
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Access to art and poetry, said Bentz, can change the way someone thinks about nature, which can be quite compelling and promote thinking about transformational change in our society.
“I think we really need new narratives and new metaphors that are inspiring. And I think poetry can be a very powerful tool in that on that journey.”
“I think we really need new narratives and new metaphors that are inspiring,” she said. “And I think poetry can be a very powerful tool in that on that journey.”
In the last 10 years, there’s been a surge of literature about climate change, including poetry, according to Adeline Johns-Putra, a literary scholar at the University of Surrey in England. She said because climate change is such an overwhelming problem, poetry can be a perfect way to confront complex feelings about it.
“Really good poetry draws you in and then it stops and makes you think,” said Johns-Putra. “And that ethical power is important in a time of climate change, you know, thinking and feeling together as we're taking in all of this information about what's going on.”
Johns-Putra said the act of writing a poem can help people cope with the emotional weight of climate change, particularly young people.
“There is a therapeutic aspect to it, to writing poetry and sharing it. here is a working through the trauma. And that's important, too.”
“There is a therapeutic aspect to it, to writing poetry and sharing it,” she said. “There is a working through the trauma. And that's important, too.”
Related: A global push for racial justice in the climate movement
Young poets tackle climate crisis
The World is partnering with an educational organization called Write the World that hosts a global community of young people who write about the world around them. The World’s climate solutions segment The Big Fix is featuring some of these young poets and their words.
Vani Dadoo's poetry shows one way that art can be part of solving climate change.
Courtesy of Vani Dadoo
The first poet in our series is 18-year-old Vani Dadoo from Mumbai, India. Her piece is below:
In my city
If you lie on the roof
of a sixty-something skyscraper to
stargaze
you'd have the proof
from the stars, stray and ablaze
that you are still as insignificant.
In my city
If you drive on the bridge over the sea
that separates cities and mountains
you'd see
and wonder at the waves, whelming
and wanton,
and not at the beams that hold up the
bridge.
In my city
If you walk along and look at the coast
from your house of wood and metal
and brick
you'd want to boast
that the water tries to worship and lick
your feet and your hands and your soul.
In my city
If you notice the electric tower rising in
the skies
across the highway, the lonely street
you'd recognize
an emerald creeper climbing, not
discreet,
unaware of electricity, but thriving on
it.
In my city
If you stand on the beach and see the
sun drowning in the sea
and behind you there is a row of
commercial buildings
you'd agree
that the dying, red sunlight seems to be
gilding
the glass windows and the metal
girders.
