Art Humanities to Promote Climate Adaptation for Coastal Populations: Old Tools for New Tradition

The third chapter of the IPCC report (2022) lists many ecosystem aspects that climate change affects and compromises. The impacts that coastal populations suffer are therefore direct, in terms of sea level rise, flooding, heat waves, extreme events but also indirect in terms of jeopardizing of economic activities because of loss of biodiversity and risks for several sectors, including the ones contemplating recreational activities. When one thinks of climate change one of the first images that crosses the mind of any world citizen is a photograph of flooded Venice. It is not graphs, diagrams, or complex technicalities, but it is a photograph. Arts (including, of course, photography) play a crucial role in raising awareness and promoting action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. As indicated by the IOC State of the Ocean Report (2022) accurate forecasting and early warning system mitigates impact due to coastal hazards but public awareness and preparedness play an equally important role. There is, therefore, an urgent need to build resilience of coastal communities via cultural approaches that complement existing engineered and nature-based solutions. And this in terms of knowing how to deal with extreme events, but also in developing long-term solutions. The sense of belonging to a community is the driver for resilience and since culture structures the identity of a society, the efforts and solutions for adaptation are to be found primarily in it. But how can past rituals and artistic practices help/teach to improve resilience today and adapt to changing climate conditions? The objective of the document is to explore if social practices1 used to reinforce the sense of community could be reinterpreted and applied by communication and/or public art, especially installation, exhibitions and performance to promote education and resilience. Using the above-mentioned elements as methods to investigate and topics that are shaping the world today: climate crisis, social and environmental justice, spatial equity through various media. Building on a set of studies dealing with art and communication in climate change, and role of collective rituals in building community cohesion (Benzt, J. (2020), Gorsegner, A. (2016), (Watson-Jones, R.E., Legare, C. H.), considerations are made to be linked to art experiences and the ongoing EU efforts in building a carbon neutral Union, by means of the European Green Deal, and gaps in terms of cultural approach to achieve these ambitious goals.