Climate Impacts are Emotionally Powerful

Images and film can create strong emotions, both positive and negative. The goal of documenting climate change is to get other people to feel hopeful, energized, motivated, and wanting to improve and help their community. Picture and film can do that, but they can also make us feel hopeless and depressed. Think about images that would make you want to volunteer, to help, to do something that helps your community. Think of images that show something that seems unsustainable or less sustainable, and contrast it with a local, traditional and sustainable practice.

(Un)sustainable Food Practices

Here is an example of an image sequence on (un)sustainable food practices from Arviat. These images were taken in response to hearing an emotional story, as told at the Arviat, Nunavut airport. The first images shows a medical evacuation plane that is about to take an elder from the community to a hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Source: Olaf Kuhlke 

He had consumed an energy drink, as shown in the second image, and due to excessive caffeine content, was experiencing significant heart trouble.

Imported Foods

Here we have an example of an unhealthy, imported food practice. Shipping cans of energy drinks to the Arctic from California and other locations in the United States is expensive and uses lots of fossil fuels.

Source: Olaf Kuhlke

The consumption of energy drink, while popular with younger people, is also dangerous for the elderly, and an example of global consumer culture that has influenced even the remotest communities.

The third image, in contrast, shows two young women from Arviat, out on the ice of Hudson Bay, next to a recently killed and field-dressed caribou. They are using an ulu to cut meat and fat, and consume it raw. Here we have a traditional country food, consumed by local residents as they have for many years, following tradition, and harvesting local resources, sustainably. This image sequence is one that is meant to tell a story of contrasts between new and old, unsustainable and sustainable, unhealthy and healthy, and show the potential consequences of unhealthy food practices. It's meant to motivate you to choose healthy, local food, and to take pride in it. 

Think of examples from your community.

• What can you show that emotionally engages people without scaring them?
• What emotional story from your community can you tell with images?