Climate Culture Wave calls for a coordinated investment in arts and culture to transform public values, emotions, and stories for the climate.

The climate movement has been winning on reason, data, and science, but lacks a concerted, comprehensive arts and culture wave to compel the public at the deep level of human emotions—an anthem, a story, a symbol, a message—to act beyond perceived immediate interests. Climate art is taking place everywhere, but without adequate coordination of message or funding, thus failing to reach the public at the scale and level needed to, e.g., transform policy. The movement is perceived to scold us about all the things we can’t do, offering a carrot of status quo and a stick of apocalyptic fear. How can we transform the story to one of greater agency, planetary flourishing, and more fun than our current mode of living? Like the South African apartheid songs, 18th Century England’s antislavery anthem Amazing Grace, Trinidad’s anticolonialist steelband movement, or Gaucho & Tango in Argentina, if we want change we have to get ‘em in the guts.

 A variety of potential coordinating structures can be imagined. At this stage we recommend three:

(1)  A centralized government or intergovernmental organization; in the U.S., a Federal Climate Arts Program in the model of the WPA Federal Arts Project, ideally established under a new cabinet-level Minister of Culture, but also imagined to be effective within the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, a new permanent Climate Czar, or a new Minister of the Future.

(2)  A non-governmental or cross-sector organization (e.g. foundation, philanthropy, or nonprofit) found, funded, or founded to coordinate and lead this project through implementation.

(3)  An iterative, decentralized process that would use an agile design approach to pilot, learn, adapt, and grow effective programs through rapid feedback loops.

The investment would comprehensively ideate and fund programming across sectors, geographies, and demographics to generate work at every angle and level – from elementary school songwriting contests to new climate Grammy awards, from local museum exhibits to a global network of climate memorials and pilgrimages, from local film projects to social media video challenges and an international arts festival. Any amount can help, but we believe a $1 billion strategic investment—rather small relative to the $369 billion the United States invested in green infrastructure the Inflation Reduction Act alone—would catalyze the culture change needed to implement the world’s best physical infrastructure solutions.

At this point, Climate Culture Wave is just a good idea. We want the right institutional partners to make it real. Please join us.