A Climate for Change: Millennials, Science and the Humanities

ABSTRACT

The rise and pervasiveness of post-truth and alternative facts posit fundamental questions for the current epistemic authority of scientific knowledge. In conjunction, complex and multi-scalar problems of the likes of climate change call for research that transcends traditional disciplinary silos, upon which much of that authority was built. As such, we call for a greater involvement of the humanities in environmental research and communication. We suggest that young researchers wishing to pursue academic careers (including ourselves) may be well-equipped to reconfigure and reconcile science and the humanities within the context of their PhDs and beyond – taking a frontline position in the constant struggle to overcome longstanding antagonisms between the scholarship of fact-finding and that of meaning-making. We do so by exploring examples – within academia and beyond – where those collisions have been successful, including the works of a millennial scientist/artist and a dystopian video game.

KEYWORDS:

• Humanities
• millennials
• interdisciplinary
• climate
• environment
• communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Elliot Honeybun-Arnolda http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0308-4348

Noam Obermeister http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7738-9462

Notes

1. See UK General Election 2017 as an exception.

2. The segregation of the Internet into small groups with similar interests and opinions.

3. http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/the-environment/creative-climate.

4. http://www.capefarewell.com.

5. http://www.frostpunkgame.com/.

6. https://climateoutreach.org/climate-action-retreat/.