Climate Change is real and a major threat to life on earth.
The President of the United States, basically every scientist not on a carbon-producer payroll, and the United Nations are in agreement on this fact. This colossal, generation-defining challenge has naturally had an impact on theatre makers, especially in a country like Canada that is a major exporter and producer of carbon.
What is happening? What can we do? Who is it okay to take money from in this context?
Each of the contributors to this edition recognizes the answers to these questions are not black and white. We are each implicated in a system that contributes to climate change, and yet complicity does not equal powerlessness.
This week Canada joined with Japan to block a G7 agreement to reduce greenhouse gases by 2050, preferring to set a target for the rather ridiculous date of 2100. Meanwhile in Alberta, The Calgary Herald had engaged in a three–part series on how the decline of oil prices has changed arts funding in the province. The situation is fluid and now is a time where art and artists can play a part shaping new models and ideas for sustainability.
As Kevin Loring succinctly puts it in his article, “How should we live?”
