The Future Beyond Climate Models: Engaging and Empowering the Human Imagination

Outputs from climate simulation models have become pivotal in thinking about the planetary future on multi-generational time-scales, but are these outputs effective in helping humans to engage imaginatively and creatively with the future?  Have we deferred too much and too often to climate models to ‘crystal-ball’ the future for us?  This talk will challenge the view that we can adequately know the future through climate model simulations and will argue that we need new ways of putting human narratives and cultural imaginaries alongside such simulations.  This must be part of the larger project to bring the climate sciences into closer engagement with the arts and humanities.