Yearly Archives: 2019

Ben’s Strategy Blog: What exactly is the Overton Window?

It has felt a funny couple of weeks here at Creative Carbon Scotland HQ. For the first time in our eight-year existence the climate crisis has been top of the agenda in the news: everyone’s been talking about Extinction Rebellion and the idea of the UK getting to zero-carbon by 2025. Meanwhile I’ve been stuck in the office.

Instead of gluing myself to North Bridge, I’ve been working on long-term, slow stuff: developing strategic relationships, planning training for later in the year, discussing projects about adaptation to flooding. I’ve found it a bit discombobulating: is Creative Carbon Scotland on the right track or should we be advocating direct (cultural?) action?

I think I have to hold my nerve. Addressing climate change is a long game as well as a fast one. We need all of the above, not the fast stuff or the slow and steady, but both.

The Overton Window

One reason for this was mentioned by Chris Stark, the Chief Executive of the UK Government’s Committee on Climate Change, in a good speech he gave back in March:

‘It is worth reflecting on how the public discourse has shifted to permit these moments. It feels very much that the ‘Overton Window’ has moved – and rapidly in recent months.’

Richard Dixon, Director at Friends of the Earth Scotland, mentioned the Overton Window the other week at an event I was at. I hadn’t heard the term before but my understanding (thanks Wikipedia, amongst others) is that it refers to the realities of policy making and politics. Policy options within the Overton Window are those that are considered within the bounds of legitimacy: those outwith it are options that just aren’t considered publicly acceptable. Chris Stark is suggesting that ideas and policies that would have been considered outlandish a couple of years ago are now in the realm of the possible.

So what exactly is this window everyone’s on about?

A note of caution here: Joseph P Overton, who invented the term, was a Senior Vice President of the Mackinac Center, which is a free-market think tank in the US. Such right-wing pressure groups have been very successful at applying the concept and deliberately shifting the window so that previously unthinkable policies (marketisation of the health service in the UK, privatising prisons in both the US and UK, Brexit etc) have become areas that are considered acceptable for discussion. It’s important that the climate crisis is not perceived as a left/right issue and perhaps it’s good to see a successful approach being applied to what in my view are more useful areas. But I do find myself a mite uncomfortable about adopting techniques associated with the Koch brothers.

Richard Dixon used the term to argue that Friends of the Earth Scotland welcomed the more radical Extinction Rebellion’s existence and demands, even if FoE didn’t necessarily espouse them. XR made what might have previously been considered FoE’s unreasonable views more mainstream, so when Richard is arguing for the Climate Change Bill to be more ambitious, politicians are more likely to listen.

Is it an age thing? I just had my 57th birthday!

I think I’m in the same camp – and I’m aware here that I have a history of working from within existing structures which are arguably the establishment, but trying to change things from the inside. As a Board member of the Scottish Arts Council I was certainly an insider, but succeeded I think in arguing for some different approaches. (I didn’t succeed with everyone: I was once told that I was the second most unpopular person in Scottish theatre – which was a bit of a worry since that was precisely where I was trying to earn a living.)

I’ve long been quite interested in change and, because at the Scottish Arts Council I was chairing the committee that distributed National Lottery funds, and there was a requirement that the funded activity was ‘additional’ (whatever that meant), we were always working with the future, rather than continuing the past, and that meant that we could explore new ideas, some of which became mainstream. I think something similar can be said for working on climate change and sustainability in the arts: because it’s a new topic and no-one’s particular responsibility, you aren’t dealing so much with existing stuff, you are constantly breaking new ground.

So although I find it a bit uncomfortable not to have joined the protesters, we can benefit from it while continuing to work in slower and steadier way. I’m currently planning some workshops for cultural organisations and the officers from the main distributor of Government funds to the arts in Scotland, Creative Scotland, and it’s clear (viz Chris Stark and others) that I can make the case for much more ambitious plans than would have been thinkable even a year ago. The window has moved and perhaps particularly in the last few weeks.

Some examples: while you might expect us to have Declared Emergency along with many other cultural organisations across the UK (including Jerwood Arts, the Royal Court Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, even not particularly radical Theatr Clwyd, for goodness’ sake ), perhaps more unexpectedly, Aberdeen Performing Arts and the Traverse joined in the Letters to the Earth project and the Edinburgh International Festival this summer is hosting the Royal Court in an International Climate Crisis Residency (note that’s a ‘climate crisis residency’, not even just a plain old ‘climate change’ one!). None of these projects would have happened, or been so overtly focused on climate change, even a year ago. The slow and steady stuff is working.


Main image: Diagram of The Overton Window, taken from https://voxeu.org/content/moving-overton-window-let-debate-continue

The post Ben’s Strategy Blog: What exactly is the Overton Window? appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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Wild Authors: Brian Burt

When I first talked with author Brian Burt a couple years ago, we sat in on a SFF World panel about climate change in fiction, and I was surprised at the things we had in common: we both hail from Indiana (go Hoosiers!), still dream of our golden (albeit separate) journeys to Ireland, and love red wine. And we like cycling and hiking. After a few talks about writing, I invited Brian to become a moderator at our Google+newsgroup, “Ecology in Literature and the Arts.” Despite things in common, I was even more impressed that a debut novelist had had such success at creating a following for his books.

Brian’s Burt’s biography: While on a consulting assignment in Dublin, Ireland, Brian became sufficiently inspired by the magical scenery and the rich literary tradition to try writing his own short stories. He had more than twenty science fiction and fantasy tales published in small press anthologies, genre magazines, and online publications over the years. Along the way, a short story entitled “The Last Indian War” won the Gold Award (grand prize) in the Writers of the Future Contest, and a dark fantasy story called “Phantom Pain” received an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. These encouraging experiences finally gave him the motivation to try his hand at a full-length novel.

That debut novel, Aquarius Rising Book 1: In the Tears of God, won the 2014 EPIC eBook Award for Science Fiction. It was followed by Aquarius Rising Book 2: Blood Tide, also released from Double Dragon Publishing, which won the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award for Science Fiction. Book 3: The Price of Eden was recently published. This trilogy of novels stems from Brian’s passion for environmental themes, exploring a potential future in the wake of accelerating climate change when a disastrous attempt to reverse global warming goes horribly wrong. The series focuses on human-dolphin hybrids called Aquarians, who have built thriving reef communities among the drowned human cities along the coasts but are caught in an escalating struggle with human scientists determined to restore the continental wastelands at any cost.

From the following passage in the trilogy, you might see how hard it is to put these books down – how myth-building to page-turning thrill starts to suspend the reader immediately.

We were born in the tears of God.

When the First Creator wept at the fate of His Creation, His tears fell like burning rain to melt the polar ice and swell the seas, the cradle of all life. His grief swallowed the mighty human cities of the coast and gave them over to the realm of Mother Ocean. Humanity, who did not aggrieve the Maker out of malice but out of ignorance, wished to atone for their sins against the Earth. We are that atonement. We are Humankind’s offering to the First Creator, the Maker of All. The Great Father-a man, and nothing more-crafted his transforming virus and infected his own kind, so that we might be born as the children of Man and Mother Ocean. Humanity became the Second Creator, Aquarius the Second Creation, and we the stewards of its bounty.

We owe much to Man, who is our father and our brother. We must honor our debt to him. But we must always remember this: he who has the power to Create also has the power to Destroy.

—Delphis, Third Pod Leader of Tillamook Reef Colony, from a speech to commemorate the Fiftieth Aquarian Birth Day

You can read excerpts of the first two books at the Dragonfly Library, here and here.

In the series are various human and hybrid species living in a futuristic world where global warming and geo-engineering have greatly altered the planet ecologically and socially. Earth’s land is irrevocably dry and barren, making survival harsh. Seas have risen and slashed the coastal populations with devastation. Scientists create human-dolphin hybrids that can adapt to a climate-changed world. The creation of hybrids, however, also introduces class differences and other battles among different factions – and, unlike in some climate novels where technology has gone by the wayside, this series has developed science such as bio-tech and chemical warfare.

In the first book, human-dolphin hybrids called Aquarians are living among reef colonies where cities used to be. Ocypode the Atavism, a genetic throwback, holds the key to why the Aquarians begin dying to an “invisible weapon” known as the Medusa Plague. Ocypode works with allies to save the coasts and their inhabitants. In Part II, Blood Tide, Megalops (an Aquarian) seeks revenge for losing his wife and daughter to the plague; he unleashes a Vendetta Virus that turns live humans into Aquarian corpses. Ocypode, hero from the first book, battles again to stop Megalops’s genocidal plague. In the final book, Price of Eden (published in June 2017), the civil war has caused mass casualties and triggers further hostility. The tribes of whales who “sing an ancient prophecy of Storm-Slayer, a legendary child of Mother Ocean and Mother Earth, who is destined to defuse the conflict and save the world” offer hope. In the end, we see rays of peace, but at what cost?

Brian’s world-building is unique, and numerous readers have given kudos to the trilogy.

I was also impressed with Burt’s imaginative ideas about biosculpting, or what we might call species manipulation. Over and over, throughout the story, we see examples of creatures altered in stunning, horrifying, and amazing ways to serve the needs of the plot. —Sandra Girouard

Readers should anticipate a heady combination of action and intrigue based on the events of Book One, in a post-apocalyptic setting that questions heroes, leaders, and a looming war between Mother Earth and Mother Ocean. Based in a world that’s survived climate change, the impact of loneliness, life-or-death decision-making processes, and the effects of ongoing conflict illustrate the very different challenges of handling interactions between two worlds almost inhabiting the same body of Earth, making Blood Tide a top recommendation for readers who like “climate change” dystopian stories with more than a dose of philosophical reflection paired with nonstop crisis mode style action. —Midwest Book Review

The rich descriptions of the world envelope one’s senses with ocean beauty, kelp forests, and fantastical creatures dancing in the light and shadow.

When I asked Brian about this trilogy, he said:

The last novel in my Aquarius Rising trilogy (Price of Eden) ends on an optimistic note, despite the sometimes dark currents that flow through the trilogy in general. I think this is vital, personally. There are so many sources of dismal news, so many depressing scientific developments; I think it’s crucial to look for a light in the darkness, to emphasize that we as a species still have a chance to chart a course to a better future rather than a dystopia.

He is not the only author with belief in human survival, despite the ecological catastrophes we have brought on. He also writes psychological suspense and plays with our heart strings when it comes to recognizing both difference and similarities among individuals – and encourages that during disaster if we work together, rather than apart, we might just have a chance.

And Brian recognizes that he is not alone as an author writing about climate change. In his article “Can Eco-fiction Turn the Tide?” he writes:

Can fiction of this kind succeed where raw, unadorned facts have failed to convince so many Americans? I don’t honestly know. But I do believe in the power of story, of imagination, to move us. So do many, many fiction writers across many genres. Climate change is daunting when it acidifies our oceans, destroys ancient reefs, melts polar ice, and leads to relentless sea level rise that threatens to swallow coastal cities. Let’s hope that the combination of science fact and fiction can succeed where either, alone, seems doomed to fail.

This article is part of our Wild Authors series. It was originally published on Dragonfly.eco.

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Mary Woodbury, a graduate of Purdue University, runs Dragonfly.eco, a site that explores ecology in literature, including works about climate change. She writes fiction under pen name Clara Hume. Her novel Back to the Garden has been discussed in Dissent Magazine, Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity (University of Arizona Press), and Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Climate Change (Routledge). Mary lives in the lower mainland of British Columbia and enjoys hiking, writing, and reading.