Dr Julie Doyle (University of Brighton)

The temporal complexity of climate change poses problems for visual communication. The effect of greenhouse gases emitted in the present will only be visible in the future, while the impacts we ‘see’ in the present are the result of emissions in the past. Photographic and video images of climate impacts thus lock us into the past of climate change, creating problems for mobilising climate action in the present. This paper explores the limitations of the visual in the context of climate change communication.