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Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution (2231), CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Socio-cultural Implications of Climate Change for Cultural Heritage

Professor May Cassar

University College LondonUCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage

United Kingdom

m.cassar@ucl.ac.uk

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

In 2008, World Monuments Watch and the World Monuments Fund provided dramatic evidence of the consequences of climate change when it listed a number of places at high risk of loss

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Herschel Island, 1890-1907

Canada (Credit: WMF)

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Scott’s Hut, Cape Evans, Ross Island, 1899-1917 Antarctica (Credit: WMF)

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Leh Old Town, 15th-17th C

Ladakh Region, Jammu & Kashmir, India (Credit: WMF)

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Kilwa Historic Sites, Tanzania

(Credit: WMF)

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Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Sonargaon-Panam City, 15th-19th C Bangladesh (Credit: WMF)

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

13thC Chinquetti Mosque, Mauritania (Credit: WMF)

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

Main criteria for inclusion of sites on the World Monuments Watch appear to be:

History, Significance and Climate Change Threats to the Archaeological or Historic fabric

But:

What of the Socio-Cultural Implications of climate change for cultural heritage?

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

What are the implications for the way we conduct research on climate change and cultural heritage?

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

1. Integrate the socio-cultural context into research

2. Be led by arts, humanities & social science research questions

3. Integrate quantitative & qualitative research methodologies

4. Develop participatory action research & involve communities directly or through proxies such as artists & sculptors, writers & poets to provide critical pathways for adaptation

5. Research outputs could include performances & exhibitions to engage the public with climate change in ways that are necessary and important

6. Arts and humanities, social sciences & economic disciplines provide different lenses through which to develop new responses to life-changing events

7. Develop a range of perspectives to improve our chances of co-creating sustainable survival strategies for cultural heritage

Cultural Heritage facing up to Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Pollution, CFCC, Paris, 7th-10th July 2015

‘This issue is about the way we live, it is about who we are, what our relationship is with each other and the planet. And the cultural sector is perfectly positioned, I believe, to hold up a mirror to that and actually show us how we live, (and)… help us develop insights in that’.

Peter Gingold, Executive Director of Tipping Point