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To what extent is climate change denial inherent in our psyche? We continue to feed this cultural machine of climate denial. We brush off the climate changing around us as simply — weird weather. 

Each year the average global temperature sets an all time high. Mudslides, hurricanes, droughts, and other extreme events have become the new normal. Yet changes in infrastructure, cultural habits, and mindsets are extremely slow. The general public’s knowledge of climate science and earth systems ranges from limited to nonexistent. Scientific climate knowledge is confined to the privileged and/or those in academia — the fault of technical language and limited public access to data, research, and thought. Our culture has become an old machine in constant need of ever increasing energy inputs — it manipulates and processes both human and earth forms, outputs a stream of pollution, degrades natural environments, and supports constant consumption. 

We can’t distinguish climate from weather.  We notice strange weather events, but think them normal. We do not recognize the changing long-term patterns. We seem incapable of seeing the threat of human extinction.  Instead, we continue to say “weird weather?!” even as we participate in our mass suicide. 

Kaylee graduated from Ithaca College in 2018 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and minors in Sociology and Art. She is curious about how art and creative expression can be used as a tool to create dialogue about environmental issues. In 2017, she was awarded an IC Summer Scholar fellowship. While on fellowship, she created a painting series, "Embodied Landscapes,” that explores the interconnections of human body and the Earth within a violent and oppressive culture. Kaylee intends to pursue an MFA in painting.