Magnitude

On this episode, Jessica and Michael talk about how designers represent an enormous problem like climate change. Sometimes, Jessica says, the most successful approach is “to show a story in the most graphically circumspect way possible.”

Yet even those who accept the science often cling to a kind of denial:

I think there are lots of people who you could send that drone video to, and they’d say, “Well, that’s Greenland. I live in Akron.” And as long as they don’t look outside and see something bad happening that’s going to happen to them by tomorrow morning, the whole things seems abstract compared with the other pressures that everyone has on their lives from day to day.

Also mentioned:

Thanks to Sappi for sponsoring this episode.

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.