Innovative Environmental Communication

In addition to the center’s many projects studying the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, CHNGES is strongly committed to efforts in environmental and climate change communication and outreach. CHNGES students are researching how innovative communication methods and platforms can be effectively utilized to share information on Arctic climate change and related environmental challenges to wide, international audiences. One such communicative platform is music performance; Jason Fox recently premiered his original choral composition Icelandic Sketches: Stories of Climate, Tourism, and Change to a live audience at a WKU Choirs concert. Through survey and observational techniques, Jason collected data-driven evidence demonstrating that choral music can not only communicate narratives about Arctic climate change, but music also provides a conduit for audiences and performers to emotionally connect with science-based content. His work was presented as an invited session talk at the Arctic Circle Annual Meeting meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland.