#energy #renewables #ecoart #fossilfuels #climatechange #creativity #innovation

It’s a very odd time in the tussle with the extractive industries. Most people ‘know’ that there is a problem – it’s almost something that can be felt, palpable, a corporeal intrusion. For decades now the science has been almost universally accepted, and it’s only a few short years since the world’s nations came together to sign the Paris climate accords. Just like this book, in fact, there is a ten year anniversary here. Ten years ago a legally binding treaty was agreed to keep the rise in global surface temperature to ‘well below’ 2°C, stating a preference for a limit of 1.5°C. This latter has already been breached (2023/4) although it is not all bad news. The only two major emitter nations who are not part of the Accords (or Paris Agreement as it is formally known) are the US (who withdrew twice, once in 2020 and again in 2026 in both cases under the leadership of Donald Trump) and Iran.

A lot of good stuff has happened during those ten years, but the battle so hard fought and, it seemed, won in 2016 has now been reignited by culture wars waged upon us by the parties of the far (and not so far) right. What was accepted, quite simply, as agreed truth (fact, call it what you will) is now daily challenged and ridiculed by a raft of populist parties who until very recently seemed to be on a relentless rise.

Quite why it all evolved this way has been much written about and much wept over, and this is not the place to dig deeper, except to say that there is a great deal of money involved and a huge amount of money at stake for those who would have us hold on to fossil fuels as our primary source of energy. Follow the money, as they say.

It’s the job of the artist not just to ask questions but to provoke thought. Art, too, has become a tool of the culture warriors – or at least the hatred and ridicule they foster as part of an apparent drive to destabilise by destroying all that is good. Artists, at times, invite this ridicule, but (again) this is not the place for that particular discussion.

art.earth Books has a new title for 2026: On a day like today we just need to look forward (culture | imagining | energy | creativity) and we are currently inviting the widest range of voices we can entice to take part in our Open Call. With submissions due on May 9 we hope to be faced with an impossible task: to sift through and create a collection of voices that will help us sort out this cultural mess.

The invitation extends not just to artists but to creatives of all stripes, to thinkers as well as doers, to disruptors, innovators, experimenters and tinkerers.

If you’re intrigued by any of this please take more of a look at https://artearthbooks.com/a-day-like-today/ and send us your thoughts before May 9.