ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role and impact of art within the campaign for climate justice, in particular the convergence of art and activism with the politics of urban space. An over-reliance on emotional imagery and didactic slogans in climate campaigning avoids addressing the question of how political subjectivity and a critical conscience is formed. Media attention and public debate was immediately transferred away from climate policy to terrorism and role of security agencies in protecting lives of its citizens. The premise of The Climate Games was to connect disparate actions, so that instead of existing in isolation of one another they instead formed a concatenation of acts of resistance. The chapter discusses that the visual culture of climate change reveals a deeper reliance on the power of emotional persuasion over reasoned argument, through attempts to condense our impact on the natural world into a single powerful image. It offers personal reflection on events surrounding twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP21).
