Abstract
In this article, we examine the link between environmental consciousnesses and time consciousness. We argue that the way people think about time shapes their experience of climate change threats. We contrast western hegemonic concepts of time—the Gregorian Calendar, the Dooms Day Clock, linear time—with the way Barbudans of Antigua and Barbuda, an island nation in the Caribbean experience time—cyclical, through boom and bust cycles. We found that this boom and bust framework was indeed supported by climate change and weather experiences on the island—hurricanes, droughts, changes in the lagoons—as well as economic experiences—cargo boat delays bringing supplies, paycheck delays. By understanding local explanatory models of time, especially those that contrast to western climate science frameworks of time, better solution-driven work can be achieved in the face of climate change realities.
Highlights
In 2014, the Barbuda Research Complex, a local NGO on the island of Barbuda of Antigua and Barbuda (Figure 1), commissioned Noel Hefele, a Brooklyn based artist and ecologist, as an artist-in-residence to create a mural project (Photo 1)
The young woman’s response to climate change is in direct contrast to the vast majority of climate change science and even best-selling narratives (Klein 2014): unless we embark in radical changes to production, consumption, and pollution, the world as we know it will be completely transformed by climate change in a very short time
Sophia Perdikaris and Katie Rose Hejtmanek we argue that environmental consciousness inevitably involves a fundamental relationship to time; time consciousness affects environmental consciousness
Summary
In 2014, the Barbuda Research Complex, a local NGO on the island of Barbuda of Antigua and Barbuda (Figure 1), commissioned Noel Hefele, a Brooklyn based artist and ecologist, as an artist-in-residence to create a mural project (Photo 1). We link these back together by illustrating how understandings of time shape climate change orientations in Barbuda. Our work in Barbuda has challenged us to think about time in relationship to culture—both hegemonic and local frameworks—and how they are linked to climate change narratives and apocalyptic-type futures (Bessire 2011; Hejtmanek 2020; Valentine 2012).
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