photo credit: USask

A USask scientist and world-renowned water research expert is one of the co-authors of a book on climate change in Western Canada, but it’s not just graphs and numbers – it also includes artistic illustrations.

Dr. John Pomeroy hopes that combining science and art will help get the message across on a more emotional level about what is happening because of climate change from greenhouse gas emissions.

Pomeroy is the Director of USask’s Global Water Futures.

Back in 2019, Global Water Futures decided to have an artist in residence, and Gennadiy Ivanov was their choice because he paints dramatic landscapes, and he wanted to somehow paint climate change.

Pomeroy invited Ivanov and co-author, Dr. Trevor Davies from the University of East Anglia to come to Western Canada to witness climate change in the Prairies at their research sites monitoring irrigation, in the mountains where glaciers are melting and receding very rapidly and the snow packs are declining, and in Northern Canada where not only is the snow pack declining, the permafrost is thawing and turning into wetlands.

Pomeroy understands that the message of climate change is a tough one and adds that it’s also a tough one for him. “Scientific graphs and tables aren’t enough to convey the urgency of that message and allow us to digest what that means. Art helps.”

The result is the free book called ‘The Great Thaw: A Homage in Art to Vanishing Glaciers’ which has been published by USask and UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

Along with the Director of Global Water Futures, Dr. Pomeroy is also the Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, the UNESCO co-chair for the UN International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, which is this year, and he is UNESCO’s Chairholder in Mountain Water Sustainability.

Dr. Trevor Davies has been the Director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the UK . He is a founding member of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and he established the Fudan Tyndall Centre at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Gennadiy Ivanov is an artist from the UK who covers many specialties including paintings, photography, drawing and installations.

Download the book here.