SMHI is coordinating a research project promoting the integration of climate change predictions in Marine Spatial Planning in Sweden, ClimeMarine. The project, funded by Swedish research council for sustainable development, Formas, is a partnership with three institutions in Sweden: Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM), Geological Survey of Sweden and University of Gothenburg.
Within the project outreach activities, SMHI and SwAM organise an art contest addressed to students from colleges, universities and adult education programmes in Sweden. Contestants are welcome to submit nice short cartoons, comic strips or illustrations, black and white or colour, big or small, serious or humorous creations, up until 31 August 2020.
The purpose of this contest is for the contestants to learn about climate change and ocean issues through art-making and creative communication and become advocates for environmental actions. The project will then prolong the advocacy work of the contest winner by using his/her illustration to communicate to other audiences.
“On this special day that is the World Oceans Day, it is a pleasure to launch an art contest to raise awareness on ocean issues in Sweden. It is a very exciting challenge for SMHI to experiment such a different communication approach. Surely we will learn a lot from our interactions with young artists and their illustrated views on our research topic,” says Emilie Breviere, international science manager in oceanography at the SMHI research department.
“‘One picture says more than a thousand words’, as the saying goes. This is of course also true in science communication, where it is difficult to turn complex and sometimes uncertain messages into something simple and understandable. One way to highlight the problems of planning how to manage the climate change effects is through art and illustrations. We have great hopes that this contest will provide a characterful illustration addressing this communication issue, as well as help to raise awareness among students about climate change impacts and how difficult it is to plan well for these,” says Jonas Pålsson, Senior Analyst and ClimeMarine coordinator at SwAM.
And Emilie Breviere also has a call for everyone:
“Please circulate the news about this contest to your entire network to increase awareness on climate change impact in the marine environment and help a student to win the 25 000 SEK prize this summer!”