Ursula Heise
Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

The sky is easier to engineer than the human brain,” one character says in the television series Extrapolations (2023) in a dispute over whether or not to initiate geoengineering to cool global temperatures. Her dialogue with another character, who argues that cultural change rather than technological intervention is needed to combat global warming, raises issues that are crucial to the Environmental Humanities. What is the role of culture in the engagement with environmental crises? If cultural change is indeed needed to solve environmental problems, what factors might bring about such change? This presentation will explore different theories of cultural change and the ways in which they have implicitly or explicitly shaped research in the Environmental Humanities.