Letter to Glasgow

Later this month COP26 opens in Glasgow. Described as “our last best hope” (BBC Radio 4, podcast, 18/10/21), this conference of the parties must secure commitments to limit the rise in the Earth's temperature to 1.5C. The conference will again stress that if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced significantly over the next nine years, there is no chance of meeting that target. This will require global carbon emissions to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by the end of this decade. It’s a mammoth task, and we have wasted enough time already.

Alongside this COP, like those of recent years, arts organisations will present creative responses to the climate crisis during the conference. I’ve been involved in three very different projects for COP, one of which is called Eight Posters for Glasgow (by Climate Fringe + Climate Change Creative). My contribution, titled Letter to Glasgow comes from my upcoming Where Once the Waters (Venice Biennale, 2022) presentation and focusses on the issue of sea-rise. It’s a simple typed letter, printed in large format, pasted onto a billboard on Bath Street in central Glasgow. It reads:

Around the world, as a result of climate change, sea levels are rising. This is a well-established fact. But did you know that the rate of sea-rise varies from coast to coast? In Millport, 35 miles from where you currently stand, sea level has increased by at least 165mm over the last century*. 60 miles further south, Portpatrick has seen a rise of over 230mm in that time.

24 years ago, COP3 was held in Kyoto, Japan. Since then, the level of the sea at the Kyoto coast has climbed by almost 100mm. In 2010, COP16 was held in Cancún, Mexico. Sea level there is rising at an even faster rate of around 5mm per year.

Sea level rise is not uniform around the world, but our response should be. Regardless of where you stand today, your actions impact sea level rise globally. A rise of less than 2mm per year at Glasgow’s coast doesn’t sound much, but with the rate of rise increasing year on year, places such as Cancún, and the Kyoto coast will be submerged if serious action is not taken by all of us. We cannot stop sea level rise this century, but we can slow it.

*Tide gauge readings used here to calculate levels of rise come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Level Trends dataset.