New series "cool earth"
Michael Najjar‘s latest work series “cool earth” deals with our planetary future in times of climate change. It addresses the far-reaching ecological, economic and cultural impact of human-induced climate change which is leading to a redefinition of the relationship between humans and nature. The crisis in the human-nature relationship is existential and influences all areas of human life on our planet. The greatest danger to life on Earth is posed by overheating. The rise in the Earth’s temperature to over 2 C will activate various tipping points in the Earth system, changing a previously stable system into a chaotic one and endangering our civilizational existence. To counteract the advancing climate emergency and the existential threat to our planetary ecosystem, researchers and scientists are increasingly discussing the possibility of large-scale technological intervention in the Earth’s natural systems or climate engineering. The term refers to targeted technological interventions in the Earth’s geochemical and biochemical cycles, in the oceans, in the soil, and in the atmosphere. The work series “cool earth” spans the arc from a looming dystopian future – which has already arrived in the present – to a technology-based post-fossil world that requires a redefinition of the human-nature relationship. The artworks of the “cool earth” series combine science and fiction; they imagine the transition to a world without fossil energy and open up a mental field of possibilities for the viewer of how we could shape a liveable, post-destructive world.