The New York Times Company

09/24/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/24/2021 03:11

The New York Times Climate Hub Premieres Es Devlin’s “Conference of The Trees” and Full Program Launch

Tickets are now available for The New York Times Climate Hub which will take place from Wednesday, Nov. 3, to Thursday, Nov. 11, within the SWG3 arts space in Glasgow and online.

The program will feature more than 70 events, including panel discussions, workshops, community-curated sessions and film screenings. Sessions will help participants follow climate negotiations, explore the future of biodiversity, understand their personal e-commerce footprint, hear from climate justice advocates, and debate the role of democracy in climate action. Program highlights include:

  • The Power of Knowledge: Girls' Education as an Accelerator of Climate Action. How can girls' education be nurtured in the context of climate action? How can schools introduce the climate challenge as an opportunity for future leadership and women-led innovation? Featuring Malala Yousafzai, Leah Thomas and Vanessa Nakate.
  • Passing the Torch: Intergenerational Climate Dialogues. How can our solutions harness the collective urgency and energy of youth activism while drawing upon older-generation wisdom? What can we learn and keep from the past, and what desperately needs to change? Featuring Aya Chebbi, Evelyn Acham, Mary Robinson, and Jerome Foster II.
  • Hearts and Minds: Storytelling and Climate Change. Stories hold a power that science does not - the power to move hearts and minds, and connect people to a problem. How can scientists tell better stories to bring their research to life? Featuring Kim Stanley Robinson, Oliver Jeffers, Doug Gurr and Slater Jewell-Kemker.
  • Reality check: What will a climate-changed future cost our youth? This panel will draw upon messages from climate movement Youth Unstoppable to question what it would actually cost us to compromise the future of entire generations. Featuring Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Slater Jewell-Kemke, and Jerome Foster II, to be followed by a documentary screening, hosted by WaterBear.
  • Climate Justice Means Racial Justice. People of color suffer more from the ongoing environmental impact of climate change, from zoonotic pandemics to air pollution. This panel will explore the inextricable link between racial justice and inclusion and the intersectional approaches that can advance this joint agenda. Featuring David Lammy, Gloria Walton, Varshini Prakash, and Nicholas St Fleur.

Featuring The Times's top climate editor Hannah Fairfield, and climate reporters Somini Sengupta, Lisa Friedman, Brad Plumer and others, The New York Times Climate Hub will also bring together leading academics, policy-makers, and business leaders in a series of B2B plenary sessions and debates, aligned to program streams including energy transition, transport, water and oceans, materials and food and agriculture, designed to complement the COP26 conference agenda.

"The negotiations in Glasgow are critical to the world's ability to avert the worst effects of climate change," said Hannah Fairfield, Climate editor for The New York Times. "As the negotiations encourage countries to strengthen their targets for greenhouse-gas reductions, we'll be using the Climate Hub program to take audiences deep into our climate journalism, explaining the debates, the future of global cities, oil, wealth and power, interrogating green finance, and exploring what's needed for the global transition."

Artist Es Devlin will bring audiences into a parallel conference through the immersive "Conference of the Trees" which will manifest as a temporary forest of 197 trees and plants representing the 197 countries that have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The temporary forest will house keynote talks and events within the work and provide attendees space for reflection and creative thought on climate change.

Working in close collaboration with forest architect Phillip Jaffa, and landscape specialist Scotscape, Ms. Devlin explained the significance of her work and how it aims to resonate with Climate Hub audiences.

"The installation is inspired by Richard Powers' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Overstory, in which the trees are the lead protagonists while the humans form the subplot. I am interested in placing Climate Hub visitors within an environment of a parallel gathering of trees, as if the trees are bearing witness, listening, and observing the progress that the humans may or may not make during the program of talks and COP26 negotiations which many are describing as our species' last chance to making the changes necessary to avert even more profound climate crisis."

The species will be selected to thrive in the Scottish environment as part of a native public garden to be established in cooperation between SWG3 and The New York Times. The trees will be donated by The New York Times as part of the community legacy of the Climate Hub.

This ambitious nine-day hybrid event - the first of its kind in Times history - is supported by presenting sponsors Morgan Stanley and Siemens Energy.

The New York Times Climate Hub will open from Wednesday, Nov. 3, to Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021. Tickets are on sale now. Please note that the venue will not be accessible without a ticket, however, selected events will be streamed online free of charge for Times readers and subscribers. Find out more and register for future program updates at nytclimatehub.com

The New York Times Climate Hub welcomes visitors who show proof of full vaccination, or a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken within 24 hours of arriving at the venue. The event will be fully compliant with Scottish government coronavirus restrictions in place at the time of the event. Read about our coronavirus protocols.