By Amber Milne
LONDON, Aug 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – With pedal-powered performances and 57 shows about the environment, the world’s biggest performing arts festival in Edinburgh this month reflects growing calls for climate action.
In “1.5 Degrees Live!” – a five-day, 50-hour show – more than 100 authors, activists and members of the public will read a United Nations climate report calling for unprecedented change to avoid lethal heat waves, storms, floods and drought.
“We thought it’d be really interesting to see a very interesting, but long and technical document, read out by a drag queen or a dancer or an acrobat or a stand-up comedian,” said the show’s creator, Patrick Dunne.
“It was already all there for us and we thought, ‘this is important’ and in some ways we wanted to democratise it.”
The stark 2018 report predicts global warming will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels between 2030 and 2052, and outlines dramatic reforms needed to contain it at that level.
This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, open to anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them, features some 3,500 shows from a record 63 countries, touching on everything from Brexit to feminism.
“We’ve definitely seen an increase in shows that are tackling climate change and the environment … the largest number we’ve ever had,” Lyndsey Jackson, deputy head of the festival, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I think that we are seeing the rise of a cultural movement that will not only change people’s minds but will change people’s behaviour,” said Jackson, who is also one of the “1.5 Degrees Live!” performers.
