Recently, I had the good fortune to encounter some folks who may well be the next generation of great environmental storytellers: Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele. They're producing short multimedia pieces that are just riveting.

My favorite is a five minute story about the ways that climate change is affecting reindeer herders in Norway, but there are other gems too that are closer to home: snow-making at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington, fire-fighting in the Cascade Mountains, and sustainable job-training in a Puget Sound prison.

It's not as if Drummond and Steele invented multimedia -- in fact, high-quality multimedia is getting cheaper and easier to produce all the time -- just that they seem to be mastering an art form as it matures. Most importantly, they've got the knack that the best storytellers have for enlivening a scene and fleshing out a character, but not beating you over the head with The Moral Of The Story.

And now, a couple of quibbles. First, I hate it when people younger than me do great work. It makes me feel old, which is not my favorite feeling.

Second, I sort of hate the word "multimedia." For me, it conjures up memories of stultifying PowerPoint presentations in windowless hotel banquet halls.

But regardless of the semantics, it's a good format. Both more web-friendly and less frenetic than video, it manages to convey a degree of gravity and emotional resonance that you just don't get very often, whether in audio alone, written word, static photography, or web animation. You'll see elements of Ken Burns-style documentary-making and maybe even a hint of Al Gore's masterful slideshow that forms the basis of  An Inconvenient Truth. It's not a media form that I'm terribly familiar with, but it will be fascinating to watch it develop over the next couple of years.

Postscript 1: If you want to waste an entire afternoon, go take a look at the "1 in 8 Million" multimedia series at the New York Times. It rocks.

Postscript 2: Thoreau actually is on the Internet; go check out his blog.

This post originally appeared at Sightline's Daily Score blog.

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Far from their sometimes musty, dusty reputations, many museums in the U.S. stand on the cutting edge of eco-innovation. Whether it’s behind the scenes (using recycled materials to build exhibits, renovating to LEED standards) or inescapably out front (a whole museum dedicated to wind power), museums are showing visitors the green light. Take our tour—admission is free!

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Most of the pieces in this series focus on individual artists or one-off works. But climate art is gaining an institutional foothold too. Check out our tour of green museums -- and read on for more examples of groups taking a broader look at climate through art.

Founded in 2001 by artist David Buckland, Cape Farewell aims to "pioneer the cultural response to climate change." The international charitable organization does this by bringing artists, scientists, and communicators together to inspire the creation of art that is rooted in scientific research.
This piece made from steel, glass, water, and salt is part of the "Earth: Art of a Changing World" exhibit opening at London's Royal Academy of Arts in December. Click here to see a preview of this exhibit.Mariele Neudecker, 400 Thousand Generations, 2009
A recent project involved an 18-day trek through Peru's shrinking glaciers and rain forests, during which artists visited multiple science stations. After the trip, the art they produce will become part of ongoing exhibitions and engagement programs.

In December, Buckland will help curate "Earth: Art of a Changing World," an exhibit at London's Royal Academy of Arts that will feature works from more than 30 contemporary artists. See a preview of the exhibit in this slideshow.

Art-history types are taking note of climate change as well, both in terms of concern over how rising temperatures and humidity could affect art treasures in tropical nations and in the development of new fields of study, such as "ecocriticism."

The most recent edition of the American Art journal features an essay on the topic of "ecocritical art history" that defines the term as "emphasiz[ing] issues of environmental interconnectedness, sustainability, and justice in cultural interpretation." And although author Alan C. Braddock comments first on a Thomas Eakins painting from the late 1800s, he goes on to note [PDF] that "glimpses of climate change increasingly appear in contemporary art" and points to the Arctic photography of Subhankar Banerjee as an example.

Braddock also chose to put one of Banerjee's photographs of caribou migration on the cover of his forthcoming collection of essays, A Keener Perception: Ecocritical Studies in American Art History.

Need more evidence that the climate crisis is creeping deeper into our cultural consciousness? Check out these climate-related stories we dug out of the Grist archives:

Visual Art
Images of an evolving world by artist Don Simon
Burning Embers design contest seeks new ways to illustrate climate change

Film
A review of Fields of Fuel
A second look at Fields of Fuel
Wangari Maathai film shows Kenyan tree planting as political subversion
The Next Wave chronicles the climate change refugees
Sweet Crude documents oil exploitation in the Niger River Delta
Sea Change documentary highlights threats of ocean acidification
Big Coal does not want you to see Coal Country film
An interview with climate mockumentary filmmaker Randy Olson

Music
Music festivals across the country aim to lessen their footprint
Legendary Burning Man festival gets an eco-conscience
Barenaked Ladies vocalist Steven Page lays bare his hopes for a green future
Moby reflects on his new "best of" album and his not-so-new social activism
Reggae artist Michael Franti lets loose on inspiring social change
Mike D of the Beastie Boys drops science on green tours, politics, and Live Earth
The barnstorming band that's changing the world, one campus at a time
Russell Simmons on harnessing the power of hip-hop to change the world
Nine things you should know about musician Andrew Bird
Jason Mraz sings the praises of a simpler life
Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard chats about the band's environmental ethos
Tom Gray on green touring, Wal-Mart, and why he won't proselytize

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After learning about mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachian range, Jordan decided to illustrate just how much coal we consume each day—and the project turned out to be much more immense than he had realized.

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In this multimedia piece about wildfire suppression in the American West, Drummond and Steele talk with wildland firefighter Joe King about the costs of fighting wildfires and the ways climate change is adding fuel to the fire.

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All the youths are buzzing about the fact that C-SPAN now allows their video to be embedded. Wicked roasty! (That's what the youths say these days.)

To get a sense of the hottness this is going to bring to the interweb streetz, check out this video of a hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on "Sustainable Transportation." If you can handle the heat, that is!

Totally tubular!

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These images are from a series of drawings titled “Unnaturalism” by artist Don Simon. His work examines the impact of industrialization and sprawl on ecosystems. From his artist statement:

“Throughout history, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been less than kind to our cohabitants on the planet. We build, produce, and consume with little or no regard to the impact it has on the environment. It is the nature of nature to adapt and evolve in order to survive, and we are forcing other species to deal with compromised, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems.

“This series of triptychs depicts scenes resulting from our tragic indifference. They are rendered in a beautiful and natural way, highlighting the idea that we find this acceptable. We are numb to the damage—and so, the unnatural becomes natural to us. This may be the saddest commentary of all.”

Simon, who walked away from a career in advertising to pursue art full-time five years ago, has shown his work in galleries and museums across the U.S. and in Europe. He lives and works in Medford, N.J., just outside of Philadelphia.

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