Broken Climate, Broken Britain? Crafting a response
Field sketch by Dr Rosie Knowles.
Approaching the midpoint of the project, PI Chris Pearson reflects on what to do with climate brokenness.
There is a lot of talk these days about living in a ‘broken Britain’ under a ‘broken climate’. Both of these terms are easy to let slip off the tongue, and I have lamented the broken climate and broken Britain (while stridently refusing the solutions put forward by the hard/far right to the latter narrative). David Cameron delivered a speech on ‘broken Britain’ following riots in summer 2011, and this is a narrative that the right-wing press, social media influencers and politicians have run with, increasingly directing blame towards migrants, universities, and wokeness. The idea of broken Britain is also felt in the cost-of-living crisis, delayed trains and struggles to get GP appointments following years of austerity, the Covid pandemic, Brexit, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the last decade or so, the terms ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate breakdown’ have replaced the more benign-sounding ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming.’ Climate breakdown narratives are more likely to be found within left-wing and progressive circles. They are felt in the uncanniness of a warm winter’s days, enduring 40C degree temperatures, and ever-worsening flooding. Brokenness means that something has stopped working or isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do. Our climate is breaking down by being too hot, too dry, too wet, too much. Invocations of a broken climate might spur action, but they can also descend all too easily into gloom and doom-ism.
What happens if we dwell within the idea and sensations of a broken climate (recognising that having the space and time to do so is a privilege)? What emerges? Perhaps feelings of sadness, helplessness, anxiety, grief and anger? A desire to turn away or deny? At Melting Metropolis, we try to hold space for those feelings, while resisting the despair and nihilism that can accompany them. Instead, we care about what is happening and want to work with others to craft alternatives. We join others in caring about the climate. The Climate Outreach: Britain Talks Climate and Nature 2025, shows that Britons do care about the climate, and the report identifies fairness, nature, and attachments to place as common ground for action on climate. [link https://climateoutreach.org/btc/2025/report/ ]
Approaching the halfway point of our project, our research and practice is finding that the roots of any climate brokenness are social, economic and cultural, as well as meteorological. They are found in diverse class, race, and gender inequalities that have been baked into the urban fabric through decades of inadequate housing and unequal access to sources of coolness (whether water, green space, or air conditioning). Social and cultural factors sit within the backdrop of incessant burning of fossil fuels over the last few centuries to intensify the Urban Heat Island effect. Climate breakdown will affect us all, but the weight will often be borne by those least able to afford to do so.
If something is broken, how can we fix it? Alongside supporting a rapid and equitable transition to renewable energy (the key way to fixing our climate), Melting Metropolis will share our research findings as widely as possible, showing how people in the past and present have struggled and coped with high temperatures, and how urgent support needs to be given to those whose health and wellbeing cannot cope in overheating homes and cities. We will work with community storytellers and partners to co-create and share untold stories of heat, whether they are stories of suffering or joy. We will engage with policy makers to bring lived experiences and creative responses to heat into the sometimes technocratic language of “resilience.” And we will share our artworks with as wide an audience as possible to spark reflection on the embodied experience of living in a changing – and breaking – climate, and to spur action towards a more equitable future.
As researchers and creative practitioners we can sometimes feel powerless. Melting Metropolis is a large research project but in the grand scheme of things we are small fry. But we insist that ethically-conducted and collective research alongside thoughtful and engaged creative practice does matter amidst the profusion of AI slop, social media disinformation, and crashing levels of trust in institutions. We sit within the brokenness (real and imagined), while exploring ways to mend and heal, to craft healthier and more equitable futures. The climate is breaking, but it is not yet broken. So, we research, think, make, share, and talk, doing what we can to make a difference.
