Our Climate Science Programme

"The great thing about Cape Farewell is that it brings together a group of intellectuals working in science and the arts to discuss a common theme. In the past, there would have been nothing unusual in this. If you look at some of our greatest philosophers and writers, Samuel Pepys for example, was also the President of the Royal Society. One of our greatest inventors - Leonardo Da Vinci - is one of our greatest artists. We’ve actually gone away from this integrated approach to solving problems. Cape Farewell brings us back to our roots and has really been exciting for that."
Simon Boxall, 2008

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  The Science

  An Introduction

  There appears to be enough evidence over the last century to indicate that global warming is taking place, though even this is still disputed by some ›

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  The Facts

  Excerpts from the IPCC Reports

  How do human activities contribute to climate change? How are temperatures on Earth changing? ›

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  Oceans and Climate

  An Introduction

  60% of the heat from the Equator is moved polewards by ocean currents ›

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  The Climate Challenge

  A Background

  Measuring past climate change, the atmosphere and oceans ›

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  Extreme Weather Events

  An Overview

  The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998 ›

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  The Implications

  Hear From...

  The Carbon Trust and Scientific America ›

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  Expedition Science

  Seismic Profiling

  Imaging the seabed in order to understand the past history of glaciation in the Disko Bay area ›

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  Expedition Science

  ARGO Floats Launched

  Helping to map the world's oceans and thermohaline circulation ›

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  Meet the Scientists

  Oceanographers, Geologists...

  Meet the scientists who ensure that our work is rooted in the latest climate science ›

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  Effecting Change

  What Can You Do?

  Explore some of the ways in which we as individuals can effect change ›

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  Links and Resources

  Useful Webites

  A collection of the resources we find interesting and useful including web links, papers, organisations and books ›

Background and Partners

Cape Farewell exists because Director and Founder David Buckland read an article by a NASA scientist who said the window of opportunity for dealing with climate change was very short, perhaps less than 10 years. He started to investigate it further and there was a huge frustration with climate scientists who knew there was a problem, but couldn't find a way to communicate it to the public, partly because there were no images or succinct message about climate change.  The ambition for Cape Farewell was to create a new bank of ideas, of imagery, of writing - to find a new language to talk about climate change.

Since the organisation's conception, the knowledge about climate change and science research has directly influenced our programme of activity. The location of our expeditions are led by the science and the artwork and ideas that develop are founded in scientific research. We work with scientists and organisations across the UK and internationally to ensure that our work is founded in science. Partner organisations include University College London, Environmental Change Institute Oxford University, National Oceanography Centre, Scottish Association of Marine Scientists and British Geological Survey. 

The relationship between the art and science

Through our exhibitions and events programme, film, book and youth programme it is clear to see how the artists and young people we have worked with have been effected by the science of climate change.  All our artists have in someway been inspired to respond to the Arctic environment. But our approach also inspires the scientists who work with us to think differently about the how they work. We pioneer an interdisciplinary approach to inviting the artists and scientists to work together.