You know what does it mean to live in the era of climate change, and to reside in one of the most water-scarce parts of the Earth, such as the Arab region, which is exposed to droughts, floods, warming, desertification, submergence by seawater, and Mediterranean hurricanes?
Simply means you live at the heart of the crisis, and you must move quickly to put this issue on the top of your priorities. And, if it did not actually happen, it would indicate a defect or a problem in society. These words are not out of pessimism, but to get real with ourselves that leads us to an important question: what is really happening in the Arab world? And, how is awareness with issues of environment and climate being raised in our societies?
We are not talking about official or governmental level, but we are talking about the societal level and the role assigned to Arab influencers, especially of art and culture sector, as they are the closest to the hearts of crowd and they are able to create a strong public opinion.
Awareness-raising role of influencers and artists about environment
If an artist or intellectual has a point of view, he can crystallize his opinion in an artwork, whatever its form, so that the crowd would rally around it and create a public opinion capable of change. Then, it is not difficult and the equation is not impossible.
Research by the University of Melbourne, Australia, indicates that artists and arts organizations are able to raise awareness and mobilize public opinion very effectively; the true power of art lies in the ability to transform abstract ideas and issues into visual or audio arts.
Research also that the arts may help clarify the climate issue and its risks to the public, and enhance the concept of global environmental citizenship, or build a sense of shared responsibility for the planet; as the environment is part of the common human heritage, and preserving it is everyone’s responsibility. Influencers can play an important role in raising the issue through social media and public speaking at various events in order to spread community awareness.
Celebrities and climate issues
If we are targeting people of art and creativity in our Arab world, the situation is completely different from the world stars that are at the forefront of the environmental scene. They exploit their fame and media presence in order to mobilize efforts to defend the planet.
One of those famous names is: “Leonardo DiCaprio”, who turned his first Oscar victory speech in 2016 into a talk about climate change, which he described as the most urgent threat to humanity. Also, he is the owner of “Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation” (LDF), which provided grants worth $100 million to support environmental projects since 1998. He even produces powerful movies that convey climate repercussions and their dangers like the movie “Before the Flood”.
“TIME” list of the 100 powerful people in climate action
“DiCaprio” is not a rare model; he does not play alone or tweet outside the crowd. On the contrary, there are many global creators who lead environmental awareness efforts, and the greatest evidence is the list of the 100 most prominent figures in climate action published by the famous American magazine “Time” which it revealed for the first time this year.
The list included 7 names from the world of art, culture and music, such as director “James Cameron”, who sits on the throne of the highest-grossing films in history, Grammy Award-winning singer “Billie Eilish”, the famous fashion designer “Stella McCartney”, the British band “Coldplay”, and the Brazilian photographer “Sebastião Salgado”.
As for the Arab level, the “Time” list included only the name of “Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber”, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President of the Conference of the Parties “COP 28,” and we do not see any presence of influencers whether on the cultural or the artistic level.
In fact, if you try to find a name of an Arab creator or influencer who deserves to be included in this list, you will think for a long time, but unfortunately you will not be able to find a figure of artistic or cultural weight who takes it upon himself to protect the environment, sustainability, and biodiversity.
We used to repeat the famous phrases “The art is the mirror of the society” and “Cinema is the daughter of the environment”. So, through this report we try to find out why is this silence in displaying climate issues? What happened to the “mirror” of the Arab society? Is the silver screen becoming the "prodigal son" of the climate crisis? Why are there no bright or important names of influencers and artists who embrace these issues and lead Arab public opinion like worldwide celebrities?
The first station is Moroccan
The “Green in Arabic” journey will begin searching for answers to these questions from Morocco. Despite the same Arab problem, which is the lack of a cinematic or artistic influencer involved in environmental affairs, we can say that the Moroccan artistic scene may appear slightly different from the rest of the Arab world, due to geographical proximity and cultural exchange with the northern Mediterranean countries; especially France and Italy.
Moroccan cinema is more open to various issues, including climate change. There are filmmakers who are interested in these “topics”, even if the trials are few. Among these names is the Moroccan director “Yassine Ait Faqir”, who has won several national and international awards.
Initially, “Ait Fakir” explained to “Green in Arabic” that most Moroccan environmental influencers belong to the world of media and journalism, but they are so rare from cinematic field, attributing this to the fact that climate change and global warming are relatively new topics.
The Moroccan director believes that the real problem behind the lack of an Arab art scene or potential artistic works that reflect the environmental reality is the lack of awareness. Arab societies must first be aware of the climate risks they are currently experiencing; so that the artistic field would care about displaying these crises in their works. But, unfortunately, they are currently busy making money.
Regarding the issue of involving artists in the environmental issue and urging them to present works that discuss climate, “Ait Fakir” stressed that awareness is the responsibility of governments and international organizations, which are supposed to allocate support to creators and influencers. He indicated that there is a need to invest in influencers and artists, and urging them to support environment.
Regarding Arab countries hosting climate conferences and environmental summits, and its role in creating a media momentum or case awareness that is supposed to move to the world of art and influencers, “Ait Fakir” explained that awareness of environmental risks is not limited to academic bodies; as those conferences may be of interest to scientists and researchers, but they are far from the broad category of people, stressing that society needs to pass environmental messages to the largest possible number of audiences. So, media and art can play this role through movies, which are an important public means.
The Moroccan director pointed out the importance of academic study, but climate information must be unpacked first and then passed on in a simple way to all segments of society. And, also working to share opinion on environmental issues with the largest number of people through a public means, and not limit the matter to a specific group.
Regarding his experience with environmental movies he presented earlier and the Moroccan production bodies that are enthusiastic about non-commercial ideas, “Ait Fakir” told “Green in Arabic” that the Moroccan Film Center is the production body that supports all films and is interested in diverse and different topics. He added that the center is governmental institution that researches topics that keep pace with the present times in culture, history, and heritage, and it has a fund to finance these non-consumable topics, such as climate.
The idea of achieving commercial and public return from environmental movies, which leads to overcoming production obstacles, depends on distribution agencies. According to “Ait Fakir”, he confirmed that the problem may lie in the weak distribution of documentary movies at the Arab level. The matter does not receive enough attention, while local promotion is carried out through local and international festivals and some films are shown on TV channels.
Regarding the Arab regions that suffer most from climate change and deserve to be highlighted, the Moroccan director explained that he prefers the desert regions that have become isolated and empty due to climate change after they were thriving with oases, while their residents are currently leaving them and witnessing climate migrations. He stressed that we must delve into People's lives and their details in communities suffering from climate fragility and poverty, and conveying that artistically on screen.
The Moroccan director gave an example of his movies that had previously dealt with similar topics and touched on these regions in the Kingdom of Morocco, such as the documentary movie “Thirst,” and the short narrative film “Assif” or “The Valley,” which is a movie that did not present the environmental crisis directly, but if you watch it and solve its symbols, you can conclude that the roots of the problem are essentially environmental.
“Assif” movie has won 9 national and international awards in less than a year. Despite being a short narrative movie of around 7 minutes of simple and enjoyable optic scenes, mixing more than one rooted issue in poor and climate-fragile communities like girl’s education, water scarcity and isolation, he displayed all of that in a calm indirect way. Even the end of the film; although the young heroine failed to achieve her goal, it was mixed with the spirit of childhood and innocence.
The Secone Station is Saudi
In this station of our journey to understand this estrangement between Arab influencers and climate issues, “Green in Arabic” tried to search for a common ground that brings together influencers and environmental activists. If Arab artists are indifferent to climate action, or so it seems, they can still support activists or collaborate with them in environmental campaigns to spread awareness and stimulate actual action to protect and preserve the environment in Arab societies.
We addressed this proposal to the environmental activist “Saeed Al-Suhaimi”, winner of the Princess “Seetah bint Abdulaziz” Award for the “Social Responsibility Awareness” branch. He supported the idea, stressing that he had previously tried to implement an environmental campaign with the participation of stars and influencers such as “Khaled Abdul Rahman” and “Fayez Al-Maliki”, but he Unfortunately, he did not find a way to contact with them.
The Saudi activist is called the “Nature Ambassador”, because of his interest in introducing the environment and tree planting initiatives in the Kingdom. Perhaps his cooperation with Arab innovators has been fruitful and in the interest of public work, but he believes that the reason behind the artists’ lack of involvement in the environmental field is due to their lack of interest in the subject or their lack of awareness of the dangers resulting from climate change.
The last station is Egyptian
Egyptian art has a long history of defending societal issues, women, and freedoms. And, artistic works have succeeded in changing society’s perspective and moving stagnant waters over the years. It is enough to mention the Egyptian movie “I Want a Solution” and many others, but despite this long history of interest in societal issues, why do Egyptian creatives and influencers stand idly by in the face of an urgent and crucial issue such as climate?
“Hanan Shoman”, the Egyptian art critic, answers this question stressing that the environmental issue is a real tragedy, but it is injustice or prejudice if we hold art or influential artists responsible for changing and influencing public opinion regarding environmental issues, similar to Western models and personalities.
“Hanan” provided many explanations for this. The first one is that the environmental culture is not rooted into the Egyptian society, unlike global societies that care about the environment and teach this to children since young. If the manifestations or culture of concern for the environment are absent from society itself, how will it find a place within the artistic scene? Or how do we ask art, which is a product of its time and place, to care about an issue that society as a whole does not realize? The artist is the son of this environment, who may influence and change it, if there is an initial foundation he can build on but not from nothing.
The art critic added that in order to have this culture in our society, “the art comes right at the end of the list”, she said. Although the impact of art cannot be denied, on certain issues, including the environment, art comes at the end of the list in terms of influence, while education comes first, then media.
“Hanan Shoman” indicated that: “It’s possible to find an artist or intellectual who can be at the forefront of the climate scene and talk through social media, but what is more important is the existence a general climate helps this; as we are a product of this society”.
Shoman commented: For decades, we have made art bear all our sins; When any negative phenomenon spreads, art is the cause, and this is very superficial and an easy answer to a difficult dilemma”. As for influential intellectuals and media figures, she believes that the environment is far from the interest of media, which must bear part of the responsibility for raising awareness of climate issues.
Regarding the artistic interest in conveying social issues, in contrast to the severe neglect of climate affairs, despite the repercussions of the two topics on society, the art critic pointed out that the Arab world is considered a cinematic poor region. Therefore, it resorts to meeting basic needs through artistic works, and it tends to present works that are metaphorically called “commercial movies” that achieve financial gain, popular with the audience, or can even reach the international level.
For an artist, it is easier to present a social idea that is guaranteed to be successful or have a positive impact, as opposed to choosing a work about environmental issues in a city like Cairo, which is among the most polluted cities in the world, and within a society that is unaware of this tragedy. At the end the artist is an Egyptian citizen, and he may not be aware personally either. If he were aware, he could think in the logic of success: “Divorce issue or climate? Which one achieves a greater audience reaction?”, said “Hanan Shoman”.
Then we had with her a discussion about the independent cinema and short movies. Despite the freedom they have choosing topics , and not being bound by profit because there are funding bodies that fund their projects, they are moving away from addressing the climate crisis as well.
“Hanan” explained that Arab independent cinema is also poor, and its makers are more inclined towards social issues. Because even funding bodies usually prefers topics that highlight the “narratives” of societies or their deep local interiors. But, independent cinema in general, even globally, does not tend to the idea of the environment.
The Egyptian art critic believes that it is a vicious circle that must have a starting point, which is education in order to spread environmental culture. The existence of an integrated system requires education and the efforts of the state. If institutions have a problem in managing a garbage system, is art capable of presenting movies that talk about a clean environment correctly?! The state comes first. All of this must be within the state's own plan.
Finally, “Shoman” gave an example with the new movie “Leave the World Behind,” as a work that deals with the idea of disasters that the world experience. It was directed by “Sam Ismail”, indicating that the artist is the son of his community and the environment in which he grows. The director, who is interested in disaster movies, is of Egyptian origins, and his family immigrated to the United States.
The end of the journey
At the end of our journey on the relationship of influential Arab artists and creators with environmental issues, we can say that art makers and those interested in the cinematic scene have unanimously agreed that strengthening this relationship begins with government support for creativity, education and investment in this field. This calls for the necessity of joining hands to create an artistic and cultural experience that enriches the environmental scene, thus spreading awareness of climate risks and biodiversity. Perhaps one day Arab society will produce influential voices capable of making climate decisions and defending the issue in international forums.
