1.5 Degrees: Sweat the Small Stuff

A creative response to a warming world

For years scientists have been warning against the global temperature rise exceeding 1.5 degrees. At current warming levels, without drastic intervention, we are likely to reach this within the next 11 years. Sweat the Small Stuff invites us to consider how climate change might affect our communities, exploring how small changes might help us to collectively respond to this challenge.

The 1.5 Degrees project team are Liverpool John Moores University Graphic Design & Illustration students and staff who have joined Metal as artists in residence to explore how designers and illustrators and creative climate communication can inspire action on climate change. This project incorporates stations along the old 1830 line and Old Cheshire Lines railways to Manchester, the first project of a new Community Rail Partnership which is connecting the various Friends Of groups at these stations.

The project team took inspiration from the rich history of the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester railway, where George Stephenson’s Rocket ushered in a new age of passenger rail travel. The Liverpool and Manchester railway was at the heart of the rapid expansion of industry, through pioneering rail innovation which acted as a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution and consequently rooted our reliance on the consumption of fossil fuels. As we face the environmental impact of this expansion and overconsumption, the 1.5 Degrees project team have explored and responded to the history of the railway, looking ahead to how innovation, creativity and creative climate communication might galvanise urgent action in the face of climate change.