Laura Fumagalli: "Nature Aesthetics and Global Climate Change"

Laura Fumagalli, University of Augsburg/LMU Munich: "Nature Aesthetics and Global Climate Change"

Abstract
Some scholars have recently argued that global climate change has a disruptive effect on the aesthetic experience of current natural environments. In this paper, I consider a less explored topic, that is, how we should understand the impact of the awareness of anthropogenic responsibility in GCC on the aesthetic experience of current environments. I focus in particular on the friction between sensory perception and knowledge in light of the awareness of the anthropogenic nature of GCC. In the first part of the paper, I examine some traits of the aesthetic experience of natural environments that arise from the unique nature of GCC. In the second part, I show how these traits create friction between what we perceive and know, suggesting that this calls for a different understanding and reshaping of the role of sensory perception in the aesthetics of nature. Finally, I consider some aesthetic qualities of natural environments affected by GCC.