Past, Present and Future Perspectives on Climate Change and Cultural Heritage

MAY CASSAR
Director, Center for Sustainable Heritage, University College London

Reflecting on her involvement since 2001 in raising awareness of climate change and cultural heritage and undertaking and encouraging research, May Cassar will consider the support and work of national and international organizations, academic institutions and professional bodies in the area of climate change and cultural heritage.

In considering where we have come from, May Cassar will outline the difficulties in influencing policy when the evidence from scientific research is yet scarce. She will cite her experience and that of fellow researchers in engaging with among others, the IPCC to take on board climate change impact on cultural heritage in its 4th Assessment Report (2007). She will outline what she considers to be the main challenges today including how to have the threats recognised as real beyond those who work closely with cultural heritage.

May Cassar will also comment on the relevance and importance of climate change from a heritage perspective and will argue for a more balanced approach to climate change and cultural heritage citing the opportunities for creative expression in the arts, humanities and performance that environmental change can offer society. May Cassar will close by proposing that we need strategies that recognise both the threats and the opportunities that climate change brings to cultural heritage.