How can we prepare for our climate change future?

When global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, what will that mean for Binghamton — both the University and the small city at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers?

The Binghamton 2 Degrees initiative is intended to answer that question and to help the region prepare for its climate change future. The kickoff event will be an arts and music festival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. August 26 in the City of Binghamton’s Confluence Park, located on North Shore Drive.

“Starting with art is logical for this reason: As a baseline, we want to get people in the community and the University to start thinking about climate change every day,” said Associate Professor of Economics Andreas Pape, a longtime member of the Sustainable Communities Transdisciplinary Area of Excellence. “Art is a good way to do that.”

The event is sponsored by Binghamton University, the Roberson Museum and Science Center, and the Broome County Arts Council. It also received funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Higher Education Program.

The festival will feature participatory art, storytelling and mural painting, local artists and educational booths. Writers taking part include poet and Binghamton University Creative Writing Professor Joe Weil, Namibian memoirist and doctoral candidate Mercia Kandukira, and poet Dante DiStefano, who is also an English teacher at Union-Endicott High School. The music schedule includes folk duo The Vollmers, Joe Kollar, alt-country band I Love You Little Flower, and space-folk singer-songwriter Dreambird.

Festival parking will be at the nearby Binghamton University Downtown Center and the Roberson Museum and Science Center. In case of inclement weather, the festival will be held at the Roberson on Front Street.

Organizers hope that the festival will be annual; they are also planning monthly faculty panels and other events on particular themes. While September will focus on a general introduction to the Binghamton 2 Degrees program, October will center on food, November on health, January on your carbon footprint, February on energy, March on floods and other disasters, and April on refugees and housing.

“We strongly believe that everyone has something to bring to the table,” Pape said.

Sparked by news stories of climate change, he began to consider his own options for addressing climate issues, such as installing solar panels on his house. He eventually came to realize that he couldn’t climate-proof his home without considering the larger region.

“Thinking about climate change on a global level is very daunting,” he said. “There’s this middle level where we can draw a line around Greater Binghamton and say, ‘Let’s think about what is going to happen to the community and the University under climate change, and what we can do about it.’”

A warmer Binghamton may face more extreme weather events, such as flooding and encroaching wildfires. Climate refugees could stream in from large coastal population centers inundated by the rising sea. The power grid may fail more often.

But exactly what will happen and how events will unfold is unknown. The Binghamton 2 Degrees project will serve as a focal point for that research, he said.

Unfortunately, the science of climate change has been insufficient in generating action and modifying social behavior; the arts can make the concept of climate change more present and pressing. Increased awareness and activism can then lead to the development of practical local solutions, such as a regional microgrid to safeguard against outages.

“It’s easy to feel discouraged or terrified by climate change, but we are trying as an initiative to avoid that,” Pape said. “Part of this is trying to engage with climate change in a context of joy — to enjoy this process of thinking about how to prepare.”