Amplifying Immersive Climate Learning within the Heritage Sector

Abstract

Climate change poses an existential threat to our heritage and the way we live, yet its impacts are still often perceived as distant,
which in turn acts as a barrier to achieving the behavioural and societal changes required to solve this emergency. This paper summarises impacts of climate change, psychological barriers to effective action, and how experiential climate learning can help overcome these challenges. Surveys of community perceptions of threats to cultural and natural heritage in Scotland’s Western Isles, and the increasing engagement of heritage practitioners with this emergency point to the power of heritage as a positive actor in the climate crisis. A strategy for using virtual reality to extend experiential climate learning is proposed and evaluated through
the creation and deployment of a climate heritage exhibit. The exhibit enables climate impacts and potential climate futures for the Western Isles to be experienced. The workflow used is then applied to global landscapes experiencing climate change. This demonstrates the way that virtual reality can represent the diversity of landscapes impacted by this crisis and enable immersive climate learning experiences.