Short abstract

By images of climate crises, the triple planetary crises can be described; yet graphs, maps, seemingly any visual notes contain inherent problems of representation and imagination. This contribution advocates for the search of anticipatory, situated and ethically grounded images of climate crises.

Long abstract

Satellite technology and AI calculation capabilities resemble media epistemologies that, make the triple planetary crises accessible, measurable and understandable. By mere endless production of climatological knowledge, and especially images of climate crises, they limit the development of alternative futures as they contribute to present climate feelings by following past epistemic realizations.

As satellite images prove changes of natural country borders caused by progressively melting ice, and states react with concepts of “moving borders” (Travers 2024), hallucinations of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) create simulations of physical non-plausible satellite images anticipating urban flooding (Climate Portal 2024). With this, one can face central topics of images of climate crises: the problem of adequate translation of scientific knowledges in technological produced images, and further, the problem of imagination following the representation of climate crises effects and phenomena (Schneider 2018). Moreover, the production of climatological images comes with climate impact too: rockets launches for satellite installments release man-made greenhouse gas into the middle and upper stratosphere (Zisk 2024), material capabilities for AI tools are connected to environmental consequences caused by energy consumption and emissions.

These ambivalent remarks on the production as well as on the interpretation of images of climate cirses call for the search of their alternatives. Be it in alternative mapping in human geography (Khanna 2021), prompting of biodiversity (Colombo, De Gaetano, & Niederer 2023) or the aesthetic potential of earth observation (Eyres 2017), emerging fields take new, re-combining and alternative approaches according to prevalent frameworks of (Western) scientific and technological progression.