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This article describes the process educators at Cornell Botanic Gardens undertook to interpret the Ecological Calendar research project for public audiences. An ecological calendar is a way of keeping track of seasonal changes in a habitat. Many communities use and have used such calendars to coordinate their subsistence activities based on these s...
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... In "Art and Environmental Struggle Curating an Exhibition About Place-Rooted Ecological Knowledge," a group of museum curators along with visual and performance artists explore the impact of the climate crisis (Avril et al., 2022). In conversation with the exhibit described above, in "Interpreting Ecological Calendars for the Public Through Exhibits, Art, and Education" a group consisting of horticulturists, public educators, graphic designers, artists, and students at the Cornell Botanic Gardens turned our ecological calendars research into visual art for interpretation and translation to engage the public (Skelly et al., 2022). In fact, Botanic gardens are increasingly focusing on expressions of biocultural diversity conservation, such as ecological calendars, to activate the visiting public (Dunn, 2012(Dunn, , 2017. ...
This special issue of GeoHealth, entitled Rhythms of the Earth: Ecological Calendars and Anticipating the Anthropogenic Climate Crisis, is a transdisciplinary articulation of a methodology of hope to confront the multiple injustices of the Anthropocene. One of the greatest challenges of the climate crisis is the lack of predictability at the scale of communities where impacts are most immediate. Indigenous and rural societies face an ever shifting “new normal” through increasing inconsistency in the seasonality of temperature and precipitation, as well as greater frequency of extreme weather events. With global food systems dependent on local and small producers, climatic variability disrupts access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally relevant food. Ecological calendars are context‐specific knowledge systems grounded in a particular cultural milieu and ecological space, that build anticipatory capacity for seasonal change. They measure and give meaning to time. Based on close observation of one's habitat, human societies have used such calendars for hundreds of years and potentially millennia. By engaging with the interactions among physical phenomena (such as the first snowfall or last frost) and biological events (such as blossoming of specific trees, arrival of migratory birds or mammals, appearance of plants or insects), human societies have been able to identify optimal time windows for their livelihood activities. The 11 research articles in Rhythms of the Earth cover a considerable geographical breadth from Africa to the Arctic; and, from North and South America to Central Asia. They provide evidence that spans millennia from the Roman Empire to the contemporary Anthropocene.
