CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: A VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN APPROACH

Abstract

This paper answered calls from scholars to attend to a research gap concerning the visual representation of climate change. Scholarly research has proven that climate change is a critical issue in most parts of the world. This serious problem has not adequately been addressed. This paper, therefore, focused on one research question; how can visual communication images help in addressing the issue of climate change adaptation in Nigeria? Global warming in its totality does not only affect the environment but also individuals and species in one way or the other. It is quite clear that not everybody or persons in society are literate enough to understand or know about the extent of trouble or damage the issue of global warming exerts on the ecosystem. Imagery plays a role in increasing the sense of importance of the issue of climate change (saliency), or in promoting feelings of being able to do something about climate change (efficacy) – but few, if any, images seem to do both. Communications strategies should assess the purpose of their messages, especially regarding salience and efficacy. These image employed by the artist is intended to make people feel that climate change is important) and second, for efficacy (‘this image can do something about climate change’). Adopting visual analysis as a methodology of enquiry, this paper examined visuals in educating people on the adverse effect of climate change on the environment. Findings from this study led to the conclusion that, through analysis of the changes in visual designs which very often is impelled by social, cultural, religious or political forces, the entirety of nations regarding the environmental issue can be adequately addressed.