Carbon Ruins

Carbon Ruins is an interdisciplinary collaboration with the ambition to stimulate ideas of what a transition to a fossil-free society might look like. With the exhibition, we want to communicate but also problematise possible paths to a fossil-free society. The exhibition shows objects from the fossil era that we no longer use, whose purpose has changed or that are now being produced differently. In addition, these objects remind us that the transition was not always easy, but accompanied by struggle, resistance, sadness - but also joy.

The exhibition was created within the framework set out by scenarios of what would be needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. That meant, among other things, that the greenhouse gas emissions would have to peak by 2030, and that carbon dioxide emissions would decrease rapidly, beginning today, and reach at least net-zero emissions by 2050.

Any remaining carbon dioxide emissions at this point must, therefore, be absorbed either by artificial means or by ecosystems. Emissions of other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide or freons must be halved by at least 2050. These constraints were used as a framework within which the stories about the various objects were written.

The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between researchers from Lund University and an artist. Experts from various fields were invited to workshops to produce objects and stories.