Climate propaganda in the modern day most often takes the form of lies and denialism, whether it be from big oil and manufacturing corporations, or their paid stooges on social media. However, propaganda has a long history of being used to create terror, and maintain order through fear, whether it be the millions of flyers dropped over soldiers at Dunkirk, or posters threatening London parents with their children’s death during The Blitz in an attempt to send them to the countryside. This second style of propaganda, which threatens and warns rather than encourages, interested me, and made me consider creating a propaganda piece from the perspective of the Anthropocene, threatening the natural world. 

Misinformation is also frequently employed during discussions over climate change, and words and facts are often twisted or taken out of context to support climate denialism. The idea of removing and editing words was famously used by Channel 4 in their 2020 Alternative Christmas Message, which featured a deepfake of the Queen joking and dancing in the Royal Palace. Deepfaking is a technology which uses neural network algorithms to effectively swap one person's face with another. Channel 4 used this to place the queen’s face on that of an impersonator, allowing them to make the “Queen” say whatever they wanted. This is what led me to create my initial broadcast idea, and later rework it to use the sound and ’voice’ of the city out of context. 



The Katy Freeway in Houston, Texas is a 26-lane freeway and the widest road in the world. Built in the sixties as a modest highway to connect the leafy suburbs to the centre, it brought along development to the west of Houston. Miles of leafy suburbia and strip malls sprung up around it, and with this came traffic, and lots of it. It quickly became one of the most congested roads in Texas, and by the turn of the century, it was such a problem that a 10-lane widening was approved by the federal government. A railway line was demolished, and thousands of tonnes of concrete were added to the millions already there. The congestion lessened, which encouraged more development along the highway, which brought more motorists, which created...more congestion. Another round of widening projects were approved, to the same effect, then another, then another, until the highway we see today was created, a bloated, congested hulk of concrete which allows no space for nature or humans.  

This is the concept of induced demand, the idea that the more roads you build, the more drivers will use them. This vicious cycle can be seen almost everywhere roads are widened and is catastrophic for the environment. Not only does it consume millions of tonnes of concrete in construction and upkeep, but it also encourages more emissions through private automobiles, encourages the further development of car-centric suburbs, and destroys any natural environment it comes across. 



Motorways can also damage the environment when they cut through urban spaces. The M8 in Glasgow is the busiest road in Scotland, carrying over 150,000 cars every weekday. The motorway cuts a barrier between the city centre and west end, crossing the Clyde on vast stretches of concrete flyover and deep cuts under other roads. It was created when cars were the future and meant freedom. But today it is a scar across Glasgow, holding the city back.  

The large motorway cut through Charing Cross, historically one of the most important centres of Glasgow life, with grand buildings, both residences and hotels, cobbled streets and a multitude of shops. Now only Charing Cross Mansions and The Mitchell Library survive, separated by the chasm of the depressed motorway. The people who lived there were moved to suburbs and blocks of flats on the far outskirts of the city. Glasgow High Street was similarly destined for destruction, and was spared at the last moment, preserving similarly important buildings and streets. 

It makes the idea of walking from the west end to the centre a daunting thought, encouraging more people to take cars. This makes Glasgow’s transportation network much more car-centric, producing more and more emissions each day. It also inhibits those who cannot drive or do not have the means to own a car. 

Modern suburbs are extensive areas of low-density, single-family housing units which surround the more heavily urbanised city proper. Not only are they extremely car-centric spaces, with almost all houses coming with a garage or an ample driveway, they also are anti-pedestrian spaces, with little green space outside of private gardens and long winding roads which make it hard to leave the estates and cul-de-sacs on foot.  

These developments are built on the outskirts of cities, usually on greenfield sites, often on former agricultural land or wilderness. This, paired with the necessary rapid pace of expansion to accommodate growing populations, makes a recipe for disaster for natural regions and green belts surrounding cities.