UnEarth Magazine.

UnEarth Volume 5.1

As academics, we spend much of our lives in critical conversation. Getting to the crux of an issue, analysing, and proposing solutions is the basis of what most of us do here at the University of St Andrews. Creativity, on the other hand, has less of an established place in our curricula.

UnEarth aims to amplify student voices. To us, having an outlet to freely discuss and portray environmental issues gives insight into possibility, and possibility means hope. With Volume 5.1: Power, we aim to highlight how a multi-disciplinary approach gives us the power to create real change. Through our Power collections, you’ll find a variety of perspectives and genres. This issue includes everything from a light-station horror to thoughtful op-eds on global governance issues, poems from outer space to a report on Dr Asha de Vos’s work to decolonialise marine science.

At UnEarth, we see creative expression as an underrated mechanism to highlight contemporary issues. Art connects people, and it connects values. Whether it be via poetry, story-telling, sculpture, or painting, activism can reach broader audiences, and create meaning for wider demographics about the climate crisis, alongside its challenges and possible solutions. That’s why this issue has a collection dedicated to the Power of Creativity for the first time.

From the ‘Power of Innovation’ and the ‘Power of Governance’, we hope you’ll walk away with new knowledge. From the ‘Power of Opinions’ collection, we hope you’ll have your thoughts provoked. And from the ‘Power of Creativity’, we hope to inspire you to reconsider what activism can be.

All of our articles have an accompanying art piece, created by our incredible team of artists. We hope their art allows you to engage with each topic uniquely.

We want to give a huge thank you to our incredible team of writers, artists and editors – UnEarth is so glad to have you. Congratulations on all of your incredible work this semester.

Reader, we hope UnEarth Volume 5.1: Power, leaves you inspired, and perhaps with a little more hope for our future. Thank you for taking the time to engage with our work.

Nora Krogsgaard and Madeline Sully.

Co-Editors-in-Chief, 2024-2025