Imagining a world where St Paul's Cathedral is under water powerfully makes the climate change point
The arts have a patchy record on the subject of climate change. Greenland at the National Theatre was a play about environmental disaster that was little short of a disaster itself. The temptation is often strong to be preachy. Which is why Michael Pinsky's Plunge is so interesting. Without any accompanying signage, fluorescent blue rings have appeared on three of London's most prominent columns – in the City, in Covent Garden and just off the Mall. They could be mistaken for those ultraviolet fly zappers popular in kebab shops. But this clever installation marks sea level some thousand years hence. The science is not available to make accurate forecasts on this timeframe, so Pinsky's premise that the sea will rise 28 metres is an imaginative one. But imagining a world where St Paul's Cathedral, the Donmar Warehouse and the Athenaeum are all under water powerfully makes the climate change point.