Beyond Nature: Envisioning New Alaskan Supernatural Geothermal Landscapes

Abstract

This thesis examines the impacts of a "supernatural landscape" on public awareness and political action toward climate change and clean energy. A supernatural landscape refers to landscapes where specific natural characteristics or processes are artificially intensified to make the landscape appear more natural than nature itself. This thesis focuses on Alaska's conflicted approach to rapid climate change due to its hindered climate policies and identifies geothermal energy as a potential solution. The proposal imagines a set of supernatural landscapes heated with geothermal energy and used as climate change plant laboratories and forecasting landscapes. These landscapes intensify and accelerate climate change processes to act as political tools to encourage climate policies through their aesthetic appeal and scientific research output. Ultimately, this thesis expands landscape architecture's influence on political decisions through aesthetic means.