New INC Y11 Creative Science: Cedar Exodus: Climate Refugees & The Search for Humbaba

‘Cedar Exodus: Climate Refugees & The Search for Humbaba’ is a transdisciplinary research and storytelling project that repositions the Lebanese Cedar Tree (‘Cedrus libani’) as a climate refugee, pushing beyond its readily accepted framework as a static, political symbol shaped by centuries of extraction, nationalism, and occupation. Situated at the intersection of ecological migration, green colonialism, and environmental mythology, the project dismantles sectarian and touristic narratives that portray the Cedar as an eternal and pervasive emblem of Lebanese identity. In contemporary Lebanon, the Cedar has been co-opted by sectarian powers, nationalist propaganda, and reforestation campaigns that often serve to greenwash war crimes. Through speculative ethnography, ecological fieldwork, multimedia storytelling, documentary film, animation, and archival research, the work foregrounds the tree’s demise, beginning with its mythic felling in the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’, and traces its exploitation from the Phoenicians to the British Empire. ‘Cedar Exodus’ also visualizes preservation efforts, the Cedar’s germination in seed labs, and its uphill migration due to climate change, movement increasingly constrained by Lebanon’s alpine geography and karstic soils. The project continues on to interrogate symbolic violence through visual occupation, such as the appropriation of the Cedar by Zionist militias to justify territorial claims in Southern Lebanon. ‘Cedar Exodus’ affirms that climate science cannot remain neutral, that it must reckon with the colonial and military forces that shape ecological futures. The project advocates for decolonial, place-based storytelling held accountable to all beings impacted by empire, war, and environmental collapse.