Reflection

After stripping away difficult scientific terms and ambiguous graphs, the phenomenon we call “climate change” boils down to one concept: humans overloading naturally occurring cycles. Like how adding heat to a pot of hot water causes it to overflow, our excessive production of carbon emissions tips Earth’s energy budget and causes detrimental warming. Rapid change is happening right underneath our noses—and some people still can’t see it. The simplicity of our situation inspired my work, which is a commentary on the irony of climate change. We look away from the things we have begun causing (warming oceans, habitat loss, ocean acidification, flooding, extreme weather) and have not bothered to look back. I thought this was similar to the trope of walking away from an active stove and returning to some form of disaster. I find myself pulling at my hair and screaming at the screen when a movie character leaves an open flame to complete the most trivial task. FOLKS, HEAT IS HEAT. In my digital painting, I combine the science behind climate change with a situation that most people understand from personal experience. I include jars with human shadows along with a cutting board with fish and coral next to the pot of melting ice because I wanted to show that climate change has real impacts on all life, including ourselves. The jars have an additional message: in our carelessness, humanity will end up cooking itself. We are next in a long line of organisms. In the background, I show that climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, which causes periods of severe flooding and drought.