Reflection

Reflection

Carbon emissions are an existential threat to our lands and oceans. Along with emissions comes climate change and global warming. Rising emissions that lead to abnormally high temperatures destroy homes for ocean-dependent animals such as polar bears. Ice is melting every year due to global warming. I want to raise awareness of how emissions destroy nature and wildlife. My artwork contextualizes the devastation of ocean-dependent animals within the trend of increasing carbon emissions from major countries. The bottom chimneys symbolize the runaway emissions, while the graph demonstrating historic carbon-emission trends supports it with concrete statistics. Surrounded by it all is a polar bear with her baby clinging on to her. The breakage at the bottom of their bodies shows how, due to emissions, icecaps are melting and their living-platform is being demolished. With the crumbling of the glaciers comes the crumbling of the ways of life. I want to show through my art how vulnerable wildlife is. By inundating the air with carbon emissions, we are desecrating a source of life and diversity. We should be caretakers, not conquerors of the Earth. We have influences, big and small, that effect sustainability in our life: cutting down the use of plastic, installing solar panels, taking public transportation, biking instead of driving... Emissions from personal vehicles are prime contributors to global warming; if we decrease their usage, we increase the health of our ecosystems. Little hinges swing big doors, and by working together we can transform this crisis.