Reflection

With each passing year, our world continues to strive for a more environmentally friendly Earth, where endangered animals are protected from climate change. Individually, we’ve been told that as long we take small steps in living more sustainably, our collective carbon emissions can be curtailed, and these species can consequently be saved. But does this really make an impact? Our Earth is scarred by waste and fossil fuel emissions largely created by the same corporations that tell us that we’ve got to try harder as a society. From consumer goods manufacturing to the fossil fuel industry, these corporate behemoths produce a colossal amount of waste and pollution that no body of individuals can ever help combat with the three Rs alone. Under this classic misdirection, we’ve created a system that erroneously focuses on the “what” of global pollution and not the “who.” That is not to say that personal effort is not needed to combat this world issue, but the real onus lies with the brands that we worship every day and the ones that are, in effect, selling the lives of endangered animals in exchange for raising their bottom line. This piece is my attempt to present climate change in its true form. Instead of using conventional and overused symbols like plastic straws and coffee cups, I chose an eerie yet obscure scene where the most iconic and affected animals from both the North and South poles are gathered on the assembly line, a metaphor for what these corporations are doing. With this, I hope people will begin to see that solutions for endangered animals and climate change don’t begin in nature, but rather, with the big corporations where our clothing and packaged goods come from.