Reflection

After researching how we should implement environmental policies when they may negatively impact our freedoms, I was inspired to include the legal process as a solution regarding the efficiency of our current environmental policies and ways to advocate for significant environmental change within the oftentimes corrupt and complacent legal system. With the shifting public opinion and rising opposition to harmful laws and fossil fuel industries, I wanted to symbolize a “hand” of justice that infiltrates the courtroom and stops the government, depicted by the gavel, from destroying the earth before it is too late. I added water to signify the flooded courtroom due to rising sea levels and a polluted atmosphere as a result of global warming. While creating this artwork, I felt frustration in how to convey the vision that popped into my mind, such as how the hand should be placed, making me redo the piece many times. However challenging it was, when creating the hand itself, I felt a sense of urgency for action and immediate justice. Yet, I felt hope as well—hope that the hand could stop the destruction in time; hope at the sight of solidarity in the masses of protestors that demand for change and refuse to accept anything else. When viewing my artwork, I wish for people to see that action, even when it means being one person in a mass of protestors, can and will bring the attention of the government, and that there is still an opportunity to reverse this global warming phenomenon, although it is an opportunity that becomes narrower everyday with the world’s current state. But hope, however bleak, is a starting point in a divisive political climate, and is better than giving up. After researching solutions to climate change and potential solutions, I learned that action within the courtroom is rising, with many lawsuits against fossil fuel companies to account for their responsibility in accelerating climate change, and to limit their destructive methods. Now that I have learned about the many solutions to climate change and various methods of legal action, I plan to organize a sustainability club at my school that helps organize protests and raise money for organizations that benefit the environment.