Reflection

Protecting the environment often seems like a heavy burden, a desperate attempt at the impossible. In the midst of this tiring sense of hopelessness, what has most motivated me and helped me remain hopeful has been art that engages with Mother Nature’s beauty—and with the stakes of failing to protect Her. Climate change cannot be solved by a single scientific invention; it requires collaborative efforts from all individuals. What better way to foster collaboration than to unite behind the indisputable beauty of nature? That is why I immediately thought of Zaria Forman, an artist who documents climate change with each pastel landscape she draws, upon seeing the term “climate hero.” As a climate activist, she has participated in Operation IceBridge flights with NASA over Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic Canada. When I first came across Forman’s work, which often illustrates glaciers and oceans, I was filled with awe, overcome by not only the transcendence of bodies of water but, more specifically, the vibrancy and vitality of her depiction. In describing the objective behind her art, Forman expresses a mission to “convey the beauty of these vulnerable landscapes, as opposed to their devastation, to inspire viewers to help protect and preserve them.” Ultimately, she strives to “move [people] in a way that statistics cannot”—perhaps this is why her art gives me a fresh sense of hope and motivation each time I return to it. The more I researched the complex interactions between the ocean and climate change, the more strongly I felt that the ocean is the mother of all species, sacrificing its health to protect us and provide for us. Whether she is providing food or absorbing the excess heat and carbon dioxide we produce, we have exploited her so brutally by polluting her, bleaching coral reefs, melting ice sheets and glaciers, acidifying the water, and more. Even worse, we blatantly ignored her pain until it impacted us through the means of sea-level rise and extreme weather events like floods and hurricanes, and even blamed her rather than admitting our reckless destruction. Through poetry, we hold the power to emphasize the necessity of conservation while inspiring readers to take initiative. As co-editor-in-chief of my school’s literary magazine, I work to spread climate activism through ecopoetry. I felt artistic language was the perfect medium to celebrate Zaria Forman's work and expand the world's awareness of the issues it illuminates. I aim to portray the ocean initially as a mother who had lost faith in humans after centuries of exploitation but then to show how that relationship can be repaired. In this way, I’ve striven to offer a portrait of a hopeful future where both mother and children—the ocean, humans, and other organisms—can live in harmony, a future I will be working towards as well through my ecopoetry and volunteer work.