Reflection

Reflection

In the summer of 2021, when I was twelve, my family and I were forced to leave Los Angeles and seek shelter in my cousin’s distant home. The Hungry wildfire struck just as I returned from vacation, leaving us no chance to say goodbye to my childhood house. Thousands of buildings were abandoned, and unemployment rose by 5%, severely impacting my father among many others. This experience underscored the drastic impact of climate change on our lives. Through my art piece, I aim to express how climate change accelerates global warming, particularly through wildfires that devastate both human and animal lives. The smoke from these fires pollutes the air, causing a 10% increase in hospital admissions and undoing years of air quality improvements. While climate change negatively impacts humans, our contributions to carbon dioxide emissions exacerbate the problem, heating the atmosphere and fueling more wildfires. My art display comments on the role of humans in the wildfire crisis, both as victims and catalysts. As I spend my summers volunteering by picking up trash in neighborhood waterways, removing invasive plant species at Crystal Cove State Park, and raising funds for hydration backpacks for wildfire search and rescue operations, I am acutely aware of how quickly nature is being polluted and destroyed by wildfires. Animal habitats are ruined, and geographical landmarks are completely altered. Before natural areas are lost, I hope to warn people about the detrimental imprints humans leave and inspire others to improve the environments they cherish. By including a life-sized, systematically proportioned portrait of myself, I represent human efforts in my volunteer community aiding in post-wildfire restoration. The act of rooting burned buildings out of the ground shows our determination to combat the effects of global warming; the net emphasizes the entanglement of humans in this issue. Through this visual narrative, I hope to inspire others to take action and protect our environment for future generations.