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Actions have consequences. What is done today, may have a result almost instantly, tomorrow, or even years later. More often than not, humans tend to forget this basic concept of life, and science. At the stake of years of industrialization, progress and innovation in the field of technology and machinery, the world has almost forgotten about the drastic harmful effects it has had on the climate. Climate change is real! It is a problem that is facing the fate of this planet and threatening it in the distant future. Human mind works in an interesting manner. It only considers something a threat if it can be felt in a tangible manner or seen visually. We are conditioned in a way to think of our lives in a short-term period- to disregard anything that wouldn’t affect us in our lifetimes. Perhaps, that is the reason why people argue that it will take a few decades for the planet to even start deteriorating.
Yet, while the consequences seem to be long-term in context to a human lifetime, they are rather closer in context to the planet. Climate change is a problem that can and should be tackled from this very moment. The steps the world takes right now to solve it, will be fruitful in the future before it is eventually late. The severity of the situation is what compelled me to take up this topic as my manifesto. Using analytical thinking and reasoning, and creative skills, I created a design for a table that would highlight the melting of glaciers due to the immense carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as posters that depicts the consequences of climate change on the food and natural resources in the world.
What truly inspired me and motivated me to pick up Climate change as my topic was perhaps the urgency of the situation. The problem at hand works in a domino effect. With global warming and climate change, there are multiple other effects that prove to be harmful for the planet. The carbon dioxide emissions are eventually contributing to making the Earth’s atmosphere warmer day-by-day. This has led to glaciers melting and rising sea levels. Moreover, the change in climate all around the world has also led to having harmful effects on the flora and fauna, and the production of crops and food around the globe. There have been numerous predictions and simulations about how the rise of the sea level will submerge cities around the world and affect some in such a way that they are uninhabitable. Upon reading multiple articles and sketching various designs, I came up with the idea for the table that would be placed in the Café 2 at Museum of Modern Art. It is a piece that has the most interaction with the visitors and would require them to pay attention to it, therefore increasing their awareness of it.
As aforementioned in the essay and explained in the article “Why People Ignore the Science Behind the Climate Crisis (and What You Can Do)” there is a confirmation bias amongst the people that there is a disregard for all information that doesn’t align with their beliefs and actions in their lifetime. However, how can we tackle this state of human psychology? My purpose was to raise awareness about climate change so that people start taking conscious decisions while doing their chores in their routine life that help the planet in the long run. To show the glaciers melting in my table would provide them the much-needed perspective to grasp the gravity of the problem at hand. The table is designed in such a way that it interacts with the people sitting in the dining area in order to maximize its effect. The inclusion of the timeline in the table as an element of design was a conscious and thought-out decision I made in order to depict how over the last few hundred years, the glaciers have melted in such capacity. As stated in the article “Glaciers and climate change” on the Nation Snow and Ice Data Center, the glaciers in the Himalayan region have retreated by approximately 850 meters since 1780. The article has stated reasons such as coal burning, carbon dioxide emissions, burning of forests as catalysts in the glacier melting.
Another aspect of the manifesto that I wanted to focus on was the effect that climate change will have on the food production around the globe. Instead of showing the direct impact on the glaciers as my attempt on the table, I wanted to take an alternate approach and strategically use objects that will be impacted a lot. Therefore, I chose to use food imagery and components that require some or complete interaction with the climate. The idea behind this is the same: to show how immense the impact of climate change is and to raise awareness on the topic in a visually appealing yet incredibly impactful manner simultaneously. Climate change affects the yearly seasons arounds the world drastically. For instance, over the last few years, the temperature recorded during the summer months has been the highest ever leading to prolonged summer months, and heat waves. This not only affects the farmers as their crops burn, but also affects the seasonal crops. With a prolonged summer, it leaves less time for plants that grow during the winter to flourish and sustain the demand. Moreover, the heat waves also affect the animals as many don’t survive due to the lack of water. Furthermore, the melting glaciers threaten the lives of many polar animals such as polar bears, penguins, and seals. As stated in the article “Animals That Live on Glaciers” the animals are stranded on icebergs floating in the sea which limits their food options and leaves them stranded.
The intense research combined with hours of brainstorming and critical thinking solidified my stance of the topic of Climate Change and further bolstered the claim of my manifesto. I understood how deeply it affected the lives of the people currently living on the planet, and millions more that will be following. Until this project, I only had a brief understanding of climate change. However, after this, I understand how incredibly urgent it is to act upon it right now. Through the entire designing process, I understood how important it is to raise awareness on the topic so that people remain involved with the cause.
Bibliography
“Animals That Live on Glaciers and Icebergs.” Sciencing. Accessed March 11, 2018.
https:// sciencing.com/animals-live- glaciers-icebergs- 8265816.html.
MOMA. Restaurants and cafés. Accessed March 15, 2018. https://www.moma.org/visit/eating.
“National Snow and Ice Data Center." Glaciers and Climate Change | National Snow and IceData Center. Accessed March 19, 2018.
Resnick, Kate. "Design Ads and Social Issue." Pinterest. November 17, 2015. Accessed March 24, 2018. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/477944579184127845/.
Resnick, Kate. "Design Ads and Social Issue." Pinterest. November 17, 2015. Accessed March 21, 2018. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/477944579184127845/.
“Why Our Brains Ignore Climate Change – and What to Do About It." Why Our Brains I gnore Climate Change – and What to Do About It | WeADAPT. Accessed March 18, 2018.https://www.weadapt.org/knowledge-base/using- climate-information/climate- psychology.
”Why People Ignore the Science Behind the Climate Crisis (and What You Can Do).
Reality. Accessed March 20, 2018. https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/why- people-ignore-science- behind-climate- crisis-and- what-you- can-do.
