Last night I had the pleasure of attending the CoolClimate Art Contest awards ceremony, an event calling on artists worldwide to join the climate change discussion and visually portray how they experience this global environmental crisis.
Five winners were selected from over 1,000 entries from around the world. The evening began with some words from first place winner Christos Lamprianidis of Greece, whose work “No Pollution Please” is seen here. He said, “I am a teacher. I teach high school pupils. But, above all, I am a father. And I’m afraid.
“What kind of land and air will our children and grandchildren inherit?”
It was a somber message, an attitude increasingly experienced by those in the U.S. who are frustrated with the lack of movement in comprehensive climate change legislation this past year.
"The Loading" by finalist Donald Lipski
But Van Jones, former Obama appointee, environmental activist and contest judge had a more positive outlook. He focused on the progress that we’ve made in only the past couple of years – passing climate legislation in the House of Representatives, having solid support from the White House. Appealing to the football fans in the audience he said, “We have run the ball 98 yards against the opposing team. We haven’t lost, we’ve only got two more yards to go!”
It was an inspiring reminder, and reinvigorated the crowd. I had the chance to speak to Van later on, and he repeated this sentiment. “When my son plays soccer, he will be having a fantastic game, playing his heart out. But as soon as his opponent scores two goals, he wants to quit. We wouldn’t allow our kids to give up, so why should we?”
Good question.
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