EGGY

The 2020 election is coming up, and so far there have been two Democratic Debates, both of which I watched. For a brief moment, the moderators brought up the topic of climate change. Yes, they addressed the topic, but I was disappointed by the surface-level discussion on the crisis. I think that we are still stuck in the process of bringing a conversation and attention to the topic, but there is so little to be done in presenting and enacting a solution.

STOP MIR REICHT'S!!! - STOP I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!!

ANYWAY, this conversion, or lack thereof, on climate change, reminded me of the day when I was walking back from Hamburger Bahnhof. While I was walking back, I noticed children walking with their parent(s), holding up signs. I squinted my way through the streets, not thinking much about the signs.

I eventually ended up at the Hauptbahnhof station and got my Rice On! because I was absolutely famished. I got the green curry with chicken meatballs and rice noodles. But that is beside the point. A family of three sat next to me and the dad was holding the daughter's sign. I stared far it for quite a long time to make out what it was, I probably stared a little bit too long. I accidentally made I contact and gave the dad a big smile and waved hi to ease the awkwardness. I nervously asked, "Sprechen sie Englisch?" He said, "Yes."

I apologized for staring and proceeded to ask him what the poster was for. He told me that students were stepping out of school that day to gather and take part in a rally to demand climate change outside the German capital. He also said that his daughter and her classmates were going to head to a natural science museum later to learn more about the environment.

I thought that that was so fricken cool, so I asked to take a photo of the poster.

It had a front AND a back!

STOP JETZT!!! - STOP NOW!!!

I learned a couple of things from this poster. There are so many contributors to climate change:

• Deforestation
• Factory pollution 
• Greenhouse gases from livestock
• Automobile emissions
• Shipping industry emissions
• Aircraft emissions
• Industrial pollution
• Air pollution

The main message: the planet is overworked from the increasing levels of fossil fuels.

It is pretty neat that something as simple a poster, a drawing, could communicate and bring attention to many important and complex topics. I found a pretty cool link of a brief history of protest art:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/sep/06/a-brief-history-of-protest-art-from-the-1940s-until-now-whitney-new-york 

Art is powerful. An artist captures an experience, or experiences, through imagination and translates it in a drawing, a song, a play, a story, whatever it may be. Art is powerful in that for just a couple of minutes, the audience/spectator is looking at a picture, or watching a film, is caring about someone else's story/life. That is, in its purest form, empathy. Art can truly change the world if we start understanding and focusing on other people's story. We become more sensitive to other people's wants and needs, and we find a different perspective, the new "truth", on the world.