Contributed by Alisha Aggarwal
The statistics seem numbingly normal now as they flash on news channels—Hurricane Harvey could end up being the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history at $190 billion! 51.9 inches of rain! 56,000 calls made to 911 during 15 hours in Houston! Harvey, Irma, Maria, Jose, Ophelia. Wildfires. Landslides. Flooding. The list goes on.
As people across the world offer their sympathy, prayers, thoughts, and donations to areas impacted by these events, very few think, I caused this. They don’t pause to ponder, my unhealthy behaviors have contributed to the lives lost in the hurricanes. Climate change is our problem.
It isn’t only environmental activists’ responsibility to care about our planet. It isn’t a responsibility that we can chuck on future generations. It isn’t a responsibility we can ignore in our daily lives when we step outside in the fall wearing summer clothes because it’s 80 degrees. The problem is ours, and we need to start being accountable to our actions. Only then, we may be able to move towards change.
In light of this, I’ve composed three photos depicting faces of our earth. I designed them for my Digital Art class, for which I got an assignment to make a three-part series using Photoshop. It was one of my first times using Photoshop, and initially, I had no idea what to make. I realized that I could use this opportunity in the class to produce something that was meaningful to me and carried a message. Hence came this product.
The three compositions present our planet’s sphere with human-like features. I wanted to give a persona to our earth to show that the culpability for its state should lie within everyone across the globe. The images shed light on oceanic pollution, rising water levels, urban sprawl, destruction of natural resources, and pollution. I realized through making these compositions that the skills we learn in our classes, even if basic, can be utilized for important things. My newly learned, rudimentary Photoshop skills helped me create a meaningful final result. I hope that the series will trigger some accountability within the people viewing it, and catalyze some small changes in their ways of living.