Art Campaign Through COVID-19

From air pollution to water pollution, from endangered species to pandemics, none of the causes are left behind in affecting our mother earth. The exploitation and degradation of our planet and environment have  gone up at an alarming rate. These adverse effects are nothing but the results of our actions which are completely against the protection of our environment. One such incident that grabbed our attention towards itself was Australia bushfire in which more than 46 million acres of land were burned. This majorly affected 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles. This also led to the death of 8,000 koalas.

When the city is not yours anymore. Representing the pain of koalas and other wildlife animals who turned into ashes in bushfire.

Conserving wildlife for a better beautiful sustainable world! We have historically tended to separate civilisation from wildlife in a number of ways, including the legal, social, and moral senses. Moreover being greedy, we are almost taken away wildlife’s living rights on earth as well. From exploiting wildlife for our own benefit to entertainment. Climate change, bushfires, cyclone. The global wildlife population decreased by almost 52% between 1970 and 2014, according to a world wildlife fund report!

The wildlife population has drastically reduced over the period of 44 yrs.

Not only this, there have been so many issues creating taboo in society and mental barrier among humankind. There have been gender discrimination all around the globe. Even the colours have been separated according to the gender. Pink is considered a feminine colour and blue is considered a masculine colour. But do you know what? Pink which is considered to be more decided and stronger colour, was suitable for boys while blue which is considered more delicate and dainty was suitable for girls. But as per the 1927 chart in Time Magazine, the whole scenario changed completely. And after the second world war, the concept that pink belongs to girls and blue belongs to boys started dominating in the society.

Let’s break the taboo and accept the era where colour is not based on the gender.

The mesmerizing Hutt Lagoon lake which gives a picture of pink and blue colours breaks the taboo of this societal gender discrimination. Here we come up with a story of a vulnerable Koala family, who are in Sydney, Australia ( the largest country in Oceania). The father koala, John along with his family escaped the tragic Australian bushfire. John near the beautiful Hutt Lagoon lake is sitting over a very little green bush left and is in deep concern of what will happen next to him and his family. At the same time, mother Eleina and daughter Cindrella of John’s family are sitting at the Bondi beach with a deep concerned of what will happen to the living creatures as beaches are disappearing due to the climate change. Will the aquatic and other lives will also become endangered like them? With so much stress, they are not able to feel safe and home anymore. When cities are not ours anymore!

We humans are not only destroying the wildlife but also their habitat. We are not able to take care of one of the best nature’s gift i.e., ocean and as a result they are getting eroded.

With so many concerns and thoughts in mind while escaping the Australian bushfire, Jack with his family landed to London. The koala son, Jack is holding a thread in his hand and sprinkling the colours of rainbow at the Boxpark Shoreditch signal, which signifies the empowerment of each and every life around us.

Spreading the message of equality for all irrespective of the gender, race, colour, religion, etc.

While the koala family took a sigh of relief, a global threat hit the world so hard. This time it’s corona virus disease (COVID-19) which has been declared the outbreak because of the brutality that we humans cause to the nature. By now this zoonotic disease has become a pandemic. What could be worse than this? A revenge from nature! This deadly unseen enemy has shaken the whole world. The major cause of this global threat is the wet market that we have created for our needs.

HIV – Started  by eating chimps

vCJD – Started by eating cows

Avian flu – Started by eating birds

Ebola – Started by eating bats

COVID-19 – Started by eating pangolins

The result of human’s behaviour towards the nature.

The 3 biggest threats to life on earth:

  • Environmental climate change
  • Pandemics and
  • Antibiotic resistance viruses
All thanks to the ‘London is open’ campaign which allowed a rabbit to escape from the wet market. And while the rabbit travelled in London underground train, the journalist father koala, John at St. Paul station offered a mask to him while covering his own mouth with another mask. The whole koala family took the initiative to ensure a safe & healthy environment for our loving community and humanity! Inspired by their father, Jack and Cindrella also started spreading awareness among everyone. At the Soho signal, Cindrella came across a reindeer with both the hands filled with shopping bags. To fight against COVID-19, Cindrella provided sanitizer to the reindeer, as it’s highly recommended by the doctors to be clean and healthy at this time. Getting inspired by his father and sister, Jack also wanted to do the same and started making everyone aware of the role of handwash during this threat. At Oxford Street, London Jack demonstrated everyone the correct way of washing hands with handwash. Since it’s spring, the festive season in Notting Hill which used to be the most happening time in London has now grieving due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have a keen liking for fast fashion but have you ever thought of what are the consequences of it? Do you know that approx. 200 gallons of water, equivalent to 285 showers, is needed to make one pair of jeans? For a t-shirt to be made, the amount of water required is around 2720 litres, which is same to that of what we normally drink over a 3 year period. On the other hand, it’s estimated that the items of clothing delivered out of factories annually worldwide is 80 billion. And then the amount of clothes discarded in one year in UK is enough to fill Wembley Stadium. Every year, the average American throws about £72 of clothing, shoes and other household textiles. An average of £285 of clothes are stockpiled by British woman that they never wear and this is equivalent to 22 outfits each that are left hanging in valuable wardrobe space, or £30 billion on unworn clothes. Also the consumption of clothing produces 1.5 tonnes of CO2 x household x year, the equivalent of driving 6000 cars. But at the same time, 95% of discarded clothing can be recycled or upcycled. What could be better than such an ethical fashion at this point of time. For recycling and upcycling of clothes, you can visit and contact www.pencilforchange.com

Now the fashionista mother koala, Eleina knows that there’s a lot more to make people aware of. Considering the effect of the human cruelty towards the animals, she started promoting ethical fashion instead of fast fashion. With the dead fast fashion spirit of Fastie on her shoulder, Eleina is at Notting Hill. She is the encouragement of responsible and ethical fashion that we everyone should adopt in order to invest more in quality than in quantity.

The competition is so harsh among the fashion brands that it is leading to fast fashion vs. environment war. Fast fashion leads to quantity buying which further adds onto landfill. The one more negative impact of fast fashion industry is our affected health as the industry increases a huge amount of carbon footprint. Fast fashion is not free; someone somewhere is paying.

We don’t want any more pandemic or deadly threats. For this we really need to exert ourselves to save animals and even insects like bumble bees which are majorly responsible for the world’s food.

Our buying behaviour can actually be responsible for the waste generated in fashion industry. Shifting towards DIY and ethical fashion has led to reduction of pollution and money spent. As we can see in the graphic that in year 1960, the amount of money spent is quite higher than the number of fashion items produced in the same year.  But by accepting the ethical fashion it has become vice-versa in the year 2010. It has further resulted into a 15% of recycled clothes in US and led to 11 million tons of clothes that ends up in US landfill.

Since the effect of COVID-19 is increasing rapidly due to which health experts are recommending everyone to practice self-quarantine. But then the Mother’s Day is also approaching and both the mother and the daughter, Eleina and Cindrella planned to went out. Then the news flashed on the screen of a café filled their mind with full of concern and they went to the UK’s financial market, Canary Wharf.

No one can help us at this time, only we can help ourselves.

As Eleina and Cindrella read the headline “Coronavirus could cost the global economy $2.7 Trillion”, they immediately informed John who has already left for a global financial tour in a truck. This stressed him even more when he saw the figures and graphs of this crash in the global financial market. The number of coronavirus disease cases and the number of death cases because of it are as follows:

1987 Crisis
Crisis because of COVID-19
The GDP growth that has been projected and actually experienced has a great decline.
The Dos
  • Stay home
  • Frequently wash your hands
  • Stay six feet or more apart from people
  • Call/Facetime/chat online with friends and loved ones

Cleanliness is the most important way to be kept in mind at this crucial time.

The Don’ts
  • Go out in crowds
  • Ignore the guidance of public health officials

Social distancing is the only way to prevent getting affected by corona virus.

Protect Mental Health
It’s better to bring in practice the following points to protect your mental health:
  • Avoid watching, reading or listening to news that could cause you to feel anxious or distressed.
  • Seek information mainly to take practical steps to prepare your plans and protect yourself and loved ones.
  • Seek information updates at specific times.

At this time of pandemic, it’s very important to use our wisdom and take actions accordingly so that no more such case arises.

ECO FACTS

As a result of COVID-19, everyone is practising self-quarantine and shifting towards ethical way of living. This in turn is expected to result in 25% drop in carbon dioxide emission and 4.3% reduction in air traffic. If coronavirus continues to exist like this, then this fall will be the first in global emissions since 2008. But we don’t know if we shall be happy about it or not.

Don’t know if we should happy about it or not but this is what this pandemic is bringing for us.

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