Art For Climate Change: Illustrating Scary Climate Facts - New York Floods

In spite of everything #Trump has done to discredit #climatescience denial of the consequences of our rampant consumption does not make them go away. Flooding, droughts, and monster storms are just some of the signs that the planet is poised to reject us. Climate scientists have done their best to convince us that unless we do something soon, our way of life is in peril. But when we talk about #climatechange, it's easy to get bogged down in charts and numbers without really understanding what those statistics actually mean. A lack of understanding breeds a lack of interest, and as a result, a lack of #action. The problem then becomes, how can we put #climate information into a form that the average consumer can understand? What expression of this data can we use to motivate the common citizen to be concerned about climate statistics?

To me, the answer to this question was obvious. Nothing motivates the masses to #actonclimate than being faced with a physical representation of their fate. This was the inspiration for my series of digital paintings called Art For Climate Change. Each work visually depicts the reality of an unpleasant climate fact. The first image in this series is called Rush Hour.

Rush Hour, Corner of Fulton and Nassau, NYC, 2040

The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC2) estimates that an overall rise in global temperatures of as little as 1.5 degrees could result in widespread flooding in New York City, turning low-lying areas like lower Manhattan into wetlands by 2040. By 2100, New York would resemble an archipelago. Subways would be flooded and useless. John F Kennedy Airport would be destroyed. More than 200,000 people would be displaced from the Bronx alone.

In the next entry, I'll be illustrating how climate change has spawned record setting droughts, and in turn, a devastating water shortage out west.

#digitalart #digitalpainting #illustration #conceptart #actonclimate