Once again this year, the activist movement Fridays for Future has organised the Global Climate Strike dedicated to the rights of the planet. The event is scheduled for 19 March, but to think you can take to the streets to protest in the middle of a pandemic is also rather unrealistic. The only solution is to support the demonstration from home, not to ignore the issue and try to make your voice heard through social media.
WeTransfer – the Dutch online file transfer service – has been doing just that for the past few months and asked six international artists to create posters that unite everyone’s voices in support of the planet. Let’s discover them together.
Anisa Makhoul
American artist Anisa Makhoul’s work centers on the beauty of the everyday world around her.
“A few years ago, the glass factory across the street from my son’s preschool was found to have bypassed the air filters they were supposed to put on their chimney. A huge amount of lead was found in the air around the factory, and even in my son’s playground. Looking back, my son and I couldn’t remember a time when we had felt so generally unwell. The glass company only fixed the problem because they got caught. Factories are our biggest polluters, and we need more innovative ways of doing things so we can all be healthy.”
Daniel Liévano
Colombian illustrator Daniel Liévano plays with reality in his cleverly abstract works.
“The thing I like about using abstraction is that you can appreciate the composition as a whole in no time, all at once, without compromising the message. Just using color itself you can transmit genuine emotions. Earth is passing through a degradation, literally, so I took that as something I could mirror with a simple concept. I hope it’ll remind us to take action.”
Stefan Marx
Stefan Marx is a German artist who tells his stories with simple, sparse lines.
“The world is sweating. It’s too hot. I wanted to draw this simple fact in a simple way.”
Karabo Poppy
Karabo Poppy’s bold creative style is unmissable, and she first developed it by focusing on her immediate surroundings in South Africa.
“I was inspired to create a poster specifically addressing the effect of Global Warming on the African continent. There are photographs that show how the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya has rapidly deteriorated and melted. I felt this sudden urge to embrace the Earth and almost reassure her that her cries don’t fall on deaf ears, that many are banding together to reverse this devastation, because there is no planet after this one.”
Walid Bukhari
Walid Bukhari is a US-based typography wizard who cleverly weaves his messages into images.
“Climate change often feels distant when large-scale changes aren’t happening in your immediate area, so my intention was to highlight the fact that something as familiar as the weather you follow every day is a direct consequence of climate change.”
Yeji Yun
In Seoul-based illustrator Yeji Yun’s playful work, you’ll often find people and animals living in perfect harmony.
“I wanted to emphasize the message that there is no time to wait and see how things turn out. We are the last generation with a real opportunity to save the world, and we have to act right from this moment.”
– Read also: “Less noise, more life”, WWF against submarine noise pollution
The six artworks commissioned for the Global Climate Strike 2021 join the climate protest and share universal messages. If you want to be part of the fight, you can support the demonstration by downloading the artworks on the WeTransfer website, they are available to everyone for free. You can share them on your social profiles or simply print them out and hang them in your window.
Support the rights of the planet and spread the word.
Because there’s no planet B
