Currents
Watercolor and Colored Pencil, 2020
I created a custom painting for the July 2020 Climate issue of TIME. The creative director of TIME, D.W. Pine commissioned me to created this watercolor, titled Currents specifically for this issue!
It has been a tumultuous year but underlying currents of positive action are surfacing rapidly. Currents depicts a critical grouping of global climate data dictating our present and future action. The reality of this data may be frightening, but there are messages of hope within. This year the impact of the novel coronavirus will lead to a reduction in global CO2 emissions, and renewable energy consumption will continue to increase. It is critical we leverage these trajectories as a sign of our collective potential to support local environmental action for global change today. This includes addressing the disproportionate effects of climate change on marginalized peoples.
The title Currents refers to time and change. The currents in our worlds, oceans are literally shifting as our climate changes. But so too is the collective action we are taking. The data shows this passage of time and why we need to act now for ourselves and our world.
——
CO2 Emissions:
I am referring to Figure 5 which shows both emissions and PPM -https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide
Renewable Energy Consumption:
I am using the data from the first figure at the top of this page -
Sea Level Rise:
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level
Temperature:
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/
Land Ice :
I am combining two sources for this data, one about Greenland and Antarctica Ice Sheet mass loss, the other about all other land ice (glaciers) loss: