Art on planetary scale shines spotlight on climate change

The first global art show on climate change is underway, launching several symbolic performances seen from space that bring people and planet together to highlight the hazards of global warming.

From the US southwest to spots in countries like China, Egypt, India and Spain, thousands of volunteers came together for the week-long photo-performance project.

Using human bodies as the main media, the show was organised by US environmentalist Bill McKibben and his 350 Earth advocacy group, whose name points to the number of parts per million that most scientists agree is an acceptable upper level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Currently, that level is about 390 parts per million.

The group brought the global project into focus in the US and Spain.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, more than 1,000 Girl Scouts and other residents holding blue posters crammed into a dry riverbed to form a human “flash flood” depicting where the Santa Fe River should be flowing.

“It’s hot in here, there’s too much carbon in the atmosphere!” the volunteers chanted.

People also gathered in Delta Del Ebro, Spain to walk through a huge maze conceived by artist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, while in New York a painting depicting the New York and New Jersey coastline after a seven-metre rise in sea levels was unveiled on a rooftop and photographed from space.

Thom Yorke, lead singer of rock super group Radiohead and an advocate of climate action, put a succinct message about the 350 Earth project on his band’s website.

“The plan is to make images visible from the skies to remind those in Cancun that we are running out of time. We can’t keep putting this off,” Mr Yorke wrote.

Thousands were gathering at a state park outside Los Angeles to form a giant image of an eagle taking flight over a field of solar panels, while yesterday in Mexico City, thousands of children created a huge hurricane, with the number 350 depicted in the eye of the storm.

Mumbai saw school children group together in the shape of an elephant to represent the “elephant in the room” that is climate change.

In Australia, a torch display formed the number 350, in a warning about the risk of more wildfires if global warming is not halted.

And in Iceland, artists at the foot of a receding glacier arranged red rescue tents in the shape of a giant polar bear.

Mr McKibben acknowledged before the project that technical terms can be weak when it comes to inspiring people to change, but he was confident the images photographed from space would resonate with those who see them.

“One of the things I hope this achieves is to remind people that we live on a planet. Just like Venus and Mars, we are a hunk of rock out in space and our future depends on, among other things, the gaseous composition of our atmosphere,” remarked Mr McKibben.

The UN forum has made dismal progress toward a global deal to reduce harmful emissions, and Mr McKibben said was he not optimistic about the Cancun talks.