Yup, that’s London’s Tower Bridge
February 5, 2009
Got your attention? The purpose of the museum’s Climate Change Exhibition is to raise public awareness of global warming. That’s also the objective of this 1.5-ton floating sculpture, and frankly, we can’t imagine a more effective way to have accomplished exactly that. After all, the polar bear’s the poster mammal for a warming planet, and this big bear and her cub are on thinner ice than ever: summer sea ice cover in the Arctic continues to shrink. The sculpture was commissioned by Eden, a new British television channel devoted to the natural world, to coincide with the launch of its Fragile Earth series. Inspired use of public art, or just a clever PR stunt — what do you think?
I recently came across your
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Elaina
Do more polar bears help? It
Do more polar bears help?
It might look nice, but my fear is that it doesn't help move us past the misconception that climate change is all about fluffy animals. I think we'd do better to focus our communications on the very real, very urgent threats to people (drinking water, food availability, disease, displacement, flooding...anything you care to name) Sad as it is, when we frame it as an issue for polar bears, it's easy to dismiss it as 'just another environmental campaign' (not that I think this way, just we need to be strategic about this!)