125,000 Youth Draw the World They Want!

The Voice of the Young

125,000 youth from all over the world have sent a message on the world’s largest postcard to the leaders at COP24:

Fight climate change and help the environment!

Check out this (soundless) video of the art.

“Dear children, dear teachers, dear parents, dear colleagues and dear friends: We did it and we made it!” said the organizers of this Guinness World Record smashing initiative.

Yes, my dishes are piling up, but how could I not post this first?

Earlier today, while walking to the train station to buy my ticket to Warsaw for Monday, I happened upon a university plaza were a couple civil society groups had set up shop in the blustery cold.

Apparently, this is the first time in many years that the people of the COP host city have not been able to interact with the groups coming from around the world. (If you are wondering what COP is, see Climate Change and You)

Many groups were sorely disappointed about there being no community-based venue for people’s organizations and non-profit groups, but a couple groups figured out a way. Here are a few shots of postcards from Kolkata and Nepal that they laid out in the plaza.

art from youth

And including one I found from the USA — from New Orleans!

The giant postcard was rolled out on the Aletsch Glacier near the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps. Organizers want to launch a "global climate change youth movement" to play into the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland, known as COP24, next month. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
The giant postcard of all these drawings was rolled out on the Aletsch Glacier near the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

 

From overhead, messages spelled out on the card were “Stop global warming” and “#1.5C,” a nod to the goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

More photos of the giant postcard on the glacier are beneath this next short section.


Keeping a glacier from melting

Another artist was exhibiting photographs of the project to wrap the famous Rhône glacier to keep it – vainly – from melting. When the Swiss woman explained it, I could barely hold back my tears.

glacier tunnel

A tunnel was cut through the glacier to give visitors a chance to see the beauty from within the glacier itself. (Read the article from USA Today)


Hope for the world

The recently released special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that under certain conditions, it should still be possible to limit global warming to a maximum of +1.5°C. This would help keep the of climate change at a tolerable level.

Young people have a key role to play if this goal is to be achieved, both as generations that will suffer the consequences of climate change for very long and as a force for concrete action. Here are more of photos of the World’s Biggest Postcard.

An aerial view shows a massive collage of 125,000 drawings and messages from children from around the world about climate change seen rolled out on the Aletsch Glacier at an altitude of 3,400 meters near the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps on Friday, November 16, 2018. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
An aerial view shows a massive collage of 125,000 drawings and messages from children from around the world about climate change seen rolled out on the Aletsch Glacier at an altitude of 11,155 feet near the Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps on Friday, November 16, 2018.  (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
The mosaic of postcards, measuring 26,910 square feet, was laid out on Switzerland's Aletsch Glacier. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
The mosaic of postcards, measuring 26,910 square feet, was laid out on Switzerland’s Aletsch Glacier. ( Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps, and it is melting at an alarming rate. Losing nearly 40 feet of ice a year, the glacier could be gone by the end of the century, experts warn.

The children's postcards were pinned down with clamps and nets, and laminated in long glued-together strips to protect them from the ice and snow. Organizers said they hoped to set a Guinness World Record for the "postcard with the most contributions." (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
The children’s postcards were pinned down with clamps and nets, and laminated in long glued-together strips to protect them from the ice and snow. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

Organizers said the 125,000 individual postcards set a Guinness World Record for the “postcard with the most contributions.”

Thanks to Fabrice Coffrini and the Weather Channel for the photos!

My other posts from COP24: