'Finding The Self' is the third and last artwork of a triptych in my collection 'Quest For The Light'. This is a triptych about the endless series of hollow words and empty promises by politicians, leaders and big corporations regarding…. Well, regarding everything that harms the earth, harms nature, harms people.
We have travelled through the void, and arrived beyond the void. We float there, looking around us.
And what do we encounter, what do YOU see when you look beyond the hollow words and empty promises ?
Your Self.
Your own responsibility.
The growing up of your children and grandchildren, or those of family and friends. The offspring of our society.
But also closer, in the here and now. The people who are hungry every day, have no drinking water, live in dire poverty. Who are displaced by wars, an unliveable climate, floods, droughts...
Why don't we take that responsibility ?
If only it were the only problem we had to deal with: climate change....
Governments' -empty- promises and media focus are almost entirely on it.
But what about polluted and poisoned air, soil and water, severe decline in biodiversity, rapid impoverishment and reduction of fertile soil, shortage of fresh water, severely polluted and warming oceans, mono culture, forests disappearing at breakneck speed, resource depletion....
That is not a climate crisis... I call that the Earth Crisis....
We often talk about the scarce, rare-earth metals we need for an "energy transition”. But the real scarcity that is already having disastrous consequences is the rapidly increasing shortage of a clean earth, a clean home for everything that lives.
But why is it moving so slowly?
Everything that is being done to "combat" the climate crisis seems to be focused on creating as many "clean" energy sources and techniques to remove CO2 from the air as possible, so that the inhabitants of rich countries do not have to radically alter their luxury and lavish lifestyles.
New technology to solve the problems without sacrificing any of our wealth and prosperity. But wouldn't that be the first time that a major problem has been solved by innovative technology without creating new, even bigger problems?
Still, until that is taken care of, many countries will just continue to issue licenses to tap new sources of fossil fuels.
But don't you think the focus should be that all the inhabitants of the earth actually have enough with what this earth can give, without sources running dry?
So where is the behaviour change and actions that come with an ecological footprint of no more than 1?
You don't get behaviour change by broadly propagating dreams and ideals. The people who need to change just have it way too good.
And coercion? What government is going to force its citizens to a footprint of 1? That is tantamount to political suicide....
I'll leave it at this. I am sure this is enough food for you to ponder. No doubt, more later....
(Text continues below the image)
General info on this artwork
The work comes in a Limited Edition of 4 per size group, signed and with a certificate of authenticity. But of course, it is also available as Open Edition print, without signature and not numbered.
Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message.
ALL WE NEED IS LESS CONSUMING
Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke, on your actions to support the wellbeing of the earth and everything that lives on it, on what humanity loses when many of us continue on the destructive path of ever more greed and consuming, on how you can survive in this rapidly changing world…
So do you want to know your ecological footprint?
Visit this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en
And do you want to reduce your ecological footprint?
Then ask me, I will help you. For free. Or simply visit my website and choose in the menu for Your Footprint.
And if you appreciate my writings and art and want to support me, you can buy me a piece of fruit here: https://ko-fi.com/jacobberghoef
Thank you 🍏 !
No comments.