My blog posts often contain facts and graphics from just-released reports that show the hard science warning of the threats of climate change. This week, I try something different: letting art tell the heart-breaking story of climate change.
A dear friend recently sent me a link to an award-winning art video, "The Ballad of Holland Island House" by artist Lynn Tomlinson. It's a poignant, beautifully artistic (and oh so sad) piece about the impact of rising sea levels on the Chesapeake Bay. It's told through folk songs and animated paintings from the point of view of a house on an island in the Bay -- a house that stands no more on an island sunken by the Bay's rising waters.
Tomlinson, a multimedia artist, describes making the video using a "clay-painting technique." She explains that she wanted the piece of art to show her concern for climate change-induced rising sea levels that have already taken their toll on the islands in the Chesapeake Bay.
The artist tells the story of an oak tree that became the boards that a fisherman used to build his house on Holland Island. He lived there with his family for years until the ever-rising tides forced the abandonment of all the houses on the island.
The story is true -- the house did indeed collapse into the Bay in 2010. Read the fascinating story, including recent attempts to save the house, in the Washington Post.
Joy Bergey is PennFuture's federal policy director. She is based in Philadelphia and tweets @joybergey .
PennFuture's A Climate for Change header/graphic
Showing posts with label sea levels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sea levels. Show all posts
