What’s Happening is an artwork consisting of sixteen drawings depicting details from the natural world. Their sequence shows deterioration of natural environment that occurred due to multiple and complex causes.
Initial five drawings represent the world as it once was: lush greenery, clear blue sky and intact glaciers. The next four, starting with a black sky, symbolise cumulative damage caused by the human activity.
Bleached coral, a single bee, salmons, bear, and eagles point out that many species suffer due to that damage.
The sequence closes with Edelweiss flower. It symbolises resilience of the natural world giving hope that with sufficient effort at least some damage can be repaired. It also warns that, if such effort is not made, only a few of the strong and isolated species would survive making this Earth a very different place.
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Once upon a time, a long time ago, when there were more trees than people, vast forests covered the Earth.
Great was the wisdom of the trees. Their breath rejuvenated the air. Their roots held the soil steady. Raindrops were caught in their crowns and released gently to the ground.
Trees gave shelter to animals and birds. They fed and protected vegetation on the forest floor.
Where trees did not spread grasslands stretched lush and open under the clear blue sky. Modest though they looked, compared to the majesty of the forest, grasses played their vital part.
Snow capped mountain peaks towered above. Ancient glaciers kept the record of the ages gone by.
Oceans, lakes and rivers gave home to a world of their own. All of it, land, water, air, with a life giving sunshine, supported countless species.
For a long while people lived in harmony with the world around them. The change crept slowly across the Earth.
People multiplied. They started thinking themselves above all other beings. Trees became materials to build shelters or feed fires. Animals became food or threat to exterminate.
The wheel of destruction started turning. People called it progress. By the time so called industrial revolution came fascination with the speed of development overshadowed any concern for its consequences.
From the time our ancestor felt awe while watching a tree set on fire by lightning to the modern day high technology people have been relentlessly pursuing fulfilment of their own desires.
What about the rest of the species?
Coral reefs are bleached and dying. Bees are mysteriously disappearing. Bears and eagles go hungry for a lack of fish to feed on.
The list goes on and on.
It is never too late to act, though. Many people already do; some through existing organizations, many of their own accord, quietly yet persistently.
Damage already done is immense, but Nature is resilient. Like lonely Edelweiss flower growing in the harshest of environments it could flourish again if all of us to do our part.