RISING TIDE: SINKING EARTH

Global warming is creating havoc throughout the world.

Due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphere, our earth is getting warmer. Warmer atmosphere is causing the rapid depletion of Arctic sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet as well as warming and expanding of the oceans. The resulting ocean rise is affecting coastal communities throughout the world. Climate change’s effect on the ocean is also leading to an increase in hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, flooding, soil erosion and the bleaching of the coral reefs. Ocean rise is also causing groundwater salination which limits access to fresh drinking water and makes it almost impossible to grow most crops.

While ocean rise has brought saltwater to the land, it has also moved massive amounts of man-made debris to the ocean. Only a small fraction of debris that has been deposited in our oceans washes ashore. The rest remains in the ocean where marine life suffers by ingesting microplastics and other chemicals.

Rising Tide: Sinking Earth (2021) focuses on the dire effects of rising tide on the disparate coastal communities of the Florida Keys, Chesapeake Bay, the Pacific Islands of Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, and Bangladesh. I travelled to each of these communities, filmed interviews with the local people, photographed the area and collected debris that had washed ashore. This mixed-media installation consists of assemblages, photographs, poetry and film meant to tell the story of climate related coastal erosion and the people who are most directly affected. While the individuals of these disparate communities are vastly different, they face similar challenges. 

Our earth will continue to face an escalation of this destruction unless we change our dependency on fossil fuels and plastics and move to more sustainable solutions.

I hope that this exhibit will bring attention to the real-life circumstances that people throughout the world are facing due to climate change.