| Throwback Thursday with a story and a message. These were taken a little over two years ago in Santa Rosa, to this day unseen. The selection depicts burned-out neighborhoods that I had a chance to visit only a few weeks after the fire happened. Even though the devastation was overwhelming and the sadness from pollution real, I was thinking that the people from these affluent neighborhoods probably stay at nice hotels and the insurance will allow them to rebuild - bigger, better. One year later I was traveling through California, working on another project when the biggest fires, probably in the history of the State hit really hard. The town of Paradise, CA burned almost completely to the ground. I made some prints and donated them into a silent auction for the residents of Paradise - the least I could do. Because unlike the hillside neighborhoods of Santa Rosa, Paradise was a humble, working city. I stayed in the area at the time and inhaled smoke-infested air for weeks. For over a week we couldn't see the sun. It was a sad continuation of what I saw a year before in Santa Rosa and what's becoming a norm in CA. Right now half of Australia is burning. As much devastated as I was touching upon the tragedy in California, nothing beats the half a billion dead animals and an uncountable amount of destroyed wilderness in Australia. How many more disasters do we have to witness to start really acting against climate change? Humans do influence changes in the climate and these fires are indirectly our fault! We simply cannot continue on this path of consumption and destruction. I know that an individual may feel hopeless, but every action helps. Even in setting the example, spreading awareness and educating others. Let us start taking care of this beautiful home we have. We won't get a new one. |
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