The Impact of Climate Change

We’ve lost our cool. The 2019 exhibition of student artwork was created in response to the issues that young people are now facing due to the new threat of climate change. How can we deal with these very real problems, and how can we take action?

No matter where in the world you live, every single person living on this planet is impacted by climate change, some more directly than others. Rising temperatures cause flooding, drought, rising sea-levels, soil erosion, to name but a few, and can have catastrophic consequences to communities.

Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now."

Barack Obama

At the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change.

2019 Exhibition

Illustration of a machine with 'capitalism' written on it

Trade & Livelihoods

Producing edible palm oil, which can be found in many everyday products, wreaks havoc on the environment and leads to deforestation, habitat degradation, and loss of animal habitat. Local communities are exploited and permanent damage is caused to their homes and livelihoods. To build palm oil plantations, producers clear trees in tropical rainforests, destroying regions that were once rich in biodiversity. Forests act as carbon sinks, and when they are destroyed carbon is released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming. In this illustration, the machinery and food products of a capitalist economy are bright and colourful, while the chaos left behind is dull and depressing.

IMAGE BY: © AISLING HANNON

Poverty

Half of the plastic that is produced annually is single use, and this is where the key problem lies. Used plastic will remain on Earth for hundreds of years; yet our use of it lasts only for a few seconds, minutes or hours. Poor nations are more vulnerable to the effects of environmental damage than wealthier countries, and plastic pollution can be particularly acute in countries where basic sanitation is barely existent and people are more worried about day-to-day living than recycling.

IMAGE BY: © ALEXA SIMONICS

Poverty

Natural hazards such as floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures continue to increase in frequency or intensity as a result of climate change. The exposure, vulnerability, and lack of adaptive capacity of poor people puts them at particular risk. Climate change impacts agricultural and land productivity, especially for major crops in tropical and temperate regions, with higher emissions pathways worsening the impacts. This oil painting is bland in order to force viewers to see just how dire the effects of our actions can be. In the centre is a small sprouting plant as a symbol of hope.

IMAGE BY: © DARIA JACKIEWICZ

Gender

Studies show that women are more likely to be affected by climate change than men, with eighty percent of people displaced by climate change being female. Men and women are affected by climate change in different ways, because of the societal and cultural roles and responsibilities placed on them by families and communities. Because of their dual roles as providers and caretakers, women experience a long list of consequences when the climate changes. This piece features a woman submerged in a pool of plastic, suffocating beneath it as she struggles to survive.

IMAGE BY: © EMMA SCULLY

Education

Climate change has an enormous impact on weather conditions which in turn affects agricultural economies. Drought and increasing temperatures bring poor harvests and food scarcity, which leads to less income for individual families. With less money to spend, necessities such as food take precedence over schooling fees, and children are also more likely to be pulled out of school to work and contribute to the family income. This painting shows three children looking towards the sky as rain begins to fall - a symbol of hope for their future.

IMAGE BY: © EOIN MAHER

Migration

The Oyster Catchers presented in this artwork ‘Haemostra’ symbolise migration. These birds are visitors to Ireland from Iceland and the Faeroes. They symbolise the plight of migrants making their way to a better life in a more stable land. Global migration has been a significant issue in worldwide news for some time with people migrating for many reasons - one being because of the changing climate in which they live. In 2018, 17.2 million people in 144 countries and territories were newly displaced because of natural disasters.

IMAGE BY: © JACINTA MOORE

Illustration of human evolution on a tree branch

Migration

Although sudden-onset natural disasters are more likely to result in mass displacement, slow-onset disasters and gradual environmental degradation impact existing livelihood patterns and may trigger different types of migration. Such slow-onset disasters and degradation include desertification, reduction of soil fertility, coastal erosion and rising sea-levels. Take the island of Kiribati as an example - rising ocean waters there are threatening to shrink the island’s land area, increase storm damage, destroy its crop growing lands and ultimately displace its people.

IMAGE BY: © JULIET TOSINI

Sunny patio where two children sit on the floor

Education

Diana Opoku (left) and Sophia Akua Freema (right) attend a boarding school in Ghana. According to the World Bank, just two thirds of girls in low income countries attend primary school, and only one third attend secondary school. Although there has been an emerging positive trend of equality in education, climate change could negatively impact this. As global temperatures rise, intense weather conditions will cause instability in living. This could lead to less females being sent to school as families in low income countries often view educating their male children as more of an investment.

IMAGE BY: © NANA DUFIE

Trade & Livelihoods

Right now an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic – everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads – end up in our oceans each year. Communities who rely on our oceans and lands to survive are impacted the most by this plastic waste. Sixty percent of the world’s population rely on fish as its main source of protein. Once plastic in the ocean is ingested by fish, toxins are released from the plastic fragments and are carried in the bloodstream and stored in the fatty tissues of the fish. These toxins, when consumed by us, can be deadly and have been linked with cancer, autoimmune disease, cognitive problems, and infertility.

IMAGE BY: © PEGGOTY RANSLEY

Illustration of two hands holding the planet

Gender

Climate change can greatly impact on an individual’s education and economic reality, both of which have disproportionate negative effects on women. This poem intends to show the inequality within the global female experience of climate change. When natural disasters strike, they hit poor communities first and worst. Women in the Global South bear the heaviest burdens. They have less access to resources, are frequently unable to swim or leave the house unattended, and are less likely to migrate to look for shelter and work when a disaster hits.

POEM BY: © ROISIN MURPHY