THUNDER BAY - Youth from across the city are hoping the emotional impact of art will encourage the people of Thunder Bay and government leaders to think about how everyday choices are impacting the climate and make some lifestyle changes to benefit future generations.
Fridays for Future Thunder Bay released a climate artwork zine entitled: THUNDER! Making Noise in the Age of Climate Denial.
“Seeing these pieces made by youth will hopefully evoke emotion in the reader and see how much we care and help them toward taking some sort of action,” said Lexi Hurdon, one of the youth organizers for Fridays for Future Thunder Bay.
“There is a limited amount of things we can do not being able to meet in person. But at the same time you can examine and reflect on your own life and lifestyle and hopefully make some sort of change. It’s a reminder of how we can continue to take positive action during these times and support one another.”
The zine includes a collection of artwork from artists between the ages of 12 and 18-years-old, as well as information on how people can support the climate emergency in the city of Thunder Bay.
“Another huge aspect is putting pressure on organizations and governments that have power to make more systemic change,” said Keira Essex, who is also a youth organizer with Future for Fridays Thunder Bay.
“As individuals, we can work together and make great change, but ultimately governments and organizations have the most power in this dynamic and are most able to make changes that will protect the environment.”
The group was looking at ways to engage the public in discussions around climate change and originally were hoping to hold global climate strike, but they decided on putting out the booklet that would allow another way for people to engage in the discussion from the safety of their own homes.
“It was such a brilliant idea to have that was a little out of the ordinary for the other online strike options that occurred,” Essex said. “We are very happy to have made it and we are proud of what we’ve done.”
The pandemic did pose some challenges though, mainly finding ways to engage with young artists from across the city and region to participate.
“I think the most difficult part was finally getting in and collecting the pieces of art from youth and making sure we had various selection of different kinds of pieces that fit together form various ages,” Hurdon said. “Getting people to commit to do a piece of art was the most difficult part at first.”
“We were really happy to get as many pieces as we did by the end of it,” Essex added. “The formatting did take a while, but It was much more difficult to get that engagement and share a lot of the other aspects we wanted to have in there and making sure it has those long term impacts by discussing how individual citizens of Thunder Bay can help the climate, discussing how we can make changes systemically as well as collecting the pieces.”
The decision to use artwork as a way of generating conversations around climate change came from both the ways art can evoke emotions and connections to the land.
Hurdon said she hopes seeing the works of art created by youth will create an emotional response in the reader and result in reflections on how we live our daily lives and how that impacts the climate.
“With the pieces we have in the design, some of comedic and lighthearted and spark optimism,” she said. “And some are very heart wrenching and make you sad and want to take action. I think that’s what’s truly impactful about all of the pieces that have been contributed.”
Essex added using an emotional format can elicit an emotional response and hopefully lead to real systemic change, because it is future generations who will face the consequences of people’s actions today.
“We’ve seen the effects over the last few years and seeing more vulnerable communities have even worse experiences with it, which is very upsetting to see,” Hurdon said. “Being youth and younger generations coming forward, it’s going to affect us the most. That’s what sparked my interest and education in it and I wanted to take action from that point to see what I can contribute.”
For Essex, who is Ojibway, there is also a strong connection between Indigenous people and the land, and protecting the environment is also an important step toward reconciliation.
“Knowing that it became clear to me that we can’t have reconciliation without protecting the environment and ensuring we focus on environmental stewardship,” she said.
“By advocating for the environment and if the city of Thunder bay worked toward environmental stewardship, it would be a great act of reconciliation and it would also protect vulnerable populations and future generations.”
The THUNDER! Making Noise in the Age of Climate Denial zine was released on Friday on all Fridays for Future Thunder Bay social media accounts.
