It’s not often that you see New Yorkers distracted from their task at hand. But on Saturday night I saw runners stop mid-jog and groups of friends put off their plans to pause and take note as images lit up the side of the U.N. headquarters.
As a way to peak interest in the upcoming Climate Summit, the U.N. put on a massive display called illUmiNations: Protecting Our Planet. Basically, they got some fancy shmancy projectors and plastered the side of the building with beautiful photos of endangered species.
A voiceover came on at one point to have us imagine 200 years down the line when people wonder how we let such amazing animals get lost. Then the projection displayed some shocking facts about climate change and how dangerous gases such as CO2 and methane are destroying our planet.
As mildly depressing as this might be, the show was hopeful, telling us that there is “still a lot left worth fighting for.” It definitely got my attention and I know now I’ll be tuning into the Climate Summit this week. Hopefully the results there are as impressive as this event!
But for now here’s a play-by-play of my night so you can see the awesomeness I’m talking about.
1. So before the projections started, they had some nifty images up there to spark people’s interest.
2. Look how many people were anxiously awaiting! I don’t know if half the people knew what they were there for but the crowd was excited to see what was going to happen.
3. Then this cool car drove through the gates. Those stripes are electronically projected onto it...the suspense is building.
4. But finally, the show started with some beautiful animals.
5. Then even more cool animals...
6. And then they hit us with this stat….woah.
7. It seemed pretty realistic when they followed it up with images of endangered species at their current count and watched the numbers tick down.
8. There’s only one of these frogs in the world. How crazy is that?
9. But then I was really mind blown when this went up there.
10. So how is this all happening? Well, there’s a huge spike in CO2 in the atmosphere, causing changes in the climate.
11. Things like cars and factories pollute the air with high amounts of carbon dioxide.
12. But other things we don’t think about like livestock and deforestation are major sources of greenhouse gases too.
13. They made the call to global action…
14. And gave lots of examples of steps that need to be taken to protect our planet.
15. Need a translation? "Limit the increase in global temperature to 2 degrees celsius. The change is in the air."
As you can see, it was an awesome way to kick-off a week full of UNGA events. What I thought was so cool was how many heads turned at the sight of it. Granted it was pretty hard to miss if you were walking by, but I think the illUmiNations really got people interested in the climate conversation.
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Alex Vinci