United Nations, New York, USA, April 19 2018 – Sona Sridhar
United Nations, New York, USA, April 19 2018 – Sona Sridhar, 21-year-old artist from India, winner of the first ever UNICEF Climate Comic Contest launching her comic book on climate change during the Event entitled “Youth Power the Planet: an SDG Activate Talk to Celebrate Earth Day” on the occasion of International Mother Earth Day (22 April) today at the UN Headquarters in New York City.
Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
By Kurt Wheelock
To celebrate Earth Day 2018, on April 19 at the United Nations there was the distribution of a comic book by Sona Sridhar, a 21-year-old artist from Chennai, India, who has been named winner of the first ever UNICEF Climate Comic Contest for her character ‘TRé’ – a half tree-half human who uses special powers to save nature from a warming planet.
President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lakcak, speaking first at the event, directly address Ms Sridhar as Sona: “Congratulations! Your work makes me optimistic about our future. We can all do with some comic relief as the threat of climate change closes in on us. But, on a serious note, these comics confront a difficult truth: we are driving our planet on a destructive course. We need planet-protecting superheroes to turn this around.”
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbarrudin spoke at length about legal moves to defend rivers in countries ranging from New Zealand to Colombia to India. He noted that instead of Mother Earth, Ms. Sridhar in her comics refers to “The Adventures of Brother Earth.” Akbarrudin quipped, It doesn’t matter what you call it, Mother Earth or Brother East, they are in the same family.
United Nations, New York, April 19, 2018
United Nations, New York, USA, April 19 2018 – Youth participant During the Event entitled “Youth Power the Planet: an SDG Activate Talk to Celebrate Earth Day” on the occasion of International Mother Earth Day (22 April) today at the UN Headquarters in New York City.
Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
The winning comic was inspired by flood that hit Chennia in 2015. The UNICEF Climate Comic Contest was created by UNICEF and its partner Comics Uniting Nations to inspire and engage children and youth to take climate action through the creative medium of comic design. UNICEF adds, “This series leverages the universal visual language and transformative power of comics to educate people in every corner of the globe about the SDGs and empower them to create positive and lasting change in their own communities and worldwide.”
Nearly 2,900 submissions were entered by young people from 99 different countries and more than 21,000 votes from 162 countries were cast to determine the winner.
Ms. Sridhar says, “I submitted my application twenty minutes before the deadline, and hoped that what I had was enough… “Chennai has seen its share of climate change problems. We are still dealing with the effects of floods and cyclones that have destroyed so many lives and trees in the past few weeks.”
Of her character, Ms. Sridhar says “the choice to make him half-human and half-tree was important. This allows him to see both sides of the human development versus natural resources argument when it comes to climate change.”
Of the comic book, which was on every seat and table of UN Conference Room 2 on April 19, Ms. Sridhr said, “I want it to be accessible to children – I think it’s an issue that is often heavy to understand, and so maybe in a comic, it can be fun and interesting.”
United Nations, New York, USA, April 19 2018
United Nations, New York, USA, April 19 2018 – Penny Abeywardena, New York City’s Commissioner for International Affairs and Sherell Henry, NYC Junior Ambassadors Alumni from the Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy During the Event entitled “Youth Power the Planet: an SDG Activate Talk to Celebrate Earth Day” on the occasion of International Mother Earth Day (22 April) today at the UN Headquarters in New York City.
Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
UN General Assembly President Lajcak issued a call to those present on April 19, “Often when we think about climate action, we think about what our governments should do. But there are things that we can all do to make a difference – and young people are showing us how its done. For instance, Anela Arifi from Bosnia. She came up with a way to use chicken fat and feathers as fuel for an energy system. Gitanjali Rao, just 12 years old, developed a water-testing device inspired by the water crisis in Flint Michigan. These innovations, and many others, show that youth really do power the planet. But this doesn’t mean that you should let your leaders off the hook. In fact, the experts say that the pledges our governments made to take climate action are not enough. So, we need you to stand up! Speak up! Raise your voices! Use a microphone! Create a comic book!”
And that’s just what Sona Sridhar did. The Earth is better off for it.
Source: EuropaNewswire