Design and Climate Change: The Good and the Bad
By Rhianna Parry
‘The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate’ (wwf.panda.org) due to human activity on the planet. Many species have gone extinct or have become critically endangered over the last century due to the rise in damaging human activity on Earth. With the ever growing problem of over population, over consumption and waste, humans have hurtled the environment into a state serious climate change and are producing insane amounts of pollution. As a result potential thousands of species of animals survival is at risk through no fault of their own as through human activity, their habitats are damaged and destroyed; they’re deprived of suitable food or water; they are exposed to toxic or poisonous waste; and immense suffering in some cases. It is important that awareness of these issues is raised, so as a race, people can work towards building a cleaner, safer and more sustainable future for not only themselves but for animals too and reduce the unjust risks to their survival.
In western culture, since the expansion of the British Empire through colonisation and rise of the middle class, there’s been an ever growing obsession with consumerism and buying products for luxury purposes. With the growing demand for more products, there is ripple effect; more materials need to be sourced, more energy is needed, more unhealthy waste and air pollution is produced, and more environmental damage is created, all to meet the luxurious needs of western society. Green house gases produced through the consumption of energy through factories, cars and homes dominantly, due to the burning of fossil fuels, are a huge factor contributing to global warming which has resulted in incredible levels of climate change globally as temperatures and sea levels rise consequentially. The human population is ‘using resources and creating CO2 emissions – at a rate 44 percent faster than what nature can regenerate and reabsorb’ (The Independent,2009) and if we continue to consume and waste natural resources at this rate, ‘we will require the resources of two planets to meet our demands by the early 2030s’(phys.org, 2009). In addition to mass energy consumption to meet the
obsessive consumerist needs of people, ‘Deforestation is the second largest manmade source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, after fossil fuel burning’ (Callery, 2015) and also results in the loss of habitats for many animal species- a huge factor in the endangerment of different species. A well known problematic example of deforestation issues is palm oil trees being grown and cut down on a mass scale for its oil in tropical regions which is used in ‘biofuel, cosmetics, snack foods, ice cream, lotion and soap, and is in about half of all products on store shelves’(Callery, 2015). This process produces a huge amount of air pollution which is unhealthy for inhalation by animals and humans and releases massive amounts of CO2 which contributes to global warming.
Design can be – as well as an extremely dangerous tool for causing problems in regards to environmental issues – also used as a powerful medium of positive change through physical products that are more sustainable for daily use, to more visual aids providing information, encouraging empathy and promoting action for change. Popular brands such as ‘Head and Shoulders’ and ‘Fairy’ are using beach plastics within their bottle design to reduce the amount of new raw material being sourced and the amount of waste plastic in the ocean, supporting the survival of marine life who have been greatly under threat due to ocean plastic waste. Although these bottles are single use products and there is a likelihood they may return again to the ocean, this sort of design is still a step in the right direction if not a suitable final end goal. In recent years, there has been as mass rise in awareness through advertisement of climate change problems and
the endangerment of animals across social media, impacting mass amounts of people worldwide
through the use of popular platforms for communication such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat; informing them; encouraging volunteering aid; and changing to more sustainable lifestyles. A recent movement that became popular was ‘#Trashtag’ encouraging people to litter-pick in a polluted area. However, this mean of communication can be easily scrolled past, the phase short lived, forgotten with the next post or ignored and it only has an impact on the actions of the viewer if the viewer is interested and maintains a sense of interest to the point of getting involved.
The Royal Edinburgh Zoo Project ‘Swing Into Action’ was a product designed with a focus on lemur species and encouraging the visitors to take action on helping solve the problems caused by human activity that are posing a huge risk to the animals, marking lemurs as the worlds ‘most endangered primates’ (Chow, 2018). The Edinburgh Zoo is home to three species of Lemur; the Ring Tailed Lemur, the Crowned Lemur and the Red Bellied Lemur. All three species indigenous to Madagascar and are critically endangered due to habitat loss and deforestation for the purpose of logging, being hunted for illegal pet trade and also due to loneliness as a result of the low population numbers and separation caused by the environmental damage. With people of all ages visiting the zoo as tourists, families on a day out
and school trips, the project had to appeal to a large audience and be easy to understand. The design is tailored mostly to a younger audience as it encourages interaction and play but also involves older generations with it being a photo opportunity and being additionally a very visual design decorated with key phrases in promoting awareness of the endangered condition of the lemurs. These phrases are positioned on the design so they would sit closely to the children swinging on it and therefore would be present within the photographs, immortalising their message on social media. In addition, the design sports the catchy hashtag ‘SwingIntoAction’ encouraging a movement on social media to link all the photos posted online and provide further information on the cause to raise awareness. With the design being made from pine wood local to the area and being a fast growing, abundant species of wood, the design is very sustainable. Overall this ‘memorial design’ is an example of one that manages to use the medium of design to raise awareness of important issues effectively in a simple fashion due to the features mentioned above.
On the other hand, there is a lack of information supporting and further elaborating on the phrases engraved upon the wood, and an explanation should be displayed for the users to read up on to really engage them in understand and helping the cause for aiding endangered animals. This lack of information can be ultimately confusing, and cause a hastened loss of interest from the visitors . In addition, the design can be criticised as being rather boring and only in use for a mere few seconds that it takes to swing on and take a photo and can be easily disregarded, failing its main purpose of informing people and encouraging action to help the lemurs. With its basic aesthetic, arguable lack of creativity in its structure, this design runs the risk of only being noticed if being mistaken for a signpost by lost visitors. In addition to this, the design can be argued as exclusive, possibly disabling, as it is limited only to children up to a certain height who are capable of holding their own body weight and have full use of their limbs- physically impaired children in wheelchairs, missing limbs and poor upper body strength are unable to join in. To conclude on this design, SwingIntoAction has the potential to be a powerful tool to raise awareness and encourage action however lacks the supporting information and creativity in its design to boost that.
To conclude, design is at fault for being a major tool in creating the environmental damage present today in response to consumerist values. This environmental damage has a huge impact on animal lives as well as the human race largely through the consequences of climate change. Despite being the key to creating these problems, design can also be the key to fixing them, through products designed to be more sustainable, to inform the public and encourage action. There’s a long way to go on improving the situation but it is important these changes happen soon and fast, as our planet and the other living species upon it cannot sustain the needs of the human race and its values at its current rate of consumption and waste, and survive the consequences of the actions made.
Bibliography
Images
- Burning Fossil Fuels. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/08/were-still-waking-up-to-the-long-term-consequences-of-burning-fossil-fuels/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019
- Deforestation. (2019). [image] Available at: https://daily.jstor.org/deforestation-lead-drought/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Head & Shoulders and Fairy Liquid. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/tesco-head-shoulders-fairy-ocean-plastic-bottles/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Trashtag. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.mywaste.ie/news/how-the-trashtag-challenge-got-people-all-over-the-world-picking-up-litter/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Social Media. (2019). [image] Available at: https://today.citadel.edu/online-networking-social-networks-help-career/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Lemurs. (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.ecowatch.com/are-lemurs-endangered-2592379111.html [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Swing Into Action. (2019)
Quote References
- Wwf.panda.org. (2019). How many species are we losing?. [online] Available at: http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2019]
- The Independent. (2009). Mankind using Earth’s resources faster than replenished. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/mankind-using-earths-resources-faster-than-replenished-5508901.html [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019]
- Phys.org. (2009). Mankind using Earth’s resources at alarming rate. [online] Available at: https://phys.org/news/2009-11-mankind-earth-resources-alarming.html [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Callery, S. (2015). Palm oil: A climate change culprit – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. [online] Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. Available at: https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/1144/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Callery, S. (2015). Palm oil: A climate change culprit – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. [online] Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. Available at: https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/1144/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
- Chow, L. (2018). 95% of World’s Lemur Population on Edge Of Extinction. [online] EcoWatch. Available at: https://www.ecowatch.com/are-lemurs-endangered-2592379111.html [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019]
