A panther, a lifeguard hut, and two people are… melting?
A wax sculpture stood at a zoo in Tampa, Florida. It showed a panther and her kitten. But the art melted away in a couple of days. Two other sculptures in Florida have done the same. One was of a lifeguard hut. The other featured a grandfather and his granddaughter. Over time, these melting artworks showed the effects of climate change.
Normal sculptures don’t melt, of course. But these works of art are strange. Why were they created only to disappear?
The CLEO Institute has the answer. That group works to teach people about climate science. It helped with the melting art project. The CLEO Institute wants these sculptures to spread awareness of rising heat around the world. Every year, temperatures get warmer. So the sculptures were made to disappear in this hot weather.
Climate change can have many harmful effects. It is a threat to wildlife, the environment, and future generations. There have been more hurricanes than usual in 2020, and sea levels are rising. This is why it is so important to spread awareness. The melting of the sculptures does this. It represents how our wildlife and our beaches might disappear if we don’t stop climate change.
When the sculptures melted, they revealed hidden words inside. There was a simple message in the wax panther: “More Heat, Less Wildlife.” This means that if we don’t slow climate change, wildlife populations will go down. The lifeguard hut sculpture also shared a message: “More Heat, Less Beaches.” Sea levels could rise high enough to get rid of our sandy shores.
The words may sound scary, but the situation isn’t hopeless. We can do something about climate change. Yoca Arditi-Rocha is the leader of the CLEO Institute. She said kids can be powerful in this fight.
“We all have superpowers,” Arditi-Rocha told News-O-Matic. “One important superpower is the power of our voices.” Kids can make a difference just by telling the people how to help the planet. Arditi-Rocha said it is “important for children to have these conversations with their parents and adults.”
People have all the tools to stop climate change. Scientists know what has to be done. But it will take every person and every nation working together. Arditi-Rocha said this action will happen only when “we demand it.” She added, “We need to make it the most important issue of our time.”
Updated September 29, 2020, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Liam Saban
