Fancy a flutter on a climate action flag?
● When world leaders make decisions about climate change in future, their citizens will be “watching over” them from a giant flag to be flown at global climate events, starting in December. And one of the faces on the flag could be yours.
Swiss “artivist” Dan Acher will be creating a “monumental eye made of thousands of portraits from around the world” for the We Are Watching installation.
The flag will be 10 storeys high and flown for the first time in Santiago, Chile, at the COP25 talks in December.
“I’m doing this because there’s a need to act and to react right now against climate change. We’re cutting down the branch we’re sitting on — but not only that, we’re mowing down the whole trunk and taking out the roots,” Acher told the Sunday Times.
About 2,600 people from some 100 countries, including a few from SA, have joined the initiative, the organisers said.
Earthlife Africa director Makoma Lekalakala submitted her portrait on Friday, after expressing her delight at the project.
“This is creative and visual. There has been too much talking, and now we are putting our faces in their face,” she said.
Supporters have until October 12 to submit their portraits at wearewatching.org. The website allows people the world over to take a photo of themselves and upload it, along with an optional short message to the world’s leaders.
Acher said: “It’s one way for me to act, but it is also giving the opportunity to others to symbolically be in Santiago at the COP25 and put pressure on world leaders … to hold them accountable for their action and inaction.”
Sophie Mulphin of Happy City Lab, an organisation working to transform cities, said: “It takes under two minutes to feature on the flag and to be the eyes of the world on climate action.”
Acher is the founder of the organisation, which is dedicated to transforming cities to be more inclusive and, well, happier.
He said: “Usually flags are national symbols. Here we have a flag representing the whole world — for an issue that affects every one of us.”
Even after the flag has been hoisted, portraits and messages will continue being collected for the virtual “eye”.
The online eye on the site will get sharper as more faces are added.
Mulphin urged supporters to “zoom in on the flag to see who’s watching and to read what they have to say”.