Climate Change: The Greatest Threat to Humanity: In a Global Effort, Well-known Activists Unite in Their Mission to Act on Climate Change Now
Project + Photography: Mathias Braschler & Monika Fischer in support of the work of UNFCCC & UNEP
Act Now! is a major photography project to raise awareness on climate change by the critically acclaimed creative duo Braschler/Fischer. The photographers have shot portraits of influential and trendsetting climate activists. The project aims to raise more awareness for this pressing problem in partnership with UNFCCC and UNEP.
Richard Branson
Virgin Group Founder
Taking bold climate action now has the potential to unleash the full power of business and lift millions of people out of poverty at the same time. We’re the first generation to recognize this and the last generation that will have this opportunity.
Gisele Bündchen
Model. United Nations Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador
Climate change is real. In order to alter this reality, we need all hands on deck. Cleaner, more sustainable energy is possible and can transform our lives, our
economies, and our planet. We must make living in harmony with the Earth a priority. This is our home… the only one we have!
James Cameron
Film Director
Climate change is critical to me because I’m a parent; I feel a sense of responsibility to the future. I’m not going to be around to see its worst effects, which are going to be hitting in the 2030s, ’40s, ’50s, but my kids will. Everybody is always talking about droughts and sea level rise, but when human civilization, with more crowding and greater resource depletion, is under that much stress, it translates into wars and huge displaced populations. The Syrian refugee crisis is just a first taste of what it’s going to be like. I don’t want my kids growing up in that kind of world.
Mark Ruffalo
Actor
We are living in revolutionary times. The good news is we have everything we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. All we need is for you to join the rest of the world to bring about a cleaner, more stable, and peaceful future. Join the #SunlightRevolution, #100isNow.
Vivienne Westwood
Fashion Designer
The migrants are not a temporary crisis. The crisis is mounting. There are many war refugees and three times as many climate refugees. All of them are people who can no longer live where they were born. I hope we face reality in time to save ourselves. We will all be migrants soon
Ian Somerhalder
Actor. UNEP Goodwill Ambassador
Collaboration, partnership—the ultimate intertwining of skills, shared passions, and knowledge—is what concocts the most shatterproof forms of change making. Let’s unite our impassioned voices to combat climate change. The time is now.
Nikki Reed
Actor
The degradation of our environment is undeniably a direct result of our lack of regard, lack of accountability, and
lack of responsibility. If we don’t start acknowledging our correct position as nothing more than a part of the planet as opposed to this perception that we’re superior, then we won’t have it much longer. We’re facing a very turbulent, war-torn, drought-ridden existence for future generations unless we act now.
Michael R. Bloomberg
U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities + Climate Change
Former Mayor of New York City
Fighting climate change isn’t just an obligation we owe to future generations. It’s also an opportunity to improve public health—and drive economic growth—in the here and now. After all, the same steps that reduce carbon pollution also clean the air we breathe, which saves lives and reduces disease. Cities with clean air also gain an economic advantage, because where people want to live and work, businesses want to invest. By speeding the transition to cleaner energy, we can improve the lives of billions of people, while also reducing the risks we face from a changing climate.
Don Cheadle
Actor. UNEP Goodwill Ambassador
I pray that our leaders stop pointing fingers and playing the blame game and seek a real solution for the good of the planet and all who inhabit it. It is the least represented among us who will be the most affected first. We have a moral responsibility to protect them.
Moby
Musician
For me the two biggest issues are climate change and animal welfare/animal agriculture. And oddly enough animal agriculture is such a contributor to climate change. According to the United Nations, 25% of climate change comes from animal agriculture, so every car, bus, boat, truck, airplane combined has less CO2 and methane emissions than animal agriculture. So to me, one of the easiest ways of addressing climate change and potentially remedying climate change is to stop subsidizing animal agriculture
Mary Robinson
U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Change
Former President of Ireland
The changing climate is a threat to human rights. The fossil-fuel-based development model has not benefitted all people and those who have benefitted least are now suffering great harm in the face of climate change. But tackling the issue of climate change presents us with an inflection point in human history—a climate justice revolution that separates development from fossil fuels, supports people in the most vulnerable situations to adapt, allows all people to take part, and, most importantly, realise their full potential.
Darren Aronofsky
Film Director, Screenwriter + Film Producer
I fear our descendants will look back on us at this moment in time, on people who lived in the 20th and 21st centuries and they’ll ask, “What the fuck were you thinking?” We all have to help. Because for too long we have been taking, and the Earth has been giving. But that free-for-all, that all-you-can-eat buffet, it’s over. The salad bar is closed.
Achim Steiner
Executive Director, UNEP
We are at a pivotal moment in our shared history. The global goals of a healthy planet, social equality, and economic opportunity for all are within reach. But we cannot prevaricate. Our vision of a sustainable future will only materialize through action taken today.
Photography: braschlerfischer.com
The post Climate Champions: The Greatest Threat to Humanity. Act Now! w/ UNFCCC & UNEP appeared first on ORIGIN Magazine.
