Photo credit: Fred Farid.

By Anders Lorenzen

As the world stays home to stop the spread of coronavirus there has been a temporary decrease in carbon emissions. However, in the US, the government is seeking to quickly jump-start the economy not taking much consideration for the science and will work to further reduce regulations. The Trump Administration is even talking about bailing out the struggling oil industry – the price of oil has seen a drastic drop. Campaigners say this will only clear the way for polluters to destroy the delicate balance of the Earth. Scientists have long voiced concerns that climate change does not just impact the environment, but also our health by increasing rates of infectious disease. Many experts are arguing that until we address the issue of climate change on a global scale — we’ll be facing new and more damaging pandemics for years to come.

The US is approaching the much-feared hurricane, flood and fire season with science saying the cascading disasters will only get worse due to the warming planet and that these issues are interconnected. 

The Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg is arguably one of the strongest and most effective climate voices, her message ‘our house is on fire’ has quickly gained ground and has become a popular way to describe the climate crisis.

Now the US-based creative agency Fred and Farid (FF) have teamed up with the organisation Thunberg founded, Friday’s for Future to help amplify their and hers message even more by creating a short film illustrating that message. 

The film (see above) shows a family house on fire with the family waking up in the morning getting ready for work and school surrounded by flames without paying attention to it. It concludes as the kids leave for school with the fire intensifying and finish just as it looks like the house is about to collapse.

It illustrates the burning house as an analogy for the impending climate crisis, the normalising of it and the lack of action in tackling it.

The filmmakers from FF said about the project “We are proud to work with Fridays For Future again on this project. This young and highly inspiring organization founded by visionary activist Greta Thunberg is making a huge impact and our agency is honoured to help in any way that we can.”

And Joe Hobbs, the organiser at Fridays for Future US said:  “We believe it’s time people realize that climate change isn’t going to happen, but that it’s already happening. You may have become accustomed to it, but it’s a serious problem we face on a daily basis. Unfortunately, we’ve moved past the time where it’s enough just to be worried. We need immediate collective action. We hope that by watching this video people will realize they need to take action now, instead of putting it off until later”. 

The video was released for Earth Day on Wednesday (22nd of April), and will today open an important digital event for Fridays for Future. The organization will launch an unprecedented 24-hour climate change live stream as part of the digital climate strikes, featuring countries from all around the world.

This story is a part of Covering Climate Now’s week of coverage focused on Climate Solutions, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the climate story.