Kayla Warren - 2022

Artist Statement

T H E  A N T H R O P O C E N E:

                       age of humankind

            I was in eighth grade, when my United States History teacher, Mr. Moore told a room of thirteen and fourteen years, with very malleable minds, that Climate Change was not something that we needed to worry about because it is a natural process. Earth has been through this cycle before. I so distinctly remember this moment, because it was a pacifier for my anxiety about our vast beautiful planet. Mr. Moore was a fantastic teacher. I loved his class. He is not a villain in this story, but merely a human being who has been a victim of the system of misinformation. I was in Mr. Moore’s class seven years ago. I hope that he now sees a different reality. The reality, that at the rate at which we are destroying the planet is completely unsustainable.

            My entire life, I have heard that the ice caps are melting. The earth is warming. But I never really had a grasp on why that mattered. I live in Utah. I grew up 3,894.9 miles from the pacific ocean. A place where the amount of water was shrinking, not growing. A highly conservative land where it seems at times people think only the radically liberal are the ones that should fight for our planet to thrive.

            As I write this, it is currently Earth Day 2022. I pray for a world where we can heal the trauma that we have inflicted on our beautiful planet. But more than just praying, we need to act. We are actively choosing to watch our planet go to ruin. We are actively choosing to say goodbye to what has been here for longer than we can fully comprehend.

            Professor Rob Davies recently talked about the state of emergency which we are in as people of planet earth. We are in an ecological emergency but we are failing to act as such.

            I recently heard someone wise say that anything is possible in an emergency. The inconceivable becomes conceivable. In a state of emergency, we do what we have to in order to grapple with loss and protect what else could be taken. We are currently in a state of emergency with our planet. We must salvage what has been lost for the sake of the future.

I am a student of Anthropology and so my love for humankind is great. However, I have come to understand that our greed is tearing this planet apart. We must learn to coexist with our surroundings and fellow inhibitors. Let us all move forward with a desire to restore our ecosystems.

“If you want hope, ACT”