This is the story of Íris Lilja Jóhannsdóttir from Iceland! Her work that won an honourable mention in the YRE Competition this year, was also submitted to the Climate Change PIX photo competition, hold by the European Environment Agency. And, environmental communication experts from the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet), and the public have selected her work, as one of the six winners in the competition about the impacts of climate change in Europe and individual and societal climate action. The results were published on Monday, the 20st of September. Find out more here and under the picture!
“We are ruining the earth for our own short time happiness. We are licking up the earth, and it’s sweet resources just like ice cream. I want to show people what we are doing to the earth with a simple analogy. We need to take actions like the ones suggested in Sustainable Development Goals 11, 12 and 13. If we don’t stop licking the ice cream or if we just stop, the ice cream will melt. To stop the ice cream from melting we need to stop licking it and put it in the freezer. If we don’t want the earth and the life on it to die we need to stop consuming and producing so much at the earth’s cost. Let’s enjoy our sweet and beautiful earth responsibly.” - That is the caption you can read under the submission for the YRE Competition 2021: Iceland by YRE Competition - Exposure
The picture’s editing and the message behind are very strong. That also what the International Jury of the YRE competition highlighted: “The editing is so well done: good exercise, good campaign photo, good storytelling, great use of colour and composition. Congratulations! It is maybe fake but the message is great!!! It is creative, clear, striking, clever and executed very well! So simple and very effective. It tells the message: very strong and powerful graphic depicting man's anthropogenic consumption of the planet's natural resources. The melting ice cream also speaks to global warming. What about the rules of the competition? Honourable mention “only” because we wanted to highlight that it was very well done but go away from the rules. Congratulations again!”
We are so proud of our YRE! Good job!