The Vaults

Well, I've decided to dedicate this sketchbook to Climate Change. I am trying to change things in my life to do my bit for a better, safer, world. I've significantly reduced the amount of meat I eat. I use public transport or walk whenever possible. I reduce the amount of packaging by buying from the Minimal Waste Grocery or similar shops (there's one that's just opened in Dundrum). I don't buy products with palm oil (I had to survive Christmas without Marks&Spencer's Belgian biscuits and Belgian chocolate truffles - you have no idea!!!). I sign petitions. I will talk to our politicians when they arrive on our doorstep for the upcoming election. I still feel it's not half enough. But it's something.

So, for every page or every sketch, I will find information or a quote about climate change, even though it's got nothing to do with the sketch itself. But there is nothing more important than climate action right now (not in 10 years or 20 years' time - that will be too late - actually, according to the quote here, right now is too late, which is no surprise when you hear about the fires in Australia and the flooding in Jakarta)

I really enjoyed sketching this - we were talking about how to free up a sketch and the answer, to me anyway, is direct watercolour - no pencil, no pen, just the brush! I wish every sketch worked out like this one!

"The former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres has said that we have until 2020 to avoid temperature thresholds leading to runaway, irreversible climate change."
Jonathan Safran Foer
'We are the Weather - Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast'

I really wish that 2020 was a typo!