Eco-Art Competition 2022

Rapid Industrialization in our society has made it inevitable for humans to build factories, a significant factor of air pollution. Air pollution is considered the world’s largest environmental threat, exacerbating numerous diseases and contributing to global warming. It accounts for 7 million deaths each year as a risk factor of major chronic diseases. Further, all pollution emitted spreads throughout the globe to trap heat for 50-200 years. The level of its impact is continuously increasing, and needs to come to an immediate stop. Unfortunately, factories do play a crucial role in sustaining the economy, thus cannot be destroyed completely. We need to find a way to preserve our environment as we co-exist with this source of pollutant emission, and planting can be a solution to this. Plants are able to absorb toxic gases such as ammonia, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, as well as particles through their stomas. The world’s forests absorb a third of global emissions every year, proving they are capable of removing such problem. In this sense, seeds can be called nature’s gift. “A Gift from Nature” illustrates how plants crack out of the seeds and sprout from the ground to cover the mess our industry has created. I have used various mediums -- pen to depict the lifelessness of factories, colorful watercolor to depict hopefulness and vibrance of plants -- which all successfully contribute to the meaning I aim to convey. I want my entry to tell the audience that mistakes are unerasable, yet can be covered up. Rather than regretting what we have already done, we must take action to make up for it.