Let’s be honest, the whole set of problems that are often called “ecological” (like pollution, recycling, and environmental education) is on the periphery of an average Ukrainian’s consciousness. However, this seems normal, given the agenda set by the incumbent government on a daily basis. Ecological subject is a sort of a test that reveals the disposition to strategic thinking on a global scale. This is something our big shots are hardly ever capable of. This is proven by their ridiculous votes and revotes on the time zone the country is supposed to live by.
Nevertheless, matters of ecological safety are not a whim of Kantian practical reason, but a survival necessity in the modern world. They are not just an urgent issue for Ukraine and its industrial districts in the first place, they are directly connected with the problems whose solution is a matter of life and death for the nation. Energy dependence is a reason for most of our problems and it is related to how the “ecological knot” can be untied. Treating enegry sources more sparingly, the use of renewable sources of energy, waste and trash recycling (in particular, using it as a biofuel), implementation of innovative technologies, etc., could have significantly simplified Ukraine’s everyday life. But the implementation of such projects takes a fair amount of will. The will to think and live not only in the present.
THE CALLING OF STOCKHOLM
Sweden is one of the countries that managed to set and complete most of the tasks mentioned above. Nowadays it is not just one of the countries with the most consistent environmental policy, ecological culture and consciousness, but a country that is almost self-sufficient in terms of energy supplies. In the structure of energy consuming in Sweden only one percent of electricity is imported, 38 percent is given by fossil fuel, 31 percent by nuclear energy, 10 percent by hydro power, 1 percent by wind power and
19 percent by biofuel. Till 2020 the share of reusable energy (biofuel, solar, wind and hydro power) is to grow to 49 percent in this country.
Stockholm sees its calling in showing the whole world the advantages of new, up-to-date thinking and practice. Of course, a lot of attention in this educational strategy is paid to the exposure of invalidity and fatality of the traditional consumerism culture, which is still followed by the majority of seven-billion population of the planet.
The cartoon exhibit Facing the Climate, which was initiated by the Swedish Institute after the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (December, 2009), is one of the most successful international projects that are supposed to draw attention to global climate change problems. At first
25 caricature artists from Sweden took part in it, but as the exhibit traveled around the world, local cartoonists’ works were added to it, thus drawing a wide responce from the audience. Starting from September, 2010, the exhibit was displayed in the Balkans, in Iceland, Malaysia, Syria, Latvia, and Russia, with the total number of visitors reaching over 40,000.
This fall the exhibit Facing the Climate came to Ukraine, named “Plus 1oC. Climate Changes in the Language of Ukrainian and Swedish Cartoonists.” The amazing exposition contains works by eight artists, five of them Swedish and three Ukrainian, each one of whom presented three works. Donetsk was the second city to see the works by the famous cartoonists, they were shown in Dnipropetrovsk before, and Kyiv is going to be the next venue, where the exhibit will be brought in November.
CULTURE vs. NATURE
“Despite the cartoon’s ability to provoke laughter, first of all it appeals to the mind,” stated the head of the House of Culture Workers Maia Kalinichenko. “These paintings make people think about the nature, values, and prompt to change the conventional priorities,” joined in Deputy Ambassador of Sweden Morten Enberg.
This is true. The authors of the cartoons deride the impudence, arrogance, and narrow-mindedness of man who is not able to realize where he is pushing the planet. And even when he is able to do so, he tends to avoid the “macabre” thoughts.
The main idea of the exhibit is that our society is largely dominated by anti-values. This is the world where luxurious cars are rescued in the first place on the eve of the Flood (two of every make), and only then, if there is any room left, animals and people can be taken on the Ark too. This is the world where the last tiny pile of snow is displayed behind a glass at a museum. The world where the speaker at an ecological summit understands that something is wrong, and says that since the environment does not correspond to the demands of modern society, it has to reconsider its priorities. The authors censure double standards that are revealed not only when the environmental problems need to be solved. In the caricature Is China the dirtiest? “white collars” from the US and the EU brag about how highly developed their environmental protection is, while their horrible factories destroy the nature of China.
Ukrainian participants of the project Oleksandr Kostenko (Dnipropetrovsk), Serhii Riabokon (Kyiv), and Mykola Kapusta (Donetsk) touched upon highly relevant aspects of the problem by going to the level of generalization. Evolutionary Dead End by Riabokon tells about a person who saws off the branch they have been sitting on, only to realize with astonishment that it is not the branch that is falling down but the whole tree. And Kostenko drew a human being who has turned his home planet into a dump and now craves for other planets as potential homes (or it is better to say dumps).
Though in our opinion, the most distinct and apt from a cultural perspective is Voluntary Donation by Riabokon. In it, Adam and Eve bashfully offer two fig leaves that they have used as coverings to a dry, bare, and almost dead tree. This appeal to the theme of the dawn of humankind is no mere coincidence, since now it looks as if it were nearing its end.
