“...what should they-what can they-do other than conclude that ours was a time
when most forms of art and literature were drawn into the modes of concealment
that prevented people from recognising the realities of their plight?”

Amitav Ghosh, in his book ‘The Great Derangement’, seems to have summed up the state of affairs in the literary world. The vast body of literature that exists is reflective of our failure to acknowledge climate change as a crisis. It is ridiculous how it is still treated as a distant, abstract reality.

Of the many facets of this crisis, there is that of plastic pollution. It is said that every minute, a truckload of plastic waste enters our oceans- a popular claim that, unfortunately, doesn’t even sound far fetched because plastic pollution is a less ‘abstract’ facet of the climate crisis. We see it every day- on our streets, in our gutters and on our beaches. It is, in some sense, an evergrowing visual representation of our failure.

This semester, as an exploration in storytelling, I attempted to create a picture book that brings to light the gravity of this situation and encourages children to think critically about how they can make a difference.

Case Study Download:
• The Shapes on the Shore......