Ditt Val

150x100 cm
Oil on canvas
2020

I made this piece to hopefully raise a little bit of attention to the rapid changes of temperature that our oceans have been facing. Here I wanted to focus on the effects and consequences of global warming and pollutions that have been caused by human impacts.

Firstly, there are several reasons why the average temperatures are pushed higher by the year which causes our seas to heat up. But let's all agree that human-caused global warming is the main culprit in this matter. The high amount of fossil fuels that we have been burning and trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution has had frightening consequences of our planet warming up. Most of the excess heat that has not stayed in the atmosphere has instead been absorbed by our oceans – leading to these enormous bodies of water to slowly raising their average temperature. And even though these numbers seem to be small, they have a huge impact on marine life - everything from plankton and the smallest fish to huge coral reefs and blue whales. But also natural disasters like hurricanes and tropical cyclones are turning more intense and harmful.

Another big issue we need to address is the pollution poisoning and harming our biosphere and aquatic life. As pollutants kill several species in their habitat, it also disrupts the natural food chain and interferes with full ecosystems. And as much as this is in the air we breathe on land, the same thing goes for the marine life in our waters. With these enormous issues in mind, we're left with the scary thought of our endangered blue whales only being able to breathe toxic black clouds in our unhealthy oceans. And as the title ”Ditt Val” already states, it is actually ”Your Choice” on how you decide to proceed with these problems.

(The title ”Ditt Val” has a somewhat double meaning in Swedish, translated to either ”Your Whale” or ”Your Choice”)