Sustainability
Can a designer influence change in our sustainable behaviours?
From my personal opinion I believe that a good designer can change a persons view on sustainability. How we can change the world and make it better one tiny step at a time. If an animator for example can catch an audiences attention for a few short minutes and make them realise what is happening to the world and what will happen if things don't change to help the earth's stability it could change that person's view to help the world even if it is for a little while or if they change a few things that they do in every day life.
It can be difficult to pay attention to information being shared if you have to read so much of it. Videos are much easier to watch and pleasant making the information sink in our heads and stick so we can remember it clearly. Visuals can be very powerful. The audience might be captivated by the style of the artist which draws them in and enables them to pay more attention to what is going on in the animation which causes them to take action and want to make a difference. Designers have the power to influence change through visuals stimulating the audiences mind and making enough of an impact to temporarily or maybe permanently alter their perception of how they can take care of the world and enable it to be sustainable.
I have found a short animation that explains sustainability rather well. It talks about the four rules that are in place to take care of the planet which in return gives us clean food, water and air.
This animation was created for RealEyes by Igloo animations.
According to the EPA sustainability is based on a simple principle, everything that we need for our survival and well- being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment.
Animators could change sustainable behaviours by focusing on educating young children. Today's children could be tomorrows potential polluters. Society needs to encourage young children to become environmentally aware and one of the best ways to do that is through animation. Children's brains are like a sponge at such a young age, they soak up all sorts of information. Children are also very focused by visual stimulation such as animations and computer games. Children should know where their energy comes from, how certain species of animals have become and will end up becoming extinct, the effects of global warming/ climate change, why water is becoming scarce and how to begin to make the world better and improve it for years to come, to enable future generations to live in a sustainable world.
Animation is very quick and to the point with it being able to cross barriers such as age, gender, language and cultural, it is able to reach a wide range of audiences.
If information about sustainability is instilled in children from a young age then this could drastically help the planet in the future helping children understand complex issues such as climate change, energy, natural resources and water resources.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dspPage&n_proj_id=3313
Sustainability shown in animated movies
There are current and old animated films that display sustainability in a very big way and try to make the viewers aware of their actions on the planet by showing them what can happen if they do not look after the planet and that in fact they are only making future situations worse for themselves. Some animations get the point across a bit better than others and some are mainly fictional with scenarios that could not possibly happen but the point still stands and it is still there whether people believe it is real or not. Here are a few of the animated movies with their descriptions as well as their link to sustainability.
Ferngully The last rainforest (1992):
This film has a message about the human species polluting and destroying the environment as well as a message about animal testing. It shows how fairies are caring for the forest and heal it with their magic then humans come along and mark the trees with X to be chopped down. By doing this they release an evil that is called Hexxus and wants to destroy the whole of the rainforest taking over the log machine. Of course good prevails like it does in all children's films but we could not be so lucky when it comes to reality.
Walle (2008):
Life becomes unsustainable on earth due to rising toxicity levels which forces the human race to leave the planet and float around in space until it is safe to go home when the Walle robots have cleaned the planet. The humans become to lazy in space unable to move from levitating chairs, bones shrunk over generations due to not being used at all. They are only able to get back to planet earth due to the robots help and determination to get them there to clean up the planet and take care of it once again.
Happy feet (2006):
Happy feet is about a penguin, (Mumbo) that does not fit in because he can not sing but in fact dances instead. The animated film also leans towards an environmental storyline pointing out over fishing and the effects it can have, a chain reaction on wild life. In the film a penguin has some plastic wrapped around its neck and Mumbo follows a fishing ship to try and see what is happening. He ends up being away from home and when being taken back has a tracking device fixed to his back. When he gets back the humans follow him and realise what their rubbish pollution and overfishing is doing to the penguins and so they ban fishing in the Antarctic.
The Lorax (2012):
The lorax is the creature that takes care of the trees which are essential to the planets sustainability. The Onceler ignores the Lorax's warning about cutting down the trees and takes the Lorax for granted and betrays him by cutting down all of the trees to make his thneeds not realising that he has ended up polluting the town where trees now don't exist and people have to resort to buying air.
The Onceler does not realise the consequences of his actions until it is too late. The animals have to relocate as they no longer have a home, it is filled with oil from factories, no clean water, all due to the greed of humans.
Simple everyday ways to help save the planet
I have been looking into simple things that Designers and people in general can do to help save the planet. Whilst doing that I found this image on a blog about design which shows the six R's to use when designing products.
http://newthdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/6-rs-in-design-process.html
There are hundreds of little ways in which everybody could help save the planet each day if they were to change certain things in their every day routines or change certain objects they use. I am going to list just a few things that everybody could do to help save the planet.
- Use energy saving bulbs
- Turn off computers or any other devices that might be plugged into mains either at night or during the day when you are not using them. Do not have them on stand by. Just switch them off when you are not using them.
- Don't rinse plates before putting them in the dish washer, this saves on a lot of water that could be used in better ways.
- Recycle. Glass, plastic. These materials take thousands if not millions of years to decompose and are doing so much damage to the earth and soil, not to mention animals mistake them for food every day which causes unnecessary deaths.
- Hand dry clothes instead of using a tumble dryer.
- Shower instead of having a bath. A bath uses twice as much water and having a shower saves so much more time and energy not to mention lower costs.
- Turn off lights when they are not being used or if they are not needed. Use the natural light source during the day time instead of turning on lights.
- Use rechargeable batteries.
That is just a small list of ways in which you can help the environment. There are lots more ways which are available at this link: 50 ways to help save the planet
On the other hand Animators might not be able to influence change in our sustainable behaviours as people will do what they want to do. You can allow somebody to watch an animated film and they might be moved by it but that does not mean that they will change the way they behave or act towards the environment. People need to be influenced by others in order to change, to make a difference.
Design has tried to help sustainability in the past by designing the paper bag, but by using paper bags thousands of trees are being cut down and used to make them and paper production emits air pollution.
According to Jane McGrath's article "Paper production emits air pollution, specifically 70 percent more pollution that the production of plastic bags. According to certain studies, manufacturing paper emits 80 percent more greenhouse gases."
So the plastic bag came along which lasts longer, it is a lot more durable than a paper bag but is also very bad for the environment. It is a danger to wildlife, causes litter all over the planet and takes thousands of years to degrade.
"Litter: Littered plastic bags are everywhere today- blown around streets, stuck in fences and trees."
"Danger to wildlife: Plastic waste is deceptive for birds and other wildlife, who mistake it for food. And you can imagine how eating plastic messes with an animal's intestine. As a result, animal's can die of starvation."
"Long term degrading: Light breaks plastic down so it photodegrades rather than biodegrades. Estimates say that this process can take up to 500 or even 1000 years in landfills."
These products were designed and both are not great for the environment and designers are still yet to come up with a cheaper and safer product to be used.
