My monument is dedicated to the lives lost in this crisis. It is meant not only to commemorate the tragic loss of life, but to warn against the social and political structures that failed to stop a preventable ecological disaster. It is meant to inform future generations about how and why this crisis occurred, and to make sure it never happens again. It aims to commemorate victims as individuals, rather than members of nations, and strives to create a sense of unity in the face of unimaginable human tragedy.
The monument consists of an open enclosure on the moon, with a room filled with text and historical artifacts, a small, two section gallery, and an open wall looking out onto earth in the lunar sky. The historical room aims to chronicle the politics and deception that lead up to the ecological disaster. The role of all nations and governments will be summarized as fairly as possible. Scientific documents will detail the understanding that professionals had and the fact that the crisis was largely preventable. The first section of the gallery will consist of artwork celebrating what were the wonders of Earth’s ecology, such as redwood forests, the Himalayas, the Amazon, the Grand Canyon. This section will aim to portray the natural beauty of Earth before it was destroyed; many future will not have ever seen Earth with their own eyes, and this may be their only opportunity to experience the natural beauty of Earth. The second section will consist of images of the destruction of Earth, of raging fires, flooded costal cities, and devastated cropland. All images will be made up of tiny portraits of those who perished in the crisis, honoring their deaths and representing the unity of all humans in their grief.
This final framing of the earth is inspired by and pays homage to the iconic earthrise image. Just as earthrise marked a new sort of self awareness for humanity with the emergence of the space age and the scientific/technological revolution of the mid 20th century, my monument hopes to bring about a self reflection on the earth in the face of its self-destruction at the hands of technology. It is in many ways a mirror image of earthrise: while that image conveyed boundless optimism and the expansion of man’s horizons, my monument documents tragedy and cautions against humans’ use and control of technology without a clear will to understand its implications in the long term.
In placing this monument on the moon, the emotional impact comes not only from the artwork in the gallery, but from the Earth itself. While many other monuments, memorials, and sacred spaces we have examined in this course have housed the remains of the dead, the location of the monument on the moon allows it to serve as a point of observation and reflection on the fate of the Earth. The Earth is the site of ecological disaster, but even more crucially, it is the resting place of over half the human race at the time of the crisis, as well as every single human in history who died before them. In effect, the Earth has become a mass grave. The Earth itself is a central portion of the monument: its complete destruction and inhabitability speak for themselves. The monument aims to frame this destruction both literally, with the world encircled in flame, and figuratively: that while nations and leaders jockey for power, the ultimate victims are individuals; that the power of humanity comes from our ability to cooperate and lift each other up, rather than to increase the welfare or prestige of some at the expense of others.
