Published: Sunday, 9th November, 2008 09:00
Students draw up their designs on climate change
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Writing on the wall: Shelly Ma and Charlotte Orchard
Pic by: Andy Evans
ARTY activists hope their picture will say a thousand words about climate change.
Six GCSE art students from Highdown School in Caversham spent half term stencilling a mural on the basement walls of the Global Café in London Street, Reading. Charlotte Orchard, 15, said: “It’s really obvious that there’s climate change going on, but people tend to ignore it. We think, 'It’s just me, if I don’t turn the light off, nothing’s going to change’. But if everybody thinks that, nothing will change.
“We tried not to force the message on people, but we’ve put it on the wall in subtle ways.”
The mural contains colourful prints of trees, bicycles and cars as well as penguins and polar bears, with humorous touches including stencils that look like real light switches, and a Banksy-esque rat holding flowers.
John Hoggett, of campaign group Rising Tide, talked about the effects of climate change with the students. He said: “We campaign on climate change as a social justice issue, because the rich world creates most of the carbon emissions but it’s the poor world that suffers the most, due to droughts and flooding.
Staff from the café, Reading International Solidarity Centre and the school also worked to draw up the designs.
Pupil Shelly Ma, 15, said: “It was fun but it was hard work. I hope that people who see this will understand the effects of what they are doing to the world and what’s changing.”
Anyone interested in commissioning stencil work by Charlotte Orchard can contact Highdown on 0118 901 5800.
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