Today, Greenpeace and 350.org teamed up for the photo op of a lifetime. In crystal clear water, in the middle of the ocean, we could see Jason Taylor’s sculptures sitting at the sea floor as we pulled up to the area of The Silent Evolution installation. The sculptures were beautifully crafted to look like a village of people from different eras.
Wearing everyday clothing, activists from Mexico, U.S., Canada, Phillipines, Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Australia and Brazil and more jumped into the clear blue waves. The objective was to swim down to the sculptures, 8 meters below and make photos and video of our message to the delegates at the UN climate negotiations. To take pictures or video, it took about one minute of our holding breath under water, and solid scuba skills (SSS).
The statues were built to live underwater, and after a day of free diving to be amongst them, it was clear we weren't. The millions of people who are now threatened by sea level rise face a terrible danger ahead if governments meeting here in Cancun don’t make the right choices to avoid dangerous disruption of the climate.
I’m going to bed, it has been a long and awesome day. Check out this video to see where we were today.
Brady Bradshaw is part of the Student Network at Greenpeace USA.