And the Winner is……..the creative spirit inspired by the love of whales.
Greenpeace invited activists to submit creative photos to show President Obama that people are serious about saving the whales, and people of all ages, from all over the world have responded. Greenpeace has offered prizes for the top three images chosen by Phil Kline, Greenpeace Senior Oceans Campaigner, Diana Silbergeld, Greenpeace National Activist Network Director and myself.
The images they are sending to http://www.greenpeace.org/photocontest are posted on http://www.flickr.com/photos/save_the_whales. We will be delivering the images, along with petitions and signatures to the White House on June 3. Some are charming in their simplicity and others are breathtakingly complex. All are individual expressions of love and respect for these amazing fellow mammals that remain at risk of violent destruction more than two decades after the International Whaling Commission voted to stop commercial whaling. Now the IWC is considering a proposal to resume commercial whaling and the United States is supporting that proposal.
Greenpeace and other groups are in an all out effort to let President Obama know that this must not happen. The pictures show that people care, and express that in so many ways. There are images of whales, leaping humpbacks, breaching tails, Grays, pilot whales, orcas, fin whales and dolphins. They are in the ocean, in the middle of the air and in outer space. There are horses, birds, dogs and people. People graduating, leaning on cars, holding signs, young people, elderly folks, kids and a great diversity in between. There are words, signs, banners, symbols and expressions. Waves, sunsets and lighthouses.
Seen together and great multilingual visual story of why we love whales and don’t want them slaughtered anymore. Contest entries close at midnight Wednesday, May 26, 2010. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners as we stay focused on the U.S. position and the outcome at the IWC meeting June 20 in Agadir, Morocco.
