AAVV, DOC! photo magazine 47, 2020

On September 21, 2020 at 1.30 PM, two artists, Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd, launched a digital clock in Manhattan’s Union Square. Based on what was then up-to-date knowledge of greenhouse gas emissions, it counts down the time we Earthlings have left until there will be no turning back from climate catastrophe.

When it started, the clock showed exactly 7 years, 101 days, 17 hours, 29 minutes, and 22 seconds. Some considered it an artistic statement, but others saw it as an alarming wake-up call. Nothing shakes our consciousness more than the passing of time. This issue of doc! photo magazine is almost entirely devoted to climate change. Within its pages you will find materials dealing with the problem from as many perspectives as possible, beginning with a historical outline of the mining of carbon, the greatest environmental destroyer. This is followed by an insight into ocean pollution; the disastrous effects of excessive industrialisation; profiles of people trying to inspire others to act for the benefit of the climate and local communities; as well as artistic presentations of landscapes undergoing human-caused changes. They are stories that, on the one hand, emphasise the destructive role of man, but, on the other, are able to contraindicate the power of nature regaining a lost place. Above all, they are stories that will (hopefully) inspire us all to act.