Global warming activists employed a quixotic method to protest global warming in Davos, Switzerland as members of the World Economic Forum gather to meet this week. They built 193 snowmen, each one to represent a country of the world that they contend global warming will affect.
The group building the snowmen claimed that the icy sculptures represented a “very serious message.”
“This is about trying to send a very serious message in a light-hearted way,” said Brendan Cox, a spokesman for Action/2015 and director of policy and advocacy at Save The Children. He continued saying, “What we’re saying is that poverty, inequality and climate change have to be at the top of the agenda in Davos.”
At three feet tall, each snowman is draped with a scarf that bears the flag of a separate country.
The group hopes that the snowman stunt will help the “public to join them in their calls to ensure world leaders commit to a better world.”
As the members of the World Economic Forum meet to talk in part about global climate change and fears of the world getting steadily warmer, the freezing temperatures at Davos will keep the snowmen from disappearing too quickly. Temperatures for Davos are predicted to stay around freezing for the next week at least.
Still, activists are claiming that “sunlight” might make their snowmen melt faster, an event they hope will serve as a “metaphor.”
“We think there’s a key opportunity in 2015 to get this major breakthrough to the people of the planet,” Cox told the media. “But like the snowmen, those opportunities won’t be here in a few months’ time. They have to seize the moment to make that breakthrough.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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