This page was created by Alison Morgan.
Artist Statement: Jerome Durden
Jerome expresses his thoughts on the idea of climate change through three poems. The first poem is called The Question, and the poem starts off explaining that nature is great. However, it's changing for the worse because of anthropocentric actions, and the voice of The Question is an interviewer. This interviewer asks questions about paying attention to nature and whether we'll decide to do something about the problem we’ve created or not.
This poem is a transition to the next poem that was written in three parts called Three Answers, and these are the honest responses of three different people as to why they're not interested in trying to fix the problem of the climate changing. The first response is a mother explaining that she would care about global warming, if she didn't have to deal with all of the pressing issues in her life, and at the end of her response she asks why people are expecting her to resolve the problem of global warming when no one is helping her situation.
The next response is from the perspective of a businessperson that realizes that global warming is a problem. However, he also realizes that big business and being an advocate for green initiatives rarely go hand in hand. The business person explains that he wants big business and a green conscious to exist simultaneously, but he knows that he's dreaming and wishing for something that's not going to happen, so instead of trying to be the change he desires to see, he goes with what he knows best. He knows about money, and he knows that big business equals big money.
The last response covers everyone that doesn't care about global warming or believes that it doesn't exist. It's a representation of the most dismissive response towards climate change. This teenage person isn't thinking about the future or the repercussions of their actions. They just want to focus on their own lives, and it doesn't matter how the chips fall. The only thing that matters to this type of person is what's going to benefit themselves and personal pleasure. The effect that I’m going for is the idea that why should or would a young person care about climate change when the people that are telling them to care about it didn’t when they were young.
The last poem, A Clouded Mind, comes from Jerome’s personal interpretation of climate change and his frustrations with this problem because he can't gauge how serious of a problem climate change is. Jerome states: “I don't know if we need to come up with a solution for climate change right now or if we've got thousands of years before anything will seem apocalyptic. It's frustrating that the people that talk about this being such a huge problem want to put the burden on my generations back instead of trying to fix it themselves.” This poem is his honest moment of reflection on the topic of climate change and what needs to be done to enhance the lives of future generations.
In summation, these poems were created to give people an different angle on the ideas of climate change and an anthropocentric world. It's easy to push the blame on someone else, but it's very difficult to examine one's own image. Clearly, we're not going to be able to resolve the problem of climate change overnight, but having conversations that cause one another to change our perspectives is a really good start to solving the issues that we've created.
