Now released: Can Santa Claus Help the World Conquer Climate Change?
Can Santa Claus Help the World Conquer
Climate Change?
New comic book from Comics Uniting Nations and founding
partner UNICEF
takes the action to the North Pole, and brings the message home to kids
takes the action to the North Pole, and brings the message home to kids
[New York, NY] In
the midst of soaring pre-winter Arctic temperatures -
and increasing political uncertainty - a new hero emerged today to
help lead the global battle against potential climate catastrophe.
Actually, a rather old
hero.
Santa Claus [also known as
Father Christmas, Père Noël and St. Nicholas] today released a deeply
personal account of his struggle to recognize, understand and take action
against the impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather events that are
threatening the very foundations of his fabled workshop and village.
His account, in comic
book format, titled "Santa's Green Christmas - Father Christmas
Battles Climate Change," reveals how Mr. Claus first became aware of
shifting temperatures when Dancer, the lead member of his reindeer team, nearly
crashed through the previously solid Arctic ice-cap during a practice landing.
“Fortunately, she was soon on
the mend,” Claus recounts. “But the whole thin-ice issue really caught my
attention.”
Santa then read
the studies by the world's most eminent scientists - and consulted
with neighboring terns, wrens and polar bears - to confirm the gravity of
the phenomenon.
“It seems to me we have been
dashing to disaster,” Mr. Claus concluded.
But he also finds reason to
hope, realizing that by leveraging clean energy sources and working
together on the root causes of climate change, we can halt its destructive
path.
The comic is freely available to
the public in web and print versions. English is currently available, and
French and Spanish will be released before Christmas.
To read or download, go
to http://www.comicsunitingnations.org/mediakits/santas-green-christmas/
Schools, churches, NGOs and
businesses are invited to print and utilize the comic as a teaching tool, or to
distribute as a holiday gift to students, members, employees or customers. The
text is written to appeal to range of age and education levels.
Santa's Green Christmas is the newest release from Comics Uniting Nations:
a partnership between UNICEF, The World’s Largest Lesson, PCI Media Impact and
Reading With Pictures. The partnership is releasing a series of comic books
with the ultimate mission to publicize and popularize the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
Santa's Green Christmas was idea of Felix Dodds, a UN consultant and the
co-author or editor of a dozen texts on sustainable development policy, and
Michael Strauss, an international political and media advisor and the director
of Earth Media.
Strauss considers Santa the ideal spokesperson for confronting climate change.
Strauss considers Santa the ideal spokesperson for confronting climate change.
“Santa Claus may be the ultimate
benevolent father figure in Western cultures – or grandfather figure. He warmly
encourages and rewards good behavior, and gently but firmly admonishes the bad.
And with a herd of high-flying reindeer and a home in the Arctic north, he's
about as grounded in nature and close to the front lines of climate impacts as
anyone.”
Dodds noted that he himself has
had a long, productive relationship with Mr. Claus.
“I first met Father Christmas at
the age of three in a clothing store in the UK in Derby, and I became Chair of
Father Christmas Youth. I then organized a stakeholder consultation around
gift-giving practices in my freshman year at the University of Surrey. I now
hope to have Santa lead a workshop on water, food and energy.”
An accomplished graphics team
was led by artist and colorist John Charles, a UK-based graphic designer, comic
and text book artist who has produced covers and penciling for Marvel
UK, Antarctic Press, BBC Books, and New World Frontiers.
Lettering is by Ian Sharman, an
artist, writer and editor whose credits include Spider-Man, Iron Man, the
X-Men, and Doctor Who graphic novels. He is editor in chief of Markosia,
and runs Orang Utan Comics, a comic book collective. Inks are by Lee Townsend,
an artist and animator who has worked on Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, Iron Man
and the Hulk, for Marvel, Disney, DreamWorks, and most recently the Cartoon
Network.
Comics Uniting Nations is a partnership between UNICEF, PCI Media Impact, The
World’s Largest Lesson and Reading with Pictures, to make the Sustainable
Development Goals accessible to the people of the world through comics. Working
with a wide array of artists and content creators, Comics Uniting Nations
leverages the universal visual language and transformative power of comics to
educate people in every corner of the globe about the SDGs and empower them to
create positive and lasting change in their own communities and worldwide.
Contact –
Michael Strauss
earthmedia@gmail.com
+1 646 246-3585
Rebekah Ward
rward@mediaimpact.org
+1 315 939-0938
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