A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity of making this mural. I have always expressed my political opinions through my work. This wall was the perfect opportunity for me to give my politics and art a more relevant focus.
This wall, and the conversations with the people here while I was painting, have led me to make the decision that all my street art in the future must be about the climate crisis we all face.
Our cumulative impact on the planet is now a serious threat to our future existence. In just my lifetime the global population has more than doubled. In the same time industrial activity has doubled the output of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The rate of the global temperature rise has also doubled. All of this in just my lifetime. Ironically, one month after I was born in 1965, the American president was warned by scientific advisors of exactly the situation we face now. And yet, fifty years later, this grave problem has not been seriously challenged.
We are now at the end of the time in which we can stop this catastrophic crisis. Fortunately, at the COP 21 Paris climate conference some small progress was made. Also many European governments are beginning to take action. However, the choices that need to be made for our long term survival are not popular for short term political gain.
We must all go much, much further.
We are living way beyond the capacity of the planet we live on to sustain us. Many of us already know this and we must take personal responsibility for the disaster that is gradually unfolding. I am not a politician, I am not an engineer and I am not a scientist so I cannot make change at a state level. I am an ordinary citizen of the world and I am a parent and grandparent so I have an obligation to make what difference I can. I do not eat meat, I do not travel by air, I grow as much vegetables as I can myself and try to buy other food only produced in France or neighbouring countries. My work gives me another opportunity – to spread this message. And I hope people will see and hear it.
This is the change that we can all make. And this is the change that will allow you, in the future, to look your children, and grandchildren in the eye, and say that you did what you could.

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