"Virus" A graphic short story for Earth Hour 2020 About a month ago, I reached out to fellow cartoonists and illustrators on Instagram to start a #ComicsForEarthHour movement. We agreed to each create a comic or illustration and post it in the week leading up to Earth Hour (28 March). Since then, a deadly pandemic has taken hold around the world and turned our lives upside down. I wondered if it would now seem lofty and tone deaf to still be talking about saving the planet when people are struggling for their own survival. But then I realised that we can’t separate the two. And so I have created this graphic short story. It’s my first attempt at creating a sequential narrative comic. I hope you like it. Earth Hour this year happens during the worst public health crisis in a generation. Events have been cancelled around the world and people are hunkered down in their homes with their loved ones. There is never a better time to reflect upon our relationship with nature, our over-consumption, our wastage and our lack of empathy for people who live half the world away but who are in fact, as demonstrated by this devastating pandemic, closely interconnected with us. If you’re home at 8.30pm tonight (28 March), consider turning off the light for one hour as a symbol of your commitment to save ourselves. The way to stop a virus is by distancing ourselves from one another, but the only way to reverse climate change and nature loss is by standing together (virtually for now) and taking collective action. For a better future, for all of us. #EarthHour #ComicsForEarthHour #Virus #GraphicShortStory #Covid19 #pandemic #coronavirus #Connect2Earth #StayAtHome #WorkFromHome #Quarantine #FoodDelivery #ForOurFuture #Lockdown (at Planet Earth) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-RwH0mhWnf/?igshid=1poownal9b8t1
