the impact Coca Cola Company has on the planet in carbon footprint and plastic pollution in global oceans.
Author: Distil Ennui | Post Date: 23-10-2020I can barely to imagine a world without soft drinks of one kind or another, but at what cost is it to us that these brands exist at all. Over the years I have seen the dramatic change from aluminium beer cans being the serious ocean polluter for remote island nations such as the Maldives back in the 1980’s. This has now shifted to plastic bottles & bags that are entering the ocean at a rate of one lorry load a minute according to the United Nations figures in 2018. The problem could be viewed more easily in tourist based destinations with an imported set of products to cater to their needs littering the shorelines; particularly remote island nations such as the Caribbean, Indonesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands and South Pacific Islands. Plastic has completely overturned pollution visibility, it is not just to be seen in tourist hotspots but prevalent in every geographic location from shoreline to deepwater ravines near 6klms in depth; it is visible in every water based ecosystem and organism. It is in the sea salt products we buy off the shelf we ingest so eagerly, our careless behaviour has led to plastics and micro plastics now registering in every tier of the food chain in our oceans.
I believe now is the time for the civil rights movement of our generation to begin. To hold to account the 100 companies that are causing 71% of global pollution for profit. Current corporate PR strategies are to get us to green our own lifestyles; we need to hold to account what they are doing and cleverly guilt spinning us into change, while they remain exactly the same.
If you had travelled to the Maldives over the past 15 years you would have seen the dramatic increase in public advertising from major drinks brands, when they know full well that there is absolutely no plastic recycling solution in the region spanning over 1500 kilometres of ocean to get to Sri-Lanka or India. I do think it shameful for a large profit making multinationals to sell their product with no regard for the consequences of the community or environment. To me this is an act of aggressive ecocide, where the problem lies not in the backyard of the company but in another pristine landscape that your product is sold to and in the end bring no social value to the community; targeting the young in particular, these advertising campaigns are divisive upon an unsuspecting audience.
Branching from the 'Rosae' series in 2009, here I recreate a past coca cola brand logo from thousands of flower petals that is photographed underwater, exploring the potential thread of corporate gain and environmental harmony; something that commercial enterprises seem not to grasp. Of course this work is a memento mori, and as these petals wilt and fade they as washed away by the power of water, now only a memory recorded on camera.
These plates are 5*4 & 8*10 inch fuji Provia 100 film stock, hand processed in the studio; seen here without the use of any post production beyond cropping.
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