Finnish activists to carve giant Trump sculpture on melting glacier
The Finnish activist group Melting Ice is raising money in order to carve a 35 metre-tall ice sculpture of US President Donald Trump in an Arctic glacier which is melting due to global climate change.
The group says “Project Trumpmore” – a play on the US presidential monument Mount Rushmore in the state of South Dakota – needs around 400,000 euros to be created, and plans to soon start raising the money on several crowdfunding sites.
Unlike most other world leaders and the vast majority of the scientific world, Trump has said he doubts that climate change is due to humans, and has suggested that the meteorological occurrence is part of a Chinese conspiracy.
The US president also infamously decided not to sign the Paris climate accord, the UN agreement which aims to keep a global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius during this century.
Bring attention to climate change
Melting Ice’s chair, Nicolas Prieto says the group wants the sculpture to generate conversation on the topic of global climate change.
“We don’t simply want to build a monument, we want the project to be bigger and raise the topic of climate change on a broader scale, so that people talk more about climate change,” he says.
“Global warming is one of the most important issues and topics of today. There are still people who ponder whether it’s a real issue. We want to build the monument for all of us, so we can see how long the sculpture lasts before melting. Often people only believe something when they see it with their own eyes,” Prieto explains.
No specific location yet
If enough money is raised, the sculpture will be assembled from several separate ice carvings, made by Finnish ice sculpture artists such as Anssi Kuosa, who has already agreed to participate in the project.
A specific location for the sculpture has not been decided yet, but organisers are considering locations in Iceland or Greenland.
“We want to build it somewhere in the Arctic because melting Arctic ice has symbolic meaning for climate change,”Prieto says.
The group also plans to make a documentary film and a media campaign about the project.
Effort requires heavy equipment
Carving out the 35-meter Trump bust will require the use of cranes so that the ice artists can move around the frozen structure.
“Because the sculpture is so big, chainsaws will certainly be used, as well as other tools used in ice carving,” Prieto says.
If enough money is raised for the sculpture to be created, a web camera will stream video that will enable viewers around the world to watch the modified glacier melt.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: World maritime body moves to ban dirty fuels in the Arctic, Radio Canada International
Finland: Finland has world’s cleanest air, WHO says, Yle News
Germany: While Arctic melts, sweltering Germany hosts UN climate talks, Deutsche Welle’s Iceblogger
Greenland: Greenland earthquake and tsunami – hazards of melting ice?, Deutsche Welle’s Iceblogger
Norway: Norway expands Arctic drilling, environmentalists worried, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: On thin ice, North Pole camp folds after only 12 days, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Climate change hinders residential constructions in Sweden, Radio Sweden
United States: Rapid Arctic warming is increasing the frequency of blizzards in U.S. Northeast: study, Radio Canada International
