A few years ago, when our small team was running the Step It Up campaign, I reflected on what Mt. Rushmore might look like underwater. A year earlier, in 2006, visionary artist Alexis Rockman showed through his paintings not only what Mt. Rushmore might look like after a few feet of sea-level rise, but what other iconic places like the St. Louis Arch, the US Capitol and the Golden Gate Bridge might look like a few hundred years from now (or even sooner!) if we don't reduce our Carbon emissions drastically and quickly.

Alexis is opening a new exhibition in a few days at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., where his paintings will be displayed alongside American masterpieces. The contrast between the lyrical paintings of small-town life, flowers and landscapes painted by Rockwell, O'Keeffe and Sargent, and Rockman's post-apocalyptic landscapes presents a choice. Do we, as global citizens want to ensure that our children and grandchildren will be able to live in the same kind of world that we grew up in — with natural beauty on a life-sustaining planet — or will we watch as human civilization washes away with the floodwaters and rising seas.

The power of Art to present this choice is why we've been working in over 20 cities around the globe to launch the eARTh project next week. We want to provide hopeful, and ultimately powerful images (taken from space!) of people taking part in massive creative formations to show the world we want action on climate — and we need you to get involved! Art alone wont solve the climate crisis, but if we come together next week and tap the creative parts of our brains, we can make the whole world see the choice that needs to be made.