In Remembrance of Species Lost
Ask children about extinction and they will tell you about the dodo and the dinosaurs, but extinction is not an event from our distant past, it continues every day. The WWF-UK's Living Planet report, 2014 stated that Earth has lost half its wildlife in the last 40 years. And this is not the end. Climate change and habitat loss are leading us into the Sixth Mass Extinction. Every year on the 30th November a growing number of people are marking Remembrance Day for Lost Species and this year, ONCA gallery cast a bell which will be tolled each year in remembrance of these lost plants and animals. The bell was embossed with a symbol, designed by a fantastic young artist, in collaboration with Brighton schools. http://onca.org.uk/ongoingprojects/a-bell-for-lost-species/.
The children involved in the project loved hearing about magical creatures from the past and created beautiful artwork as a result. Weeks later they were still talking about the work and were continuing to research the animals whose stories had moved them the most. Listen to the amazing stories of the world's lost creatures from the book A Gap in Nature here:
http://loe.org/series/series.html?seriesID=17
If we remember what we have lost, we are much more likely to take care of what we have.
