A hot planet would be a cold place.

Working under the world’s most powerful woman, Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety is the organization responsible for crafting and managing Germany’s environmental policies. The ministry, otherwise known by its German title, Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU), was created in June 1986 to consolidate the country’s growing environmental interests. It manifests itself as three federal agencies, the main one being the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, headquartered in Bonn. The others, the Federal Environmental Agency and the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, are based in Berlin and Salzgitter, respectively. The current Federal Environment Minister is Sigmar Gabriel, who is in turn assisted by State Secretary Matthias Machnig, Parliamentary State Secretary Michael Müller and Parliamentary State Secretary Astrid Klug.

In short, the rest of the world is willing to take the ecological lead with minimal supervision from Al Gore.

Germany’s Environment Ministry is dangling these print ads around, not as eye-catching artworks per se, but as yet another call to arms on land as on sea. Here are speculative images depicting Arctic and Antarctic fauna dying to wraiths. And the sucker punch is: they just might not be scare tactics anymore. It’s one thing to be alarmist, another to depict what’s real. Anyone could see the ministry’s tenacity to infuse some urgency to this issue. If it requires the use of thermography, then so be it.

Inconvenient Truth…almost. The thermographic art direction rather reminds me of Scariest Places on Earth, that reality series which used to air on Fox Family. In the show, families were made to walk through paranormal hotspots across the globe. They lugged thermographic cameras around, scanning locations for abrupt changes in temperature, telltale signs of “spirits.” The program has since been canceled but its kitschy use of the devices memorably provided fodder for gasps, both out of fear and amusement. As if its host Linda Blair hadn’t elicited any before.

What’s happening to the planet is scarier though.

Advertising Agency: KNSK Werbeagentur, Germany
Creative Directors: Anke Winschewski, Tim Krink, Niels Holle
Copywriters: Kurt Müller-Fleischer, Irina Schüller
Art Directors: Bill Yom, Nathalie Krüger

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