UN-HABITAT has launched an educational video on the benefits of preparing for natural disasters.
The cartoon was produced in partnership with the Millennium Development Goal Achievement Fund, European Commission Humanitarian Aid, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Mozambique.
“The Change” shows villagers who are forced to adapt to changes in their climate and natural surroundings. The over-consuming “machine”, which causes the problems through its chaotic destruction of natural resources, is unable to respond to the changes and is eventually destroyed.
Using no spoken words and set in a non-specific location, the cartoon is able to cut across language and cultural barriers to deliver a clear and simple message about taking responsibility for our consumption as well as building towns and cities that are better equipped to deal with natural disasters.
The cartoon was aired for the first time at World Habitat Week in the United Nations Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo earlier this month and crowds of Pavilion visitors squeezed into the Forum area to view the fifteen minute piece.
Speaking at the launch, Dan Lewis, Chief of the Disaster and Post-conflict Section, UN-HABITAT, said “70 million people around the world have been forced from their homes by natural disasters…To be prepared for climate change, we have to change ourselves.”
He emphasised the importance of “building back better” to prevent a repeat of these tragedies in the same areas in the future and said that he hoped the cartoon would help to make a change in attitude and encourage people to adapt to their new circumstances.
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