There are many ways to call attention to climate change. Talks, events, and other ways are utilized by many to raise awareness for climate change. For one artist, Leandro Erlich, he felt that creating a traffic jam will do the job. So, in a specified site along Miami Beach, he created a monumental sand-covered traffic jam scenario of about 66 life-sized cars and trucks. The temporary installation is titled “Order of Importance.” The surreal array of automobiles is meant to evoke the feeling of ruins, similar to that of Pompeii. The sandy sculptures are partially buried in the sand, an effect that they are submerged, a reference to rising sea levels caused by global warming.The artist’s work offers a chilling realization of what could be our future if we don’t take the threats of climate change seriously.

“Climate change and its consequences are no longer a matter of perspective or opinion,” the Argentinian artist explains. “The climate crisis has become an objective problem that requires immediate solutions. As an artist, I am in a constant struggle to make people aware of this reality, in particular, the idea that we cannot shrink away from our responsibilities to protect the planet,” he adds.

Miami is among the many coastal cities threatened by rising sea levels caused by the climate crisis, in fact it is already  prone to flooding. The work took Elrich 3 months to complete, and his largest work yet. Many people have gone over to see the installation. Whether they get the notion that the artist wanted his work to evoke is not known. But it surely does tickle their curiosity, and is a sight to behold.