Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Some view the environment as a force to replace. Concrete malls and skyscrapers pave the way for the future. However, many in those same mindsets forget the importance of the environment, and forego the ability for a forest and its stored animals to live in order to place a convenient shopping store. This is one of the targets the Eco-Art: Creating Environmentally-Friendly Art for the City of Stuart Group has aimed to target in our attempt to reveal the consequences of unattended environmental care. As a coordinator of the group, I helped plan the exhibition that would display all of the artistsâ€™ talents, including my own creation. Within my own contribution, I decided to approach the issue of smoking, and how the conscious act of committing to cigarettes poses an environmental, political, and social issue. I scavenged in the local parks, beaches, and playgrounds to collect over one hundred cigarette butts that were displayed on piece of cardboard. The cardboard was shaped to look similar to an ashtray, covered with cigarettes that, progressively, display the change of cigarette consumption in the country of India from 2001 to 2003 before the Indian government placed bans on smoking. Successfully, the cigarette companies manipulated their products to escape the new policies and managed to nearly double their profits by decreasing the width of their cigarettes, and increasing the price. Overtime, this was shown to be detrimental to the environment of India, as many cigarettes became discarded as trash and thus, interrupted the environmental system with pollution. As seen in my project, I took a strong stance against this issue, incorporating both American and Indian cultures to reflect on the basic idea of eliminating smoking from a legal right for both countries.