Chakra the Invincible. Screengrab from https://www.comicsunitingnations.org/comics/
PARIS — In a bid to explain the issue of climate change to children, the United Nations has released a comic series that features the adventures of two superheroes attempting to address the effects of global warming.
Comics Uniting Nations, a partnership of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), PCI Media Impact and Reading with Pictures, launched the series “Chakra The Invincible,” based on an Indian animated film. Chakra is a character created by Stan Lee and Sharad Devarajan.
The third comic released by the group, Chakra climate change starts with a group of students from various countries attending a Model UN activity.
The students share their experiences on pollution, drought and other effects of climate change.
Mayumi, a student from the Philippines, talks about the changing weather patterns, which result in stronger typhoons devastating her country.
“They decide to call on their superhero friends Chakra the Invincible and Mighty Girl, who try to fix the surface of the problem: using typhoon rains from the Philippines to put out a forest fire in Indonesia,” UN said in a statement. “But they soon realize that climate change is too complex to address action by action, even with superpowers. Instead, each community has to learn how to work together, and do its part.”
The release of the comic coincides with the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21), which seeks to come up with a legally binding agreement to address climate change.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “As a kid, I loved comic books. Now, I see how they inspire people. The United Nations and superheroes are both focused on saving humanity from war, injustice, baby aliens and blobs.”
Devarajan, co-founder and CEO of Graphic India, said, “ By creating great comics for kids, we can plant powerful seeds of change that will have a lifelong impact and foster a new generation of global leaders, thinkers and doers to tackle the world¹s most pressing issues like climate change and gender inequality.”
Olav Kjorven, UNICEF Director of Public Partnerships, pointed out that comics are able to address “challenging topics” while entertaining people.
“By articulating the principles and values of the global goals through stories, imagery and even some famous characters, we can get people to think about these critical issues and what they mean to their lives, their family and their communities,” he said.
Click here to download a copy of the series.
Chakra the Invincible. Screengrab from https://www.comicsunitingnations.org/comics/