As we enter a new decade, we are at a time in our history when stories about the natural world have never been more important. We are the first generation to understand humanity’s impact on nature and the last to be able to protect and restore it.

At the same time sadly environmental communication often fails to reach people’s hearts and minds.

As a community we are currently facing issues that are bound to have a huge impact on our children’s future. Yet problems that should make the front page simply pass unnoticed. There is a deafening silence about it.

The Sixth Extinction is the other side of climate change. However very few people know what it is. And even less people are actually doing something about what is threatening the survival of our own species.

Apparently our brain is wired to ignore complex issues, to regard their consequences as something far in the future and to deny all responsibility related to them.

The solutions? We need new visual metaphors that are meaningful to people and cannot be ignored or dismissed. And we need new messengers.

The first step was to build a story finding elements that really have a connection with us and what we know and experience. For example, polar bears are a widespread image related to the issue of climate change but actually using them as a metaphor is quite useless. Why? Most of us can’t really relate to them because they’re far from everyday life of the majority of people, unless you live in Greenland of course.

The way we perceive and assess risk is linked to our emotional response, rather than charts, figures or data. That’s why we needed irony …and also a bold call to action.  

The visual approach which mixes different media that range from edited photos to original illustrations dating back up to the 15the century.

Welcome to the Sixtinction has  won several awards and has made it to the official selection of more than twenty International Film Festivals around world. It has been screened from New York to Brisbane, from Barcelona to New Delhi sparkling discussions about a topic that a few years ago nobody knew anything about.