Picturing Disaster These Days

Not that much was written about the recent climate talks in Cancun, nor were many pictures circulated, but I did come upon a slideshow of a protest meeting in Colorado urging action at the talks. The images were taken by Getty’s fine photographer, John Moore, whose work we’ve discussed here often for its social conscience.

This picture especially stood out to me, and I’m interested to know how you read it, and if you think my reaction was way off base.  Here’s the caption:

A child holds a poster during a demonstration urging stricter controls on carbon emissions on December 1, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. The environmental protection group 1Sky Colorado staged the event at the state capitol, urging the U.S. to take a firm stand to prevent climate change at this week’s UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.

First pass, what I immediately thought of when I saw the drawing was the World Trade Center. Analyzing that take, I thought: even if the drawing is all about global warming, I still can’t help but consider how much 9/11 and terrorism permeates this culture’s orientation to disaster. (Whether smokestacks, towers or a melding of the two, of course, I can also imagine this little girl just wanting to airdrop some love onto our smoking world.)

Your thoughts?

Slideshow here.