AP News, August 2025
As nations began a second week of negotiations Monday for a global accord to end plastic pollution, an artist heaped piles of plastic waste onto a large sculpture in front of the United Nations office.
Delegates to the treaty talks pass by the sculpture daily in a reminder of their responsibility to solve the plastic pollution crisis. The talks are scheduled to conclude Thursday.
Benjamin Von Wong, a Canadian artist and activist, designed the nearly 6 meter (18 foot) sculpture called the “Thinker’s Burden” and built it with a team. It’s his take on the famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin, “The Thinker” in Paris. There is a male figure in deep thought, like Rodin depicted. But instead of sitting atop a rock, Von Wong’s figure sits atop Mother Earth while cradling a baby and clutching plastic bottles. A strand of DNA intertwines them to highlight the health impacts of plastic pollution.
