Monday, November 22, 2010

eARTh 350 kicks off

On Friday I wrote about the launch of eARTh 350.  Well, it's launched.  The AFP article below tells the story, and has been reposted on some 2,420 news sites and blogs, I just wanted to make it 2,421.  And show you some of the early pictures taken from the satellite:

350 Earth - Los Angeles

350 Earth - Santa Fe
350 Earth - Santa Domingo, DR
350 Earth - Mexico City
350 Earth - Delta Del Ebro, Spain


Art on planetary scale shines spotlight on climate change
LOS ANGELES — The first global art show on climate change kicked off this weekend, launching several symbolic performances seen from space that bring people and planet together to highlight the hazards of global warming.
From the US southwest to spots in countries like China, Egypt, India and Spain, thousands of volunteers were coming together for the weeklong photo-performance project that ends November 27, just ahead of UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
Using human bodies as the main media, the show was organized by US environmentalist Bill McKibben and his 350 Earth advocacy group, whose name points to the number of parts per million that most scientists agree is an acceptable upper level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Currently, that level is about 390 parts per million.
The group brought the global project into focus Saturday in the United States and Spain.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, more than 1,000 Girl Scouts and other residents holding blue posters crammed into a dry riverbed to form a human "flash flood" depicting where the Santa Fe River should be flowing.
"It's hot in here, there's too much carbon in the atmosphere!" the volunteers chanted.
At 10:53 am, participants flipped their cardboard posters to the blue side so a passing satellite could photograph them from orbit.
People also gathered in Delta Del Ebro, Spain to walk through a huge maze conceived by artist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, while in New York a painting depicting the New York and New Jersey coastline after a seven-meter (23-foot) rise in sea levels was unveiled on a rooftop and photographed from space.
Thom Yorke, lead singer of rock supergroup Radiohead and an advocate of climate action, put a succinct message about the 350 Earth project on his band's website.
"The plan is to make images visible from the skies to remind those in Cancun that we are running out of time. We can't keep putting this off," Yorke wrote.
On Sunday thousands were gathering at a state park outside Los Angeles to form a giant image of an eagle taking flight over a field of solar panels, while on Monday in Mexico City, thousands of children will create a huge hurricane, with the number 350 depicted in the eye of the storm.
Mumbai will see schoolchildren group together in the shape of an elephant to represent the "elephant in the room" that is climate change.
In Australia, a torch display will form the number "350," in a warning about the risk of more wildfires if global warming is not halted.
And in Iceland, artists at the foot of a receding glacier plan to arrange red rescue tents in the shape of a giant polar bear.
McKibben acknowledged before the project that technical terms can be weak when it comes to inspiring people to change, but he was confident the images photographed from space would resonate with those who see them.
"One of the things I hope this achieves is to remind people that we live on a planet. Just like Venus and Mars, we are a hunk of rock out in space and our future depends on, among other things, the gaseous composition of our atmosphere," McKibben said.
The UN forum has made dismal progress toward a global deal to reduce harmful emissions, and McKibben said was he not optimistic about the Cancun talks.
"I think it is going to be a longer process than everyone has hoped."
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Stay going. 


Friday, November 19, 2010

350 Earth Art

Climate art visible from space.  That's what's coming up next from the 350.org crew.  350 Earth will be the first art exhibit visible from space.

Based on the premise that the earth rise photo created an immediate shift in consciousness for humanity - providing a dramatic, visual reminder that we're indeed on a spaceship, and its the only one we've got.

Even if we didn't articulate it this way, it drove a visceral realization that we've got energy coming in from the sun, but materials don't come in and go out (aside from the odd meteor or satellite) - there is no "away" for poisons we create or pull out of the earth's crust (the basic premise behind Sustainability Principles 1 & 2); and that we can't continually use up or destroy the resources faster than they regenerate naturally (SP 3); and we've got to find basic ways to live together, respect each other and keep the social fabric from falling part (SP 4).

A new report from UC Berkeley shows that dire messages about climate change can backfire if presented too negatively - increasing skepticism and inaction.  It says people generally see the world as just (or want to believe it is) - and reject the idea that we would create an apocalyptic for ourselves and future generations.  We all know we're not 100% rational creatures.

As I write I'm listening to Wake Up - the new album from John Legend and the Roots the revisits classic songs that drove social movements in the '60s and '70s.  It's clear we need powerful art like that now.  It's a good thing we're getting it.

From November 20-28 artists and citizens at over a dozen locations will create massive art installations that satellites will photograph from space.

Bill McKibben, in many ways the voice of 350.org said "I think it's going to be very powerful. Art gets to people in ways that science doesn't."

The series of installations are timed to happen before the annual international climate negotiations - COP 16 - happening in Cancun, Mexico in early December.  Most people aren't expecting much to come out of these meetings.  Sometimes that's when things can happen.

Stay going.



Ban the Plastic Bag

Tough to go wrong with this beat:



Thanks to Green Sangha for creating the video.

Stay going...



Tuesday, November 09, 2010

The face of climate disruption in 2010

A great video from NRDC gives a quick glimpse of some of the impacts of climate disruption this year, showing that this is not a "maybe" problem that we can deal with in the future:


Stay going.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Rural Hip Hop

Hip hop & organic farming... even if it is viral marketing, I can't resist...



Thanks to Climate Denial Crock of the Week where I found this one...

Stay going.