I’m obviously on an audio kick right now…. the sound of sun and the sound of old growth forest. My creative side is roaring away while the federal election is stressing me out to the max.
“I move sound. Noise from one location is manifest elsewhere, and in another dimension. I turn sound into 3 dimensional objects which appear to be flat, and then heighten this sense of flattening, and of silence, with the hush of a photograph.
Humans have long been intruiged by visualising sound waves as we are, supposedly, ‘better’ at seeing than hearing. How does one even begin to compare the senses? There are more neurons in our brains devoted to the visual than the aural, and so we might think we are more able to analysize data when it comes from a visual realm.” Tviga Vasilyeva
Tviga Vasilyeva recorded audio in the old growth forests along the Russia-Finland border. She then went back to find they were logged and so she transformed the “Soundstills” to visual ghosts of what was.
Craig Colorusso has personally promoted the sun to orchestrate the sound track of his life.
This Massachussetts artist and musician gave birth to the Sun Box.
Twenty solar-power speakers collectively strike a B-flat chord = each set to play one guitar note on loop.
Senior Paxton called me up and turned me into a pod cast… it’s a great way to get an update if you care to find out what I have been up to
http://www.paxtonallewell.com/blog/
In the feature documentary category……my Oscar picks are ….
1. Gasland; highlighting the dangers of drilling for fracking for shale gas. Shale gas is natural gas hidden within shale formations and is extracted by hydraulic fracturing (’fracking’), meaning a tremendous amount of chemically laced water & sand is forced into the newly created cracks to force the natural gas out to an accessible surface. This process is becoming increasingly widespread, as easily accessible sources of oil and natural gas are being rapidly depleted, leaving only more costly and dangerous alternatives like fracking, deep water drilling in the Gulf of México and the tar sands in Alberta. In the US, where Pennsylvania sits atop one of the largest reservoirs of natural gas in the world and several other states have significant supplies, there have been several cases where fracking has led to drinking water supplies have been irreversibly poisoned, and that is not an easy thing to swallow.
2. Waste land; bringing light to the challenges of a rubbish picker surviving on a Brazilian landfill
In the pro-active green lifestyle category….
1. Inception Leonardo DiCaprio swayed Warner Bros. to install and use solar panels on set during the production.
2. Black Swan It is said that Director Darren Arronofsky made the set eco-friendly by banning plastic bottles and styrofoam plates, and of course Natalie Portman is the hottest vegan this side of pregnancy town.
Finally, we can’t forget the tremendous influence films have on our social psychology. Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” planted climate change in the center of public consciousness in 2006, and Torontonian Rob Stewart’s ”SharkWater” created an uproar of shark-finning legislation world wide. Josh Fox began filming his “Gasland” documentary when he was offered $100,000 for permission to drill on his land and now it’ up for an Oscar!
Also a couple environmentally intelligent decisions…
-The Oscars’ Red Carpet is made from recycled water bottles
-The Oscars’ are powered by 100% renewable energy
-Food served in reusable china and glassware is local and organic
-All organic waste will be composted, Glass, plastic and aluminum will be recycled
Lastly, to relate to my desperate attempt at finding a local eco-dress to wear to the Grammys’ .. I’m not the only one. Livia Firth (wife to Colin Firth) is said to be wearing 11 recovered dresses - to make one Oscar dress for this evening.
The piece is titled: Crash Test - of Jennifer Chrysler’s Eco Haute Couture Collection.
Jennifer Chrysler is from St. Catharines, Ontario (right next-door to my hometown of Niagara Falls)
The black gown is actually made from recycled seatbelts which Jennifer took two days to collect from the Beaverdams Wrecking Yard. The back does up corset style with the actual seatbelt snap closures and the belt buckle is a Lexus symbol.
She is so good eh !
Jennifer Chrysler
Founder & Fashion Designer Hemp Couture 905.329.2928 www.hempcouture.ca www.hempcouture.etsy.com
We should all be keeping a close eye on Brazil !
Brazil’s first female president Rousseff fights to recognize massive Hydro Dams as clean energy, contrary to preferred and fair small-scale dams. Last week she licensed the Belo Monte Dam that will flood almost 60, 000 hectares of Amazon forest, irretrievably destroy riverine peoples, biodiversity and their stewardship. I recognize that Brazil is graciously expected to continue to grow and Hyrdo has it’s benefits over coal and nuclear. Developing this power source would of course support their economic growth and prosperity but there is always room for smart growth and decentralized power creation. I hope Marina Silva will be given the chance to share her knowledge and advise accordingly.
At Midnight on the last day of the negotiations in Cancun, Dr. Keeling’s carbon dioxide analyzer at the top of Mauna Loa, a volcano looming over the island of Hawaii, hit 390 ppm. In the 50’s Dr. Keeling developed techniques that enabled great precision in measuring CO2 in the atmosphere, his work persisted to develop the Keeling Curve revealing the constant dramatic rise in CO2.
A Projection of our current measurement alludes to the obvious imagery given by the volcano. The ancient air trapped in glacier and ice show that over the past 800,000 years the amount of CO2 oscillated between roughly 200-300ppm. This unbending math implies that human made climate change due to our CO2 emissions could spiral out of control by century’s end.
This is not something new and it’s not even sexy. Not only are we Canadians well aware but we also care about our collapsing ocean, failing global ecosystems, the floods, hurricanes and draughts, threatened food security and scarce water supply… so what is up? How have we allowed the Harper senate to murder Bill C-311? How have we supported our government and the way we acted on the international stage?
We have one year before the next climate change conference in South Africa and then one more year before Dec 21st 2012 (the end of the Mayan Calendar).
The Mayan Calendar an extremely accurate observation of the sky and time… get’s you thinking eh
It is very easy to be critical, particularly since Canada won the annual Colossal Fossil for obstructing progress within the UNFCCC process… it is our moral and ethical obligation, as Canadians, to ensure we move towards a sustainable future with the rest of the world.
What we, Canadian’s, need to do is change our government’s position on Climate Change before COP 17, where in South Africa many nations will come to the table with great progress and established means of contribution. If only the Canadian government could share the same drive as Quatar with their R&D efforts for aviation sustainability, or share progress with Norway with their global forest conservation through the REDD+ program, or at least find common grounds with the European Union on Kyoto.
We are blessed to have been born in a country where we can run for politics and not get kidnapped by the farc like in Columbia, I’m living proof ;) But, we are at a point were we all have to get political! Teachers, engineers, doctors, journalist, everyone has to get political before COP 17 - so that Canada can positively contribute as a team player in our global survival. Sure, Canada might have warmer days- but there will be environmental refugees and food/water security issues that go beyond our personal comforts and are we really that selfish to begin with?
Lastly, I would agree with Sir Nicholas Stern and conclude that the green revolution is an incredible opportunity. We, as a nation, are risking getting left behind. He told me himself, we have a lot of catch-up work to do… let’s do it before COP 17 in South Africa.
The negotiations went all night until 7 am the last day of the conference and my recovery period (in a tepee) took longer than I had expected… but here is a final Cancún Agreement blog. Note, the secretariat continues to work and has promised to work tirelessly until South Africa COP 17.
Today Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says ”Nations must follow up their successful UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún with higher global emission cuts and the rapid launch of new institutions and funds to show the world that a new era of international cooperation on climate change is an established fact. Cancún was a big step, bigger than many imagined might be possible. But the time has come for all of us to exceed our own expectations because nothing less will do.”
A strong basis for the largest mitigation effort the world has ever seen as well as a comprehensive system of mutual accountability towards these goals was established in Cancún. The Cancún Agreements call for countries to list under UNFCCC the emission reduction targets and actions which they announced in 2010. What’s disappointing is if all these targets and actions are fully implemented, the UN estimates show it will only reduce 60% of the emission needed to stay below the 2 degrees rise in global temperatures. On top of that the two degrees does not guarantee the survival of the most vulnerable peoples.
We can also talk money- even though Evo Morales would hate this…
The Cancún Agreements have developed nations contributing (between 2010-2012) 30 billion of fast-start finance. This is independent of the long-term finance programme of 100 billion a year by 2020. The Green Fund finance programme establishes a climate finance institution for the first time under the oversight of the Parties to the climate change Convention & with a 24-member board (of course balances representation between developed and developing nations).
We can be always be more critical, and nothing is ever perfect… but we are moving forward and our job as Canadians is to make sure Canada moves with the rest of the world.
