The Santa Fe EARTH event, put on by 350.org and the Santa Fe Art Institute, shows how the Santa Fe River could look if there was water running through it. With global warming decreasing snow melt, Santa Fe is running out of water. This river is one of the 10 most endangered in North America. Over a 1,000 people came out and held up blue painted pieces of cardboard or tarps as a satellite passed over. Click to enlarge.
Guest blogger Bill McKibben, 350.org founder and author of the must-read book Eaarth, has the story of eARTh, with more images below.
Most of the time, of course, we talk about science and politics at ClimateProgress and at 350.org.
But I wanted to share a few images with you today, the beginning of a week of odd and lovely and unprecedented art that hopefully will reach people in other ways. In the week before Cancun, those of us at 350.org have been working with artists all over the world in a project we’re calling eARTh. It’s goal is to shake up our perception a bit, to help remind human beings that we live on a planet.
To do that, we’ve found great artists in more than a dozen locations. They’ve taken simple sketches of something related to our crisis””the Chinese symbol for water, say””and planned out how to execute them on the ground with thousands of human bodies. And then another set of artists, at the world’s premier aerial imaging firm, DigitalGlobe, have donated half a million dollars in satellite time to capture those images from 435 miles in outer space.
The first of these projects are happening this weekend. Check out the flash flood down a dry gulch in Santa Fe””that’s a thousand people or more with blue cloth and cardboard, people who live in an area of increasing water scarcity.
Satellite photo of “Flash Flood” Event
Check out the face of a girl from a river delta in Spain””a girl who may be forced from her home as the sea rises.
Delta del Ebro — Citizens from the Delta del Ebro region joined renowned urban-artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada to form a giant representation of the face of a young girl who wishes to see the Delta survive the threat of climate change.
To answer the obvious question: no, we don’t think these are going to have an immediate political effect, turn Cancun upside down, cause Jim Inhofe to change his mind. But we do think that they are one key part in the work of building a movement big enough to matter. And I hope you enjoy looking at them””I sure do.We’ve got more allies, of more types, out there than we sometimes remember.
– Bill McKibben
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
“… cause Jim Inhofe to change his mind …”
How much money would satisfy the deniers?
You know, Pro, that’s an approach we really haven’t looked at. Whose support could we marshal to get together enough money to buy off the deniers in Congress? They’ve shown that they’re for sale. We just have to outbid the oil and coal lobbies. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, eh?
I applaud Bill McKibben’s organizational efforts, but I fear the actual impact of this art movement will be extremely limited. Maybe we’ll have to start organizing riots at Congressional offices.
Bill W, you could even ask “How much money for an oil company to stop fossil and turn clean?”
Related
Compensation battle with Greens over carbon price http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/compensation-battle-with-greens-over-carbon-price-20101119-180zp.html
Cool idea, interesting images. Any methods to advance awareness are worthwhile. Give ‘em hell in Cancun, Bill.
Brilliant work by 350 on the art.
I especially like the river project because it shows people “hope” and “control” that can be had by moving towards a positive vision of the future.
Most climate change art so far has depicted the “hopeless” and “out-of-control” impoverished future that will result from not acting. That needs to happen too. But the balance is way off so far.
I’m very excited to see climate activists creating images of what success looks like: healthy, hopeful, empowering, safe. I want to live in that future where rivers flow again.
From Alan Ryan’s discussion of A. de Tocqueville’s trip to the U.S. in 1831:
“The Ohio froze, so they traveled by stagecoach to Memphis, to find the Mississippi frozen and a half a dozen steamboats trapped in the ice.” It was a different world then . . .
A river without water… I closed my eyes and opened them again yet the empty space didn’t go away. The Santa Fe River Art is a powerful image. Thanks to the artists for providing another way to see planet Earth.
I have always lived in places that have abundant water, fresh water and ocean water. I have seen pristine unpolluted places. I have swim in rivers whose waters you can drink. I have also appreciated the beautiful lakes and the city ocean shorelines with their elegant birds though in a different way. Even though those urban places may be polluted, I am glad there is water there. Thus even in those days when the algal blooms make them smell…I still like them.
I am left wondering if we can find a place in ‘the developed world’ where we can live and thrive without polluting the soil and the water…or without having Santa Fe Rivers. There is so much to learn from those people that still see themselves as part of the environment and not the reverse. Our hopes lie in us as much as it lies in them.
As an ecologist and an earth citizen who studies the interactions between humans & the environment, these images made me reflect about the ways our species uses its power. The images brought Rachel Carson back to my mind.”Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species-man- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.” I also thought of her saying “Open your eyes and ask yourself: What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?” I sighted and wished that the second phrase was true.
How much money to make the oil companies take notice? We know! A whole lot! On the other hand we all, each and every one of us, spend money every day. What is needed is a focused awareness of all the people that spend nickels, dimes and dollars under duress. How do you effectually Boycott gas when we all use it and there is no alternative for most. Enter “SupportCott.com”. This is a concept originally posted by David Smith a few weeks ago on CP. Details are yet to be worked out so you all are ginny pigs if you like.
A short version: One fuel company, (least evil?) is singled out to be the recipient of all our Gas Purchases for a month, receipts totaled and presented with requests made to the home office for corporate changes to be instituted for continued support from “our” buying public. (We can be modest for starters.) If ignored move to another company, all the while growing in stature. If one million people pledged affiliation and bought one tank of gas a month that would translate to ~$30 million dollars of “attention” for doing nothing more than what you already do with only the added effort of validating your concerns at a web site.
There are numerous technicalities to be worked out to prevent the system from being “gamed” and assure validation but they do not appear insurmountable in my eyes. Input welcome.
Bill -
Add this ,
The Hindu Kush Before and After the Great Pakistani Floods
http://coloradobob1.newsvine.com/_news/2010/11/10/5439030-the-hindu-kush-before-and-after-the-great-pakistani-floods
#2 of 3
July 26, 2010 , and August 16, 2010.
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5536/hindukush22010l726r816.png
This is a very good idea to draw attention to the cause with art. In this case big time performance art with a serious message. I hope to do the same with my climate novels. We all remember how one of those with the wrong message gained favor of power and stalled the solutions to a very real threat. The sands trickle on . . .
Even though the art is not that powerful, to me, I still aplaud it. Art does speak loudly to some.
That’s swell, but it falls far short of what is required. Mother Nature is far more beautiful and powerful than any human art, ingenious and potent as it may sometimes be (I’m thinking Guernica.)
Bill, instead of promoting pictures taken from greenhouse-gas spewing vehicles of horrid plastic tarps made from toxic chemicals, could you with your all your influence encourage people walk outside and take a serious look at some REAL trees – which are rapidly dying off from toxic levels of tropospheric ozone? Maybe take note of the broken branches, oozing trunks, and splitting bark? And then ask each other and themselves…WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR US WHEN ALL THE TREES ARE DEAD?
On the topic of the importance of the rivers being our life lines….
Earlier today, I followed a link from the Climate Progress website here and there and came upon a rich, unique resource that was new to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZde6CtQrXk&feature=related
It is the RSE (Religion, Science and the Environment) – http://www.rsesymposia.org/ and they have had symposia over the past 15 years recognizing and studying the major river systems in the world – 2009 – the Mississippi; Arctic in 07, Amazon in 06, Baltic Sea in 03, Adriatic Sea in 02, Danube in 99, Black Sea in 97 and Aegean in 95…
It is great to see another group of people(s) working together with research scientists and policy makers, carrying water for the protection of this most important resource…
Read the quote from the article link and you will see that this is not global warming but humans taking from nature to give to man, two very different issues!!!
“The second section of river extends from the lower dam through the city of Santa Fe, to the waste water treatment plant where effluent is discharged into the river. This 10-mile stretch of river is normally dry, because the upstream dams are operated to impound the full flow of the river.”
http://www.waterculture.org/Santa_Fe_River_Ethics.html
Great work by 350.org!
I love the photos!You can really catch someone`s attention with art.
Hello everyone! whan i see this picture it as the face of Nature(Delta del Ebro)!
Great! wonderful!
See you!
This may be an important part of the social entrepreneurship as prelude to the social change required to address climate change at the requisite scale.
Those works of art are really beautiful. And they will undoubtedly leave an impression in people’s mind. But my question is: are they politically effective?
And that should be the primary question guiding the climate movement today, in my mind. In my experience, grassroots organizing is about showing up every day and motivating people to make the phone calls, send the letters and the e-mails, attend political actions and rallies, and vote. We have had four years of a movement that has not been able to convey the urgency of this issue to the public despite the incredibly hard work of the many people involved, and four years of American citizens not getting it in a way that brings about change. No question, the opposition is huge and extremely well funded, but I have personally witnessed how our movement is pursuing strategies that are unlikely to motivate large numbers of Americans to act.
People definitely respond to art, and it’s a great way to get them involved. But I wonder whether this project accomplishes that. Why? Because it is the result of a top/down approach, it’s too pretty, and while people are participating, they are not creating the art. Compare with the AIDS movement: the quilt was started by a gay man who made the first panel, i.e. it bubbled up from below. As a result, it spoke to people in a deeply moving and personal way, and it caught on nationwide. It motivated people to create the art themselves. The quilt became a powerful exhibit and symbol seen by millions of people.
The AIDS quilt was brilliant and effective.
What the eArth project accomplishes remains to be seen. I try not to loose hope, but our strategies are not really making a big difference where it counts and that’s in the political arena.
Phew. It’s good to see this conversation happening. I’m someone who started her career working on climate change, and full of fire and optimism. I was definitely young and idealistic. I worked on President Clinton’s first national climate change action plan, then on the US Initiative on Joint Implementation, the pilot program for carbon offsets. I also spent a year working with the national climate change committee in South Africa. I’m now a full-time artist, and have spent several years working on community-level social entrepreneurship in Central America.
After living in countries already seeing the impacts of climate change on basic survival, and seeing the relative detachment of people in the US to our impact on the global environment, I really think we need major, long-term cultural change in terms of awareness, compassion and empowerment.
I wish it was just about quick political mobilization, but that’s not happening, and won’t happen without cultural mobilization as well. I hope to see, and be a part of , more initiatives from the bottom up, from the top down, from inside out, and from sideways. From social networks, from media platforms, from rock stars and from local street artists.
I agree we need change in the political arena. I think artists and cultural workers have an important role to play long-term in inspiring, motivating and sustaining that change.
The Santa Fe river action was a hoot: there was a clutch of clouds directly over our heads for much of the morning that finally moved outa the way just in time for the satellite shot. Wonderful music — local bands at different points along the meander, strong drummers and buffalo dancers from a nearby pueblo lending a powerful ritual edge to the whole thing, and all of us with our kids dancing, though these got drowned out by the thudding helicopter that hovered over head for the last 45 minutes – a different kind of drum. Anyway, I especially the enjoyed the ambiguous mongrel amalgam of down home local commitment and creativity with big-technology savvy and precision — the eloquent weirdness of helicopters and even satellites lending themselves to something so simple and motley human-scale. This bodes well for the future…