I’ve just returned from Brazil, where I was attending Sao Paulo fashion Week and giving a talk about sustainability, which was the theme of this year’s premier South American fashion extravaganza. It’s not exactly news that sustainability has begun to infuse glamour industries, after the release of “green issues” for nearly every glossy magazine last year, but seeing the way environmental and social responsibility were embraced in putting on this event nevertheless brought me a surprising sense of encouragement about the whole global shift towards sustainable practices.

many people have asked me what art and science have in common? I am more interested in what they don’t have in common I think. Of course there are shared subjects (climate change, the Arctic, glaciers, etc.) and shared investment in a process of inquiry, research, and analysis. But even each of those things can be broken down and found to share only the most gross of efforts. But that seems less useful than contemplating where their differences lie, or more aptly, how they might come together to create a greater whole? I am interested in focusing on the role of research that both artists and scientists share an active engagement with.

I have posted a short piece over on [ Greater Democracy ] on the 19X more energy independence that is available to us from grass pellet biofuel and why corn ethanol offers us just 1/19 of the benefits.

It has dawned on me more and more how crucial true information is for the modern world. Not only my first encounters with propaganda, as I did my (compulsory) national service on the Soviet border at the end of the Cold War, and having read George Orwell as well as one of my favourite authors, John le Carre, made me aware of how much power that lies in swaying the public by lies. There are anectotal evidence of witch-hunts in the middle ages, which could only happened because of lies, prejudice and superstition, and when I read about ‘The Great Leap’ from the Cultural Revolution in China, I wonder how on Earth such a thing could take place. Commonplace to all these stories is the lack of knowledge, critical voices, and true information. I have also seen documentaries about how the tobacco and sugar have influenced the public information about drawbacks associated with their products, but realise that someone is twisting the truth, but one cannot be sure who. Presumably the lobby groups of those industries… But the even more recent encounter with lies in the media scared me the most: when one nation invaded another on the basis of lies. Sure, the invaded country was headed by a brutal dictator, but that argument probably could not justify a war…? After Hans Blixt and the UN had spent years searchin for evidence of WMD in country, they had come up empty handed. The country was flooded with volunteer ‘human shields’ just at the run-up forthe invasion, and in this golden opportunity for spying the living daylight out of the country, still the secret services didn’t manage to produce convincing evidence. A prominent British weapons specialist was found dead after having stated on the BBC that the Iraq dossier was ’sexed up’ (WMD could be launched within 45 minutes). Iraq relented at one point and produced a massive report to the UN, that the invading countries snatched and didn’t let anybody else read. Then there were false evidences: alleged radioactive materials from Nigeria, satellite images shown in the UN, alleged links between Saddam & Al Quaida, etc. The bottom line was that a war was started from lies. That’s scary.

I have been working at the Alaska Native science Commission for the past five years, and in the last two as its Deputy Director. In this position, I have the privilege of traveling to many Native and rural communities throughout most regions of Alaska. In these communities, the stories about climate change are the same. The list of observed changes can fill several pages, and many of them are alarming. There is no debate in any of these villages that climate change and global warming is here and intensifying in its effects. The State of Alaska has created a climate change Commission that will conduct hearings throughout Alaska. Many Native groups have already held several meetings and conferences where climate change was discussed. I also chaired the science Working Group of Snowchange, an international gathering of indigenous peoples from 8 arctic countries and no one disputes that climate change is upon us and describe many adverse consequences in graphic detail (see www.snowchange.org).

I was introduced to William McDonough and his book Cradle to Cradle by Jane while working with her on this project. It is a fantastic book that seems to aim to change the way the reader thinks more than teach a lesson.

I just listened to a talk he gave a few years back on the Social Innovation Conversations podcast that is an excellent introduction to his ideas and way of thinking. It’s definitely worth the hour listen.

Hi All,

I’ve been working on various projects about weather and climate change; there seem to be a number of sub-plots, sub-projects, off-shoots, tangents, etc. etc. First, there’s a weblog which I hope will eventually provide a useful research archive of relevant contemporary artists’ projects. The blog lives at http://StrangeWeather.info.

Another recent project (2006) took the form of a group exhibition and was fairly whimsical: out of the blue.

I’ve been interested in the conflicted relationship between art and the documentary. At times they seem to be pitted against each other…

Currently I am working on a series of paintings. In brief, I pull images — news documentation of climate events and disasters — and re-enact them as paintings.

Here’s an introduction to a subset of these that focus on post-Katrina New Orleans, by way of an announcement and a few links :

If we plan on a national level in terms of 100 million acres of switchgrass, or perhaps grasses with even higher yields of fiber, such as Miscanthus x gigantus [industrial hemp?] , we should design for the greatest amount of useable energy produced per acre. Anything else reduces the chances of our achieving true energy independence.

Solid switchgrass biofuel pellets have 8X more useable energy, net energy, than ethanol! So let’s get the biggest bang for our buck! To invest in ethanol is to throw away our money on an investment with 1/8th the return we could realize if we focused on converting switchgrass into engineered, solid, biofuel pellets made from a blend that includes other fibers from the recycling bin: news papers, waxed cardboard, telephone books, trimmings from making disposable diapers, etc.

By the way, we and others have successfully made pellets from all of the above materials!

‘In dreams begins responsibilities’ W B Yeats
Recently when I was talking about the International Polar Year, and how they only happen every fifty years, someone joked that it might be last one. Like all good jokes, it provokes some serious questions. Will the polar regions exist as identifiable and distinct regional geography in fifty years time? What will have happened to the landscape and people of the Arctic? Given the changes that have already happened in the last 5-10 years, it is hard to imagine what the arctic might be like in fifty years. The latest climate models tells us the news is not good, no summer sea ice by 2050. As changes in the biophysical world accelerate, culturally we try to make sense of this change. One impetuous that I am interested in has been the impetuous to “archive” as a way of trying to confront a sense of loss at the extinction and disappearance of much flora and fauna. Much of these archiving impulses attempt to categorise, capture and represent that which is disappearing. But archives can be as much about the future as the past, as we see in the valuable ice core archives of climatic histories, that allow us a generative look at the future. We can imagine that if we changed the demands of the archive and the achievable we might get some very different artefacts and objects of knowledge. In my project on the “Ice Archives: Curating Climate Change” I have been interested in thinking about what kind of other archives might expand our creative imaginings of different climate futures. To that end, I have been thinking about the imaginative and physical work of ‘making sense’ and ‘thinking with’ such an array of political, media, everyday perceptual phenomena is a process of Knowledge formation in its own right: that is, it is a messy form of ‘together-work’ of thinking about climate change and building Knowledge around this flow of images, information, exhibits, data and events. Collaboration is at the centre of this. One of the ways I have been trying to work this out in practice is with my collaborator Jennifer Gabrys, on a joint project “Weather Permitting” (www.weatherpermitting.org) where we are proposing to build a number of weather gardens based on understanding of future and past climate change.

I walked my woods, this cold wintry day. Gusts pulled snow twisters from a thin blanket. Trees creaked in the wind. I saw signs of my work. light splashed a pattern across the shoulder of a distant mountain. No birds followed. In a depression below me,deer beds.

The generations before me, I knew so well. The recent warmth was troubling, believing that the way we live truly is having an effect. First impacts are being felt in vulnerable places, we seldom see. The wind reassures me.

Text: Averill Cook, Photograph: Jock Gill

I’ve been putting word out in a few different places about this upcoming “teach-in” for design students to learn about their responsibility, as they move into professional careers, to consider the planet and climate change unconditionally in their work. Hopefully some of the Climate commons readers will find this useful.

Ed Mazria is a committed pioneer on the frontier of climate-conscious building. His Architecture 2030 agenda has gained recognition this year as an exemplary model for pushing a rapid and radical shift towards better building strategies. Now, like many people who understand the immediacy of this problem, Mazria is aiming at the target with the greatest potential to turn this misguided ship around: students. Specifically, design students.

The 2010 Imperative Global Emergency Teach-In is a free one-day event scheduled to be webcast on February 20, 2007, from noon to 3:30pm EST. The session aims to reach at least half a million students, faculty, deans and practicing professionals in North and South America, hopefully making one simultaneous splash that will send ripples of reconsideration and activism through the design community.

Hello All,
I’m happy to announce after several months in the lab, we will be launching the eSAT campaign in March 2007.
eSAT (which stands for Environmental Standardized art Techniques) provides free environmental signage to schools around the world.

Teachers and students will be able to pick their favorite cause, favorite artist, and favorite language. Artists designing eSAT signage includes an all-star roster of artists, designers and celebrities. I currently have a recycling bin that Hunter S Thompson designed for us in the Global Inheritance. The artists designing for eSAT are in the same neighborhood (but probably not as rad as Hunter). All eSAT signage will be logo free.

Back when I was going to school, any cause based signage you’d find in the classroom or in the halls was usually super corny, horribly designed and communicated the message as if you were a total moron. kids today have been marketed to since Day 1, so the artwork, message and messenger is paramount.

Here is a relevant & timely news item from ABC. Note it mentions grass
pellets & Middlebury College in the second paragrpah.

[Students Use Civil Rights Tactics to Combat Global Warming]
College students Lead the Way in Global Warming Movement

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Jan. 19, 2007

At Middlebury College in eco-friendly Vermont,
forward-thinking students convinced an austere board of trustees that
one of the biggest threats to the college — and to the world — is
global warming.

Armed with research and a portfolio of options, the students were a
powerful voice in the college’s decision to invest $11 million in a
biomass plant — one that is fueled by wood chips, grass pellets and a
self-sustaining willow forest.

By 2012, the college will be “carbon neutral” — producing all of its
own clean energy locally. Long known for its progressive outlook,
Middlebury is now at the forefront of the student “climate change”
movement.

Hi,

The last couple of weeks have really been interesting and provided me with alot to think about. As a scientist and educator it is wonderful to see and hear so many people talking about climate change. For so long it seemed like we (scientists) were working in a vacuum without the message getting out. The more conversations I hear and the different approaches to the conversation are great. I think art and shows like “A Friend Acting Strangely” and Jane’s show here at ICA are wonderful and reach alot of people.