A Clock for Global Warming
Lee Hirsch, the director of Amandla!, brought up an interesting idea over dinner at La Luna (Paul’s favorite restaurant in Nosara).
“Remember the debt clock?†he asked. He was talking about that giant odometer-like LED display that hung out for years in New York City that kept a minute-to-minute tally on the increasing national debt. “We need something like that for global warming,†Lee says. “What would be the best way to dramatize global warming on a streetcorner in New York?â€
Some suggestions the group came up with:
* A giant thermometer with rising temperatures.
* A block of ice melting in a window display.
* A scale-model of Manhattan, gradually being immersed in water.
9 Responses to “A Clock for Global Warming”
© 2024 by Harmony Blog
The complexity of the damage of global warming should be captured.
A series of time-lapse photos alternating between melting ice (arctic, antarctica, world-wide glaciers) and rising water levels (Maldives, South Pacific, etc.) and finally, because its an important part of the puzzle, Rainforest decimation paired with rising CO2 data. Maybe throw in a bio-diversity loss meter and contagion spread meter for kicks.
All of this on large, solar-powered flat screens in Time Square.
Wow – that’s like an entire museum…
John thats a great idea, to tie in something visceral with something mathmatical and statistical could have a double whammy impact on viewers and really become atalking point – for me theres just something we need thats ever present – a reminder/catylist conversaiton peice that gets people TALKING and thinking –
other ideas- visual mashups
webcam images of melting ice/ mixed with time lapse images of icebergs breaking apart / webcam images of mega coal plant emissions
multiple clocks on the same billboard, love the biodiversity loss! or pounds of toxins put into the atmosphere globally
would love to see this evolve
Also wanted to send abig thanks to Dawn for putting this post up and finding the picture – Muchas Gracias!!! Another thought is to partner with you tube on the clock and have rotating (winning) youtube videos as submitted on the topic of climate change – young folks and old folks alike could be motivated to make short films within set parameters with the promise of having their work shown for a period of time on the display in time square
You’re welcome, Lee! I remember being struck by how necessary a sort of giant display would be, when you brought up the idea. Also – your point about needing to mix visceral and mathematical is so true — so often this sort of thing is either completely dry-facts, and doesn’t leave people scared enough to change, or it’s viscerally powerful but of dubious scientific quality (a la Day After Tomorrow)
I’d like to chime in on this. First of all- very interetsing idea, Lee. One thing that might lend itself well to this ‘debt clock’ formulation would be the tons of carbon emitted from the US. Kenny and I calculated that would be about 60,000 tons per second (we can get a more exact #). That would make for an impressive set of numbers rolling over. Although it does not address the wide range of impacts of global warming, it does address the cause (and it is us).
Another thought regarding a compilation of images of impacts– David Buckland is an artist/filmmaker who has a project called Cape Farewell (http://www.capefarewell.com/) to raise the awareness of global warming among the public. There are some interesting ideas about images of warming there that are worth thinking about.
Great Great Input – Thanks Amy, Thanks Kenny! I love the “tons of carbon” – We could possibly call it the “carbon clock” perhaps thats a bit cheesy but its a great statistic to work with. Also David’s sight is really inspiring, maybee he would want to join this evolving process? Funny how things cycle, on his site are two artists that are really dear friends of mine who I have been meaning to introduce to the Harmony community, they are Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey (http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/projects/artist.php?id=40) They do beautiful and provocative work in Ice, Grass and Whale skeletons amongst other completly amazing mediums – worth checking out…
I am feeling more and more positive about this idea and it’s potential for a really amazing community to mobilize around it… I say we start dreaming for real- Any takers?
Hello all… It’s been a while, but I just came across this website that has some numbers that might qualify for the new and improved debt clock:
http://www.peterrussell.dreamhosters.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Let me add to this last comment. I can’t seem to verify the source of his numbers, so really this is just more of an idea of the kind of #s one could use (though certainly not all of them- e.g. the last on the list).