Express Yourself

Had some fun expressing some emotions the other day with my Sharpie.

Consumption

Check out this map of the deforestation of the US. The last graphic reveals a huge decrease in the number of forests, especially in the eastern half of the country. But what's more disturbing to me is that the last graphic reads 1926. Who knows what that map looks like now.
Here's a recent graphic of global electricity consumption:

Clearly the glow of the Northeast in the US shows just how plugged in this region is as it replaced trees with industry. The worldwide disparity of access to electric has great implications for those who don't have enough juice to power lifesaving healthcare technology, and creating access through solar panels has become a mission for groups like Power Up Gambia.
Both images reveal a culture that devours everything in its path, fueled by its own consumption, until it extinguishes every last resource. No wonder Godzilla is mad as hell.

Life Out of Balance

In the late 1950's, biologist and author of Silent Spring Rachel Carson warned of how man, in his quest for profit, disrupts the harmony of nature which had been developed over eons. The result, the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems. In 1983, the film Koyaanisqatsi used visual imagery and Philip Glass's music to tell the epic story of man versus nature.
But this year, a group of artists at the Noguchi Museum in Queens decided use their imaginations to offer their own suggestions to help nature adapt to urbanization and habitat loss. The exhibition, Civic Action: A Vision for Long Island City, looks at ways to improve environmental health by using an urban farming system for railings, double-hung windows; greening “no parking zones”; building bridges for butterflies and superhighways for salamanders; and repaving Broadway from the N/Q subway station to Socrates Sculpture Park with drivable grass.
Perhaps it's the artists who will lead an environmental renaissance after all.

Like the Wagon Wheel

Even motorcycle magazines recognize the fact that peak oil has arrived in our world. What this means is that all of the 'easy to acquire' oil has been obtained and the only oil remaining is oil that has great environmental cost to extract from the earth. It's hard to reconcile the fact that a motorcycle magazine would know this and our government ignores this very important fact. This denial is further evidence of the influence that oil companies have on our world. Not only must we use less, there are new, potential alternatives out there. Electric, algae, even wood scraps have been enlisted to replace dirty, dangerous, polluting oil Let's make oil our generation's wagon wheel.

Photo taken at Orange Beach, Alabama the day the oil hit the beach June 2010.