climatechange

Cool Globes

Cool Globes is a US-wide project that was launched in Chicago last year using the power of art to bring a more positive message about the need to "cool" the planet. Here in the San Francisco bay area where I live we're gearing up for a Cool Globes exhibition in Chrissy Field. It opens this Tuesday and will be showing through October 12th.

Here's a video of local artist Lauren Davies creating her piece - "The Butterfly & the Tsunami":

World Café in WorldChanging

The World Café was listed as a resource in the excellent resource manual for a new earth, WorldChanging!

Storm Chaser and Vanishing World

Two absolutely stunning books appeared on my doorstep the other day, review copies of new photography books on the theme of global warming, courtesy of the high-quality publisher Harry N. Abrams.

Storm Chaser (Abrams); Photo: © Jim Reed

They are both remarkable works of art, but Storm Chaser, which depicts the extreme weather conditions thrown up by the climactic changes of global warming, immediately caught my attention with its direct visual impact.

In shot after shot, veteran photographer Jim Reed captures the exquisite tension between the beauty and the raw power of nature at its most elemental. The text is fascinating too, as Reed and his crew keep a journal of their travels through disaster after disaster.

This video of their journey has footage of the artist photographing hurricanes Katrina and Isabelle that had me perched on the edge of my seat:

Vanishing World is a bit more cuddly, with its focus on the endangered-species poster-child the polar bear, but no less spectacular; arctic light has got to be some of the most magical phenomena on the planet.

The artist, Mireille de la Lez, takes you deep into a world few have ever experienced, and from the looks of it, this key part of our global climate system is disappearing so fast fewer still will get the chance to see it in the future.

But Vanishing World leaves us on a high note, with the optimistic belief that if this book motivates just one person to take action to protect the polar regions, it will have fulfilled its mission. In my opinion, this optimism is well-founded indeed. I can't imagine anyone not being powerfully moved by this glimpse into the beauty of this region and those creatures who live there.

There's a Better Way

This sustainability music video "There's a Better Way" was shared on the World Café online community:

Global Dialogue Center

Debbe Kennedy, Founder of the Global Dialogue Center writes:

At the Global Dialogue Center our contribution is working to  provide opportunities to think, question and explore new ideas, so we all can be informed citizens and catalysts for positive change.

I would like to invite others to visit Global Dialogue Center to listen to our new MOMENTS OF INSIGHT SERIES, which includes a powerful six-episode series with NY Times Bestselling Author John Perkins, called OUR GEO-POLITICAL CRISIS and YOU.

Video Resource

Take a look at this powerful video to hear a young girl address world leaders in a way that puts environmental issues in perspective.

Nancy Margulies, our Global Climate Change blog host suggests this clip as a possible opening for a Global Climate Change Café or as a link in an invitation to a Global Climate Change Café.

Global Climate Change Video

This from Dr. Emmett Miller, on his Nevada City Global Climate Change Cafés...

Running the Numbers

Seattle artist Chris Jordan eloquently depicts the statistics of American life in an unusual series of paintings.

If you live in NYC, go see his show being exhibited at the Von Lintel Gallery in New York from June 14th to the end of July, and encourage your friends to do the same. If you don't, view it here and imagine the impact of the images full size.

This one, "Toothpicks, 2007" is 60x99" and illustrates 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs: