VL: System Postcard: Research & Iterations

Yo.

Cassie.

Don't spoil it.

(Stop Reading.)

While Cassie's response was cute, and made something harmless out of something sinister, I also identified it also something that really nicely encapsulated this tension between the natural and the industrial, this strange symbol for man's destruction and ingenuity, for how despite our efforts to use industry to improve the life of man, it has wreaked havoc on the earth. I decided to push this as far as it could go, repurposing the fan blade butterfly and using it as a bittersweet symbol for pollution, and for this tension between industry and the earth. I know this is a contrived issue, but it's relevance and consequences are unavoidable.

A lot of the research I did was on global warming and emissions. According to the EPA, from 1990 to 2004, emissions went up 20%. The projections are slim --- we are on the verge of a drastic, perhaps cataclysmic climate change that is the result of our habitual pollution since the industrial age. A vast majority of scientists believe that this change is because of an increased amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, which are a direct result of CO2 emissions from automobiles, factories, and garbage. While the current effects on human health are small, the EPA estimates that because of how integral our connection with the earth is, agricultural systems, the water cycle, quality of air, and the strength of existing ecosystems are all close to deterioration. Because our economy is also tied with these existing systems, if the global climate changes, our gross domestic product will be reduced by 1%. Despite the seeming minutia of the previous statement, 1% of our gross domestic product is an immense amount of money, that during an economic crisis, cannot be excusable. On top of all of this, An Inconvenient Truth's website makes the following predictions:

	The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.2
	Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.3
	The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.4
	At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.5

If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences.

	Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years -- to 300,000 people a year.6
	Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.7
	Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
	Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
	The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.8
	More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.9

While I do see climate change as something that everyone can help to prevent or progress, I believe that for most industrialized societies, these changes are superficial and do not affect the real problem. Our socio-economic system is so intimately married to industrialism that breaking free from its smog-ridden clutches will require massive overhauls in the design of existing logistic and energy-based institutions. It will require huge, mandatory change. 

Using the butterfly as an industrial nuclear apocalyptic mutant robot, I sought to express this tension between the earth and the reality man has created for himself through the means of industrialization. Placing the butterfly in the context of an abandoned factory filled with industrial waste, I create a dismal picture of the current state of equilibrium between and nature, encouraging man to continue his habits through the mantra, POLLUTE.

Take that, Cassie! :)

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Sources:

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/index.html#proj

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/

¹ According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this era of global warming "is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence of the global climate."
² Emanuel, K. 2005. Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years. Nature 436: 686-688.
³ World Health Organization
⁴ Krabill, W., E. Hanna, P. Huybrechts, W. Abdalati, J. Cappelen, B. Csatho, E. Frefick, S. Manizade, C. Martin, J, Sonntag, R. Swift, R. Thomas and J. Yungel. 2004. Greenland Ice Sheet: Increased coastal thinning. Geophysical Research Letters 31.
⁵ Nature.
⁶ World Health Organization
⁷ Washington Post, "Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change," Juliet Eilperin, January 29, 2006, Page A1.
⁸ Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. 2004. Impacts of a Warming Arctic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Also quoted in Time Magazine, Vicious Cycles, Missy Adams, March 26, 2006.

⁹ Time Magazine, Feeling the Heat, David Bjerklie, March 26, 2006.

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