Monday, November 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Can artists save the planet?
Extracts from:
Can artists save the planet?
Mark Glazebrook, The Spectator, 19.05.07
Given his interest in the merging of blue with green, David Cameron would presumably feel at home in the United Arab Emirates while Sharjah’s 8th Biennial is on. The Biennial’s title and theme is Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change. I imagine that the first two words refer not only to the historic painting genre — a genre which reminds us of our mortality on the occasions when it includes the depiction of a human skull. The two words may also suggest sentences such as ‘Despite man’s destructive tendencies there’s still life on planet earth but we can’t take it for granted.’
Whether or not there is a double meaning here, the Sharjah theme is serious, responsible, apt and perfectly timed. Sharjah Biennial is billed as the largest art event in the Gulf. That’s now saying something considering the recent ambitions of other Emirates to partner the Louvre and stage art fairs, not to mention a rival Biennial even.
Can artists save the planet? Can Biennales save the planet? The answer that emerges from Sharjah’s highly stimulating series of commissions and other displays is that the imaginative creativity of both does indeed have a special part to play, alongside the talents of scientists, economists, politicians, industrialists, businessmen, farmers, fishermen, consumers — all of us, in fact. Of course, man will find it hard to beat fate or nature in the production of disasters such as meteors, volcanoes, earthquakes, pandemics and the tsunami that wiped out Minoan civilisation. The fact remains that polluting our natural surroundings and failing to conserve resources such as water is wrong in itself, whether or not our descendants will be forced to emigrate to another planet. The moral dimension that Oscar Wilde tried to subtract from art is inescapable in this context. Ethics becomes inseparable from aesthetics.
It would take a book to do justice to all the artists in this Biennale.
The Sharjah Biennial catalogue will remain a useful source of reference. The sumptuous catalogue of the last Biennial weighed in at a rain forest-destroying, backbreaking seven and a half pounds. This year’s catalogue carries an appropriately smaller ecological footprint by weighing less — under two pounds.
Can artists save the planet?
Mark Glazebrook, The Spectator, 19.05.07
Given his interest in the merging of blue with green, David Cameron would presumably feel at home in the United Arab Emirates while Sharjah’s 8th Biennial is on. The Biennial’s title and theme is Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change. I imagine that the first two words refer not only to the historic painting genre — a genre which reminds us of our mortality on the occasions when it includes the depiction of a human skull. The two words may also suggest sentences such as ‘Despite man’s destructive tendencies there’s still life on planet earth but we can’t take it for granted.’
Whether or not there is a double meaning here, the Sharjah theme is serious, responsible, apt and perfectly timed. Sharjah Biennial is billed as the largest art event in the Gulf. That’s now saying something considering the recent ambitions of other Emirates to partner the Louvre and stage art fairs, not to mention a rival Biennial even.
Can artists save the planet? Can Biennales save the planet? The answer that emerges from Sharjah’s highly stimulating series of commissions and other displays is that the imaginative creativity of both does indeed have a special part to play, alongside the talents of scientists, economists, politicians, industrialists, businessmen, farmers, fishermen, consumers — all of us, in fact. Of course, man will find it hard to beat fate or nature in the production of disasters such as meteors, volcanoes, earthquakes, pandemics and the tsunami that wiped out Minoan civilisation. The fact remains that polluting our natural surroundings and failing to conserve resources such as water is wrong in itself, whether or not our descendants will be forced to emigrate to another planet. The moral dimension that Oscar Wilde tried to subtract from art is inescapable in this context. Ethics becomes inseparable from aesthetics.
It would take a book to do justice to all the artists in this Biennale.
The Sharjah Biennial catalogue will remain a useful source of reference. The sumptuous catalogue of the last Biennial weighed in at a rain forest-destroying, backbreaking seven and a half pounds. This year’s catalogue carries an appropriately smaller ecological footprint by weighing less — under two pounds.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Another perspective
The world is richer and healthier
Fewer people in the world today are suffering from poverty, hunger or disease than ever before. However we measure human well-being – life expectancy food availability, infant mortality or whatever – the world is a better place for most of us to live in than ever before.
To say this is probably not politically correct or fashionable today, but it is the central thesis of American economist Indur Goklany’s new book, The Improving State of the World. He has been accused of naivety, but he does not deny that war, disease and suffering still occur in the world. The condition of millions in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, he regards as shameful but he says this should not detract from our progress towards making life better for many millions more.
He has a mass of statistical evidence to back up his claims. Daily food intake has gone up by 38% in poor countries since the 1960s, at a time when their populations have soared by 83%. Improved agricultural productivity has driven down food prices over the past 50 years. Life expectancy has obviously improved in developed countries but it has improved even faster in poorer countries. We are living longer and we are living healthier lives, in poor as well as in rich countries.
The outlook for mankind is thus not gloomy. Where people live in distress it is because of political mismanagement and/or a rejection of capitalism and globalization. When countries become richer, they also become cleaner, healthier and more environmentally conscious. Capitalism and technology are the liberating forces that have made life better for billions of people around the world.
Fewer people in the world today are suffering from poverty, hunger or disease than ever before. However we measure human well-being – life expectancy food availability, infant mortality or whatever – the world is a better place for most of us to live in than ever before.
To say this is probably not politically correct or fashionable today, but it is the central thesis of American economist Indur Goklany’s new book, The Improving State of the World. He has been accused of naivety, but he does not deny that war, disease and suffering still occur in the world. The condition of millions in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, he regards as shameful but he says this should not detract from our progress towards making life better for many millions more.
He has a mass of statistical evidence to back up his claims. Daily food intake has gone up by 38% in poor countries since the 1960s, at a time when their populations have soared by 83%. Improved agricultural productivity has driven down food prices over the past 50 years. Life expectancy has obviously improved in developed countries but it has improved even faster in poorer countries. We are living longer and we are living healthier lives, in poor as well as in rich countries.
The outlook for mankind is thus not gloomy. Where people live in distress it is because of political mismanagement and/or a rejection of capitalism and globalization. When countries become richer, they also become cleaner, healthier and more environmentally conscious. Capitalism and technology are the liberating forces that have made life better for billions of people around the world.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Climate change
I've copied and pasted this because I've just finished preparing a reading summary about this year's Reith Lecturer, Dr Jeffrey Sachs, who is from this Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York.
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/crosscutting/climate.html
Climate and Society
Cross-Cutting Initiatives Cross-Cutting Initiative Seminar Series
Intro to Climate ChangeIntro to Climate ChangeHow You Can HelpEarth Institute Climate ScienceTake the Climate Change Quiz
Warmer surface temperatures over just a few months in the Antarctic can splinter an ice shelf and prime it for a major collapse, NASA and university scientists have reported. The process can be expected to become more widespread if Antarctic summer temperatures increase. Above: The Larsen B ice shelf, which collapsed in 2000. Photo credit: NASA
Scientists agree the Earth's climate is being directly affected by human activity, and for many people around the world, these changes are having negative effects. Records show that 11 of the last 12 years were among the 12 warmest on record worldwide.
The just-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policy Makers — the first volume of the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report — states that scientists are more than 90% confident that human industrial activity is driving global temperature rises. (add your thoughts on the report at RealClimate.org)
Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution, based on records extending back 650,000 years.
According to NASA, the polar ice cap is now melting at the rate of 9 percent per decade. Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s.
The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating.
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. The IPCC 4th Assessment Report said that this trend would likely continue.
Droughts in the Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s were found to be caused by warmer sea surface temperatures, and the current drought in the Amazon is suspected to be a result of rising ocean temperatures.
Poverty and food insecurity has also been tied to climate variability.
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/crosscutting/climate.html
Climate and Society
Cross-Cutting Initiatives Cross-Cutting Initiative Seminar Series
Intro to Climate ChangeIntro to Climate ChangeHow You Can HelpEarth Institute Climate ScienceTake the Climate Change Quiz
Warmer surface temperatures over just a few months in the Antarctic can splinter an ice shelf and prime it for a major collapse, NASA and university scientists have reported. The process can be expected to become more widespread if Antarctic summer temperatures increase. Above: The Larsen B ice shelf, which collapsed in 2000. Photo credit: NASA
Scientists agree the Earth's climate is being directly affected by human activity, and for many people around the world, these changes are having negative effects. Records show that 11 of the last 12 years were among the 12 warmest on record worldwide.
The just-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policy Makers — the first volume of the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report — states that scientists are more than 90% confident that human industrial activity is driving global temperature rises. (add your thoughts on the report at RealClimate.org)
Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution, based on records extending back 650,000 years.
According to NASA, the polar ice cap is now melting at the rate of 9 percent per decade. Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s.
The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating.
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. The IPCC 4th Assessment Report said that this trend would likely continue.
Droughts in the Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s were found to be caused by warmer sea surface temperatures, and the current drought in the Amazon is suspected to be a result of rising ocean temperatures.
Poverty and food insecurity has also been tied to climate variability.
Purpose of the blog
I'm hoping the blogs will be very individual, creative and thought-provoking.
I see my job as being to correct and improve the students' English grammar, punctuation and syntax, but to do so without stifling their individual creativity.
CUE is a group of very distinctive individuals and I'm looking forward to reading their input over the coming weeks.
I see my job as being to correct and improve the students' English grammar, punctuation and syntax, but to do so without stifling their individual creativity.
CUE is a group of very distinctive individuals and I'm looking forward to reading their input over the coming weeks.
Global Warming
My CUE students are creating blogs containing not only their own personal details but also their views on climate change and global warming.
The starting point is Al Gore's movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The main thesis presented, it must be admitted very impressively, at the outset of the film is that climate change and global warming are inextricably linked to human activity. Gore presents a mass of statistical evidence, backed by impressive graphic displays and photographic evidence, to back up his argument. The film footage is colourful, dramatic and well-matched to Gore's commentary. The movie is well directed and very thought-provoking, whether or not one accepts all of Gore's arguments.
Over the coming weeks the students will post blog entries on their views of the movie, definitions of global warming, its causes and possible solutions.
The starting point is Al Gore's movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The main thesis presented, it must be admitted very impressively, at the outset of the film is that climate change and global warming are inextricably linked to human activity. Gore presents a mass of statistical evidence, backed by impressive graphic displays and photographic evidence, to back up his argument. The film footage is colourful, dramatic and well-matched to Gore's commentary. The movie is well directed and very thought-provoking, whether or not one accepts all of Gore's arguments.
Over the coming weeks the students will post blog entries on their views of the movie, definitions of global warming, its causes and possible solutions.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
My personal profile
Name:
Hedley Maurice Friend Butterfield.
Nationality:
British.
Date of Birth:
1st April, 1949.
Marital status:
Married with two daughters, Katherine Mary, d.o.b. 11.9.70, and Emma Anne, d.o.b. 16.8.81.
Hedley Maurice Friend Butterfield.
Nationality:
British.
Date of Birth:
1st April, 1949.
Marital status:
Married with two daughters, Katherine Mary, d.o.b. 11.9.70, and Emma Anne, d.o.b. 16.8.81.
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