Post-Bush World in the Age of Global Warming: Considering the Work Ahead
Since the election, I have felt a great sense of elation and deflation. The elation is that the Republican corruption and mis-management is at least temporarily purged; that youthful idealism and hope once more has a place in this democracy. The deflation is what a big job is ahead and the fact that all the same problems prevail.
One of those problems is the difficulty of being heard with innovative thinking. Al Gore posted a long editorial in the NY Times Sunday, listing what the administration needs to do to address global warming. It was shockingly tame. It included obvious points such as low emission cars. It did not mention the potential of art to introduce entire fresh thinking.
It was my honor to work with Dr. Jim White of the INSTAAR Institute and the Unversity of Colorado at Boulder, in 2007, to create "Trigger Points/ Tipping Points," an installation and DVD for the "Weather Report" show at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder. Now we are planning to resume work in January 2009. In our original project, we compared conflict zones in three deltaic systems impacted by global warming and climate change: Darfur in relation to the Nile, Bangladesh in relation to the Ganges and New Orleans in relation to the Mississippi. We are not sure where we will go now. Our goals are to break some new ground and open some doors and windows in how to think aboutt he problems ahead.
In sum, it's a heartening time despite the mountain of ecological problems to address. I sense in colleagues, that we are all entering a new era of possibility in the face of our challenges. May it be so.
