climate change |

May 24, 2012

This Snow Globe has a Coal Plant and Emits Smog.

Called No Globe and also for sale at a price of £2000:

“No Globes
Mixed media snow globe
H20 x W20 x D20cm

The single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal but despite this a whole new fleet of dirty coal-fired power stations are on the verge of being built in the UK (the first for 30 years). The snow globe was designed for Ctrl.Alt.Shift in anticipation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

Limited edition of 2 – only 1 remains”

By Dorothy, via Colossal.

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May 18, 2012

Witty science inspired graphic design by Christopher David Ryan

You could easily lose yourself in his wonderful website. Here’s a sampling.

By Christopher David Ryan.

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May 14, 2012

Giant Sun Simulation. #whoa

“Electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is interested in creating advanced technology art that involves public participation. This large installation entitled Solar Equation is a simulation of the Sun, 100 million times smaller than the real thing! The sphere, commissioned by the Light in Winter Festival in Australia, is the largest spherical balloon in the world.”

It would also be kind of interesting to do the reverse perspective calculation (i.e. how big would this Sun actually be, if it was situated in the same place in space, but actually looked this big!).

By Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, via My Modern Met.

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May 14, 2012

Artistic patterns embeded snowy landscapes: a very pretty way to create albedo.

Who would have thought albedo could be so pretty?

“Artist Simon Beck creates amazing pieces of snow art by walking in the snow wearing raquettes (snowshoes). Each artwork is typically the size of three soccer fields and takes 2 days to complete. The Oxford-educated self-employed map maker typically walks for about 5 to 9 hours or until he gets too tired, using a headlamp if it gets dark first.”

By Simon Beck, via Amusing Planet.

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May 13, 2012

Amazing cloud sculptures by Berndnaut Smilde

Hmmmm… could use this for segue on talking about clouds generally (i.e. for albedo or radiative forcing, etc) – maybe even something like geoengineering.

“Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde installs miniature clouds in empty gallery spaces. But these are neither digital manipulations nor fluffy Poly-fil sculptures strung from the ceiling. The cloud works are, in fact, real, with Smilde using smoke, moisture, and spot lighting to conjure up his momentary creations.”

Via Architizer.

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April 18, 2012

Water water everywhere. Great children’s book image on the subject of water.

This is great.

(Click on image for larger version)

And this is also an image that seems appropriate when choosing to speak about water generally – it might, for instance, be a good prelude to discussions ranging from sea levels to water consumption.

Anyway, I’m generally pretty enamored with Satoshi Kitamura‘s work. This particular image comes from a great little book called Captain Toby, where a little boy in his house gets caught in a wind storm and then with the house swaying, starts to dream about his house being a boat, being caught in the ocean, and even at one point, duking it out with a giant squid. Anyway, lovely stuff.

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April 17, 2012

Wouldn’t it be great if Richard Scarry was still around to do a new Busytown book on science or sustainability?

A while back, I was playing with my kids and having fun with the Find Lowly Worm game that seems to be a rite of passage when looking through a Richard Scarry picture book.

Anyway, in our edition of “What Do People Do All Day?” I was amused by a substantial 4 page spread about coal as a source of energy (titled Digging coal to make electricity work for us). I guess it got me thinking that wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a similar children’s book produced that can have the same degree of cultural prevalence, but also includes graphics looking at energy alternatives like wind, solar, wave, hydro, nuclear, etc. In essense, a Busytown book that focuses on concepts of sustainability or maybe even technology in general, where rapport can be continually fostered with analogous Lowly Worm type traditions.

I would soooo buy that book, if only because those kind of slides would rock in a slideshow. Anyway, check out the spreads below: