Six Ways

Carbon-lite touring

May 22, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Bear Project, Bicycles, Carbon Footprint, Cast And Crew, Climate Change, Director Joe, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Joe Douglas, Metaphors, Panniers, Polar Bear, Polar Bears, Production Director, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter, World Wildlife Fund

The Last Polar Bears on tour

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Wallace Heim writes:Â

The carbon footprint of a production meets the content of the play in the National Theatre of Scotlandâ€™s tour of their climate change play The Last Polar Bears. For the 350-mile tour, everything needed for the show will be carried by the cast and crew on bicycles made from reclaimed bikes. The vinyl panniers are made from recycled National Theatre of Scotland banners.

As part of the productionâ€™s legacy, the National Theatre of Scotland will donate to the World Wildlife Fund’s Adopt a polar bearÂ project on behalf of the 18 primary schools on the tour.

Alongside the production, director Joe Douglas will use the tour to interview people, â€˜taking the temperature of how people are feeling about climate change.’

Floating platforms

May 13, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Beneficiary, blog, Climate Change, Economist, Eggs, Features Interviews, Floating Platforms, Flowers, Insect, Interviews News, Metaphors, Pacific Ocean, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter, United Kingdom

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A new study shows that plastic in the Pacific Ocean has increased 100 times over the last 40 years.The only beneficiary, reports The Economist, is Halobates sericeus, “a small insect that now has lots of nice little floating platforms on which to lay its eggs”.

Soap operas for social change

May 5, 2012Ashden Directory1950s, 28 April, Associate Editor, Bbc, Bbc Radio Program, Climate Change, Features Interviews, Gutman, Interviews News, Land Mines, Listeners, Metaphors, Reflection, Robert Butler, Significant Influence, Six Ways, Soap Opera, Soap Operas, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

The Archers, courtesy BBC

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Kellie Gutman writes;

The BBC have looked into soap operas as agents for social change and have discovered in some cases they have changed the world. Â From the longest-running program, The Archers, which encouraged farmers in the 1950s to increase production by trying out new techniques, to a BBC radio program in Afghanistan, calledNew Home, on women’s rights, which taught listeners how to avoid land mines, the soap opera has had a significant influence.

A two-part programme on Your World (part 1, 21 April; part 2, 28 April) can be heard here.

Climate is culture

March 8, 2012Ashden DirectoryArtist David, Associate Editor, British Artist, Cape Farewell, Climate Change, Communication Gap, Feature Article, Features Interviews, Gap, Gutman, Interviews News, Metaphors, Robert Butler, S David, Six Ways, Social Issues, Societal Changes, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

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Kellie Gutman writes:

The feature article in the March issue of Nature Climate Change is written by Cape Farewell‘s David Buckland, and is titled Climate is Culture.

A pioneering project that was set up to bridge a perceived communication gap between the science of climate change and the deep societal changes required to avoid dangerous impacts is explained by its creator in Nature Climate Change this week. Â In 2001, British artist David Buckland founded the Cape Farewell project, which he feels attempts to address one of the most pressing social issues of our time.

Read the full article here.

Island at the National Theatre

March 3, 2012Ashden Directory25 February, Arctic Island, Computer Phone, Cottesloe Theatre, Different World, Effects Of Climate Change, Facebook, Family Audiences, Feather Boy, Gutman, Herschel Island, Interviews News, Primary Schools In London, Robert Butler, School Holiday, Schoolboy, Schools In London, Six Ways, Spring Term, Twitter, Whaling

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Abandoned whaling settlement at Pauline Cove, Herschel Island

Kellie Gutman reports:

A new play for children ages 8 and up runs at the Cottesloe Theatre 15-25 February. Â Island, by award-winning author Nicky Singer (Feather Boy),Â has been commissioned by the National Theatre’s Learning programme. Â The play is set on the remote Arctic island of Herschel.

[It] raises questions about the effects of climate change on the island. Â the play centres on a London schoolboy, Cameron, forced to spend his school holiday without computer, phone or Facebook with his scientist mother on the remote Herschel Island, where he encounters an indigenous girl whose stories open up this different world.

Along with the performances and workshops for family audiences at the Cottesloe Theatre, Island will tour to primary schools in London throughout the spring term.

Plunge by Michael Pinsky

February 13, 2012Ashden DirectoryArtist Michael, Associate Editor, Central London, Climate Change, Duke Of York, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Led Lights, Metaphors, Michael Pinsky, Monuments In London, Nbsp, Pillar, Plunge, Public Art, Robert Butler, Sea Level, Seven Dials, Six Ways, Square Column

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Michael Pinsky’s Plunge, on three monuments in London

In a collaboration among LIFT, Artsadmin., and IMAGINE 2020, artist Michael Pinsky was commissioned to create a new work of public art in central London. Today the project is launched and will remain on view through 4 March. Blue circles of LED lights have been placed on the Seven Dials Sundial Pillar, the Duke of York Column, and the Paternoster Square Column indicating the height of the sea level one thousand years from now, if climate change continues unchecked.

Though thousands of people pass these monuments every day, Pinsky’s art allows people to see them in a new (blue) light.

Together, the Plunge monuments create an arc across central London, following the line of a future Thames that has swallowed much of the capital in its wake.

Plunge on Twitter
Plunge on Facebook
Plunge website

First daffodil in Low Wood

February 6, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Blossom, Climate Change, Daffodil, Features Interviews, Flowers, Garden Cultivars, Interviews News, Latitude, Leaves, Metaphors, Old Apple Tree, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Soil, sustainability, Timeline, Two Kinds, Wild Ones

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Wallace Heim writes:

Today, the first daffodil is blossoming here in Low Wood, Cumbria (latitude: 54 degrees North). There are two kinds of daffodil here, the garden cultivars and the small wild ones that fill the woods. This one, a cultivar protected by an old apple tree, will be in full, open blossom in a day or two, unless the forecasts are correct and the nights are cold and the snow is heavy.

The wild ones usually blossom earlier than the cultivars, but their leaves are only breaching the soil. Last year, the wild ones blossomed on 18 March. This one today is 7 weeks earlier that that.

Following spring’s advance

February 2, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Climate Change, Daffodil, East Coast, Fahrenheit, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Metaphors, Paideia School, Postcard, Richard Gutman, Robert Butler, Route 1, Science Project, Sightings, Six Ways, Snowstorm, Springtime, Twitter, West Roxbury Ma

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For several years we have been following the advance of spring on the East Coast of the United States by participating in the Paideia School’s science project. Â Our editor, Kellie Gutman, writes:

The letter arrived on January 7th, the address printed in a 9 or 10 year-old’s hand, with an accompanying postcard carrying this message:

I saw the first blooming daffodil on:__________, 2012
Kellie and Richard Gutman
West Roxbury, MA

The fourth and fifth grade classes track the speed of spring by documenting daffodil sightings along U. S. Route 1, from Florida to Maine. Â It will be interesting to see how quickly spring arrives this year. Â Here in Boston we have Â had only one snowstorm, and that one freakishly early before Halloween. Â Last year the school’s letter arrived on a day that Boston got 8 inches of snow; this year it was a record 60 degrees fahrenheit.

In 2010, spring advanced at the speed of 1 mile an hour; in 2011 it was clocked at 1.3 miles an hour.

While waiting for the first bloom, you might want to re-read our ‘flowers on stage’ postings, to get into the springtime mode.

Michael Pinsky LIFT unveiling 7 February

February 1, 2012Ashden DirectoryArt Work, Artworks, Associate Editor, British Artist, Central London, Climate Change, Features Interviews, Flowers, Interviews News, Metaphors, Nbsp, Public Art, Public Spaces, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Theatre London, Thirty Years, Timeline, Twitter, United Kingdom

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To celebrate thirty years of groundbreaking international theatre across London, LIFTÂ Â partnered with Arts Admin., as part of the IMAGINE 2020 network, to commission a new piece of public art work in central London. Â Michael Pinsky, a renowned British artist, who has created artworks in public spaces and galleries across Europe, won the commission. Â His work will respond to the issue of climate change. Â This secret project will be launched 7 February 2012. Â Stay tuned for more details.

New metaphors for sustainability: include the craft of great design

January 17, 2012Ashden DirectoryAesthetics, Aged Sex, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Co Founder, Creative Solutions, Design Photo, Ed Gillespie, Features Interviews, Gillespie Co, Interviews News, Metaphors, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Solitaire, sustainability, Sustainably, Timeline, Twitter, William Morris

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Following Solitaire Townsend’sÂ suggestions for metaphors – teen-aged sex, Shakespeare, and advice to the dude – Ed Gillespie, co-founder of Futerra, emailed us to add a crucial component to the art of sustainability. Ed writes:Â

To add to Soli’s suggestions I would include: craft.

Sustainability is really all about craft – artful, considered, creative solutions that work for people and planet.

Sustainability is also the crucial third component of great design, building on William Morris’s‘fit for purpose’ (functionality) and ‘beautiful to look at’ (aesthetics). I add to these ‘sustainably produced, reusable, durable, recyclable’. Sustainability turns good design into truly great design.photo above of William Morris