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Modern air-conditioning has become an essential commodity in many parts of the world, and guzzles more than its fair share of energy as it shifts heat around buildings. But while scientists sweat to find solar solutions to cool this burning energy issue, over a thousand years ago ancient cultures had discovered sustainable precursors to air-conditioning, albeit by and large just for the privileged few. Ranging from wind-catching towers of Medieval Persia to freshly circulated Roman Aqueduct water, here  are some of the coolest indoor-cooling innovations from those environmentally-savvy ancients – and not a chemical in sight. (source).

 

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Bustling cities are transformed into vibrantly colored maps depicting eroding terrains in the gorgeous series Flowing City Map by Geneva-based illustrator Chaotic Atmospheres. Chaotic Atmospheres began by rendering city maps in the program World Machine, a 3D terrain software. The illustrator then combined the maps with procedural terrains in order to achieve the right amount of “erosion flow.” “I wanted to represent the influence of cities on their environment as a kind of invisible fluid that overflows from the city to its surrounding,” the artist explains. Erosion and natural features take the form of streaks of color that flow throughout the densely packed metropolis like water, turning the landscape into a dreamy plane of ripples and currents. (source).

 

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Along the shores of Hong Kong, a mystical blue plant is blooming and glowing in cosmic blue hues. Scientists attribute the phenomenon to Noctiluca scintillans, a plant also known as “sea sparkle.” Don’t be fooled by the bubbly name: Sea sparkle is an aggressive reproducer that behaves like algae and can even function as a single-celled animal. Although beautiful to behold, its spread is jumpstarted by agricultural pollution in coastal areas. The neon blooms can collect and spread toxins, and they have been tied to significant waves of marine animal deaths. But by night, the enchanting blue plants gleam innocently. (source).

 

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“A Song of Our Warming Planet,” came about following a conversation Crawford had with geography professor Scott St. George during an internship. St. George asked Crawford about the possibility of turning a set of data into music. Crawford used an approach called data sonification to convert global temperature records into a series of musical notes. The result is a haunting sequence that traces the warming of our planet year by year since the late 19th century. During a run of cold years between the late 1800s and early 20th century, the cello is pushed towards the lower limit of its range. The piece moves into the mid-register to track the modest warming that occurred during the 1940s. As the sequence approaches the present, the cello reaches higher and higher notes, reflecting the string of warm years in the 1990s and 2000s. (source).

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Welcome to the Anthropocene, has been released on the eve of the major international science conference Planet Under Pressure. “The Anthropocene changes our relationship with the planet. We have a new responsibility and we need to determine how to meet that responsibility,” says Conference Chief Scientific Advisor, Elinor Ostrom Welcome to the Anthropocene, commissioned by the London Planet Under Pressure conference*, provides a data visualization of the state of the planet. It opens at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As the camera swoops over Earth, viewers watch the planetary impact of humanity: cities, roads, railways, pipelines, cables and shipping lanes until finally the world’s planes spin a fine web around the planet. (source).

 

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Installed earlier this month on the western coastline of New Providence in Nassau, Bahamas, Ocean Atlas is the lastest underwater sculpture by artist Jason deCaires Taylor, known for his pioneering effort to build submerged sculpture parks in oceans around the world. Taylor’s cement figures are constructed with a sustainable pH-neutral material that encourages the growth of coral and other marine wildlife, effectively forming an artificial reef that draws tourists away from diving hotspots in over-stressed areas. Towering 18 feet tall and weighing in at more than 60 tons, Ocean Atlas is reportedly the largest sculpture ever deployed underwater. The artwork depicts a local Bahamian girl carrying the weight of the ocean above her in reference to the Ancient Greek myth of Atlas, the primordial Titan who held up the celestial spheres (source).

 

 

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The Beautiful Destruction project features photographs of the Alberta Tar Sands, captured by Louis Helbig, who visited the oil/tar sands in the winter of 2012, and again, for 7 weeks in the spring and early summer of 2013 to illuminate contradiction – what is beautiful and destructive about the development in northern Alberta – seems to open space for imagination and discussion.  The public reaction to these photographs suggests that there can be a place for reflection, sharing and thinking, unencumbered by the deep-seated divisive polarities that usually characterize debate about and comment on the tar/oil sands. (source).

 

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Jason deCaires Taylor is an acclaimed sculptor who creates underwater living installations. His site-specific, permanent works are designed to act as artificial reefs, attracting corals, increasing marine biomass and aggregating fish species, while crucially diverting tourists away from fragile natural reefs and thus providing space for natural rejuvenation (source).

 

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New York-based, Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s The Ninth Wave features a weathered fishing boat from Cai’s hometown of Quanzhou carrying 99 fabricated animals onboard. Artificial pandas, tigers, camels, and other beasts cling to the worn ship, appearing weary and seasick. Cai’s work highlights Earth’s current environmental and ecological crisis, as evidenced by high levels of smog in the air, as well as the incident of 16,000 dead pigs floating down the Huangpu River last year. The artist’s work is a shocking exploration of the challenge that humans face in regards to our planet. (source).

 

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