Top Ten Blog Posts

We reached a milestone last week -- 10,000 page views since our inception! (And that doesn't include an additional 6000 page views for the blog when it was formerly known as "Ecolympics".) Thanks for reading. To celebrate, I thought I'd highlight the top ten posts that are getting the most hits.

1. Environmental Cartoons I: Crisis? What Crisis? -- most people find Eco-Now by searching for the Supertramp album, "Crisis? What Crisis?" whose cover was featured in this post.

2. Portraits of Endangered Animals -- I'm a big fan of Joel Sartore and his work is highlighted here.

3. Endangered Species at the North and South Poles: The Eco-Art of Xavier Cortada  -- Now that I found out about the terrific work of Miami eco-artist, Xavier Cortada, I'm a big fan of his work too. See also his Eco-Now interview, which just missed the top ten.

4. Six Great Environmental Protest Songs -- I tried to find some that weren't on everyone else's list.

5. What is Shark Finning? -- simply, it's a brutal, inhumane practice that is decimating worldwide shark populations, all for a supposed delicacy.

6. The Endangered Species Print Project -- great conservation-art project by Jenny Kendler and Molly Schafer of Chicago.

7. The Lost Bird Project -- "Forgetting is another kind of extinction," says Todd McGrain, whose work to commemorate extinct birds with larger-than life sculptures is profiled in the eponymous film (reviewed here). See also the thoughtful interview he gave.

8. Thoughts on World Population Day -- can natural resources keep up with our growing population? No.

9. How Water Chestnuts are Taking over the Northeast: A Photo-essay -- invasive species like water chestnuts are becoming a problem in ecosystems everywhere.

10. Living in an Age of Extinction: Building a Life Cairn -- Why do no church bells ring when animals go extinct? Why, indeed. Read the interview with Andreas Kornevall about the great project in East Sussex to commemorate extinct species.

Please share this post or any other post you found provocative. We need to raise awareness that we humans are part of the tree of life and the high extinction rates now seen, due to habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change mean that we are failing in our role as stewards. We now know of more than 2000 other planets in the galaxy, but none of them are known to have life. It's our planet, and biodiversity is our life: we need to take care of it.

Eco-Art for an Endangered World: An Interview with Xavier Cortada

Xavier Cortada is a Miami artist who has created eco-art installations at the North and South Poles and many places in between to explore how humans relate to the natural world. He has worked with groups globally to produce numerous collaborative art projects, including peace murals in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, child welfare murals in Bolivia and Panama, AIDS murals in Switzerland and South Africa, and eco-art projects in Taiwan, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Holland and Latvia. He kindly agreed to answer some of my questions over Skype.

Cortada reclaiming the North Pole for nature. 

Daniel Hudon In 2007 you planted a replica of a mangrove seedling in the moving ice sheet of Antarctica where over the course of 150,000 years it will journey to the seashore where it can theoretically set its roots. In 2008, you planted a green flag at the North Pole to encourage reforestation in the world below. What inspired you to go to the poles for your work?

Xavier Cortada I’m interested in using art to engage, to change the way people see themselves by creating ritualistic installations. At the South Pole, all the longitude lines converge – these are the man-made coordinates for dividing Earth into 24 times zones and here they converge, effectively showing us that we’re all inter-connected. What happens in one part affects what happens in another. The poles are also where we’re seeing the most global warming; this is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

I planted the mangrove replica on the moving ice sheet to get at the idea of long time. Humans have a certain arrogance and though we have populated all the other continents for thousands of years, we’ve had a permanent presence at the South Pole for only 50 years. Meanwhile, this mangrove seedling is traveling 10 meters per year and in 150,000 years it will travel 1500 Km and reach the nearest shore and “set root” as it were. I contrasted this with flags in the colors of the spectrum with milestones of world history – the Eagle has landed, the fall of the Berlin wall and so on, 50 events in total – so that people can see that these 50 events as 50 flags, stretched (10 meters apart) over 500 meters on the ice, happen in the blink of an eye. Really, it humbles us and reaffirms the notion that we’re simply custodians who must learn to live with nature.

The next year, I traveled to the North Pole and planted a green flag, which said, “I hereby reclaim this land for nature.” As the Arctic sea ice melts, nations clamor to raise their flags over newly open waters to claim the natural resources that lie beneath them -- oil, manganese, diamonds, fish – and to control shipping lanes. In addition, rising sea levels threaten the world below. So this was a signal for people to join me in a global restoration effort and keep the pole frozen. For this project, I was asking future participants to plant a native tree in their yard as well as a green project flag and state what the says I hereby reclaim this land for nature. The idea was to use the green flags as catalysts for conversations with neighbors who will then be encouraged to join the effort and help rebuild their native tree canopy. As you know, reforestation reduces the greenhouse gases that cause global climate change. Ideally, as you watch your tree grow, your interest in environmental advocacy will also grow.

Daniel: Not many people have been to both poles. What was your experience like at each?

Xavier: I felt very lucky. Many people suffered and died to get to each of these places and I just took a three-hour plane ride from Ross Island to the South Pole.  On the “journey,” I drank fruit juices and ate chocolate bars. When I got to the South Pole I was in awe for the historic meaning of the place and had an adrenaline rush for all the installations I was going to do in a short time. It was an exhilarating journey and it strengthened my resolve for the Endangered World Project.

My partner, Juan Carlos Espinosa, came with me to both poles and at that time our state would allow us to get married (it still doesn’t), so we exchanged wedding bands at the North Pole – we’ve been to the top and bottom of the world together. Our rings are inscribed 90 N on one side and 90 S on the other side. So the poles inspired art and the inscription inside our wedding bands!

Daniel:  On those expeditions you also began your Endangered World project. How did you first tune into the biodiversity crisis?

Xavier: I could see the changes. I remember canoeing with my biology professors across the Everglades, snorkeling with my fraternity brothers in the Florida Keys and seeing the coral get bleached more and more as the years went on.

Daniel:  How did participatory art become your forte?

Xavier: I come from a social justice background. Participatory art grew out of seeing art as a vehicle to communication. I organized collaborative murals to give voice to those at society’s margins.  Whether it was gang members in Northern Philly or street children in Bolivia -- art became an instrument for problem solving. I’ve always wanted my art to be inclusive so that I’m working with the viewer to help change attitudes.

Sometime ago I started painting mangroves. Here in South Florida, they’ve given way to sea walls and development, but they’re important because they create an interface between land and water where marine life can take hold. Small fish find refuge from predators in their intricate roots, which also serve to protect the shoreline from erosion during hurricanes.

After that, I started putting mangrove seedlings in plastic water-filled cups and hanging them in the windows of retail shops on South Beach where they would have grown if we hadn’t destroyed their habitat.  These vertical nurseries served not just to nurture the seedlings for future planting along Biscayne Bay but also invited passersby to join the Reclamation Project (www.reclamationproject.net) and participate in the reforestation.  I’m not trying to be alarmist, instead, I don’t want you to lose hope that you can do something.

Cortada's Endangered World Installation at the South Pole

Daniel:  As you planted the endangered species flags around the South Pole, did you feel connected to the world above you and to these species? What were your thoughts?

Xavier: Planting the 24 flags of endangered species [one for every 15 degrees of longitude] at the South Pole was almost like exiling them – they are in peril and I am serving notice that I understand. I was creating a testimony through a ritualistic installation.

Daniel:  What about at the North Pole?

Xavier: I’d brought 360 white flags, one for each degree of longitude, with the name of an endangered species to be handwritten on each, but the flags were confiscated at the port city of Murmansk [read details about the irony of surrendering white flags here]. I guess the Customs official thought I could sell them. Anyway, I still had a large canvas so I hand-wrote the names of all 360 species on a circle on this canvas and at the North Pole spoke the degree and names of each endangered animal to each degree direction where they live. It was ritualistic. I was standing on the thinning sea ice (we’d traveled by icebreaker and because of global warming we made the journey in only five days – record time – because of the thinning ice; usually it takes a few days longer) and recognizing the peril that these animals are in. Saying the name of something is valuable. I felt a connection as I spoke to each – from that one location I could connect to all 360 different habitats. At the end of the decade some of these animals may no longer exist. For example, we’ve already lost the Yangtze River dolphin. So in saying the names I was saying to the animal that I’m going to wage this campaign for you – we’re not forgetting you, we’re going to try some bio-remediation before it’s too late. With actions and words together it was trying to use art to keep the animals alive.

Cortada's Endangered World Installation at the North Pole

Daniel:  How did you make this a participatory installation?

Xavier: Well, first let me tell this story that before leaving the North Pole I took a chunk of ice and on the ship I asked the chef to serve it to everyone as part of a performance art piece: The North Pole Dinner Party. In it, my fellow passengers consumed the North Pole.  They understood that it’s something worth fighting for [keeping the North Pole frozen] because it’s now part of them.

The South Pole has a treaty, but who owns the North Pole? It’s just frozen water. Political powers shouldn’t be so eager to plant their flag at the North Pole – if it stays that way [frozen] then no country wants it, but if the pole thaws, then countries will want to exploit it, open shipping lanes and so on, as I mentioned. I wanted to create a piece at the North Pole that reclaimed it as a real – not symbolic – gesture. So I planted a green flag to encourage reforestation in the world below. Planting more trees will sequester more carbon and thus keep the North Pole frozen. The green flag is symbolic of our commitment to reducing our footprint. If we create this movement and plant both a green flag and a tree, we’ll create a world of North Pole citizens who will work to keep the North Pole frozen. 

I then took the 360 degree longitude locations [the Endangered World installation] and wrote them on 360 bricks and made a brick wall and installed it in Borger, in the Netherlands. This isin the Drenthe province, where Van Gogh painted the potato eaters and where there are many hunebeds, or graves, that were built in 3500 BC from boulders left behind by the receding glaciers of the last ice age. The brick wall forms a portal for one of the graves. The animals are part of an interconnected web that includes us humans. How many can go extinct before the door crumbles and the grave is revealed?

The Life Wall

But it’s called the Life Wall – my work is full of hope. By acting locally we can have a global impact. You can adopt one of the species on the Life Wall and pledge to engage in an eco-action. Just get a small stone and write the longitude of your adopted animal on it and that stone will remind you of your eco-action. The idea is to create eco-emissaries who will act as agents for good. You pay with your actions, that’s what brings you into the conversation so that we can see ourselves in new ways. The solution lies in consuming less and we get there through advocacy and awareness.

Endangered World had another iteration as 80.15 W, which is the longitude of Biscayne National Park. There I made drawings on carbon paper, a metaphor for the impact or carbon footprint that humans have on that animal, including the 17 endangered species from the park.

In 2009, I posted 180 drawings of the animals featured in his Endangered World installation on Facebook. These pencil drawings portrayed animals struggling for survival in the Eastern Hemisphere (Longitude: 0 degrees to 179 degrees East). I changed my profile image every day to one of these drawings to say, “I am this endangered animal. I am this endangered fish. I am this endangered mammal.” Because we are all interconnected. What endangers one species affects all, including our own. That’s my point: We are all inter-connected. The more we think in silos the more we do so at our peril. My work is about blurring lines and finding commonality.

Biscayne National Park

Daniel:  What do you say to people who argue that there’s a techno-fix to our environmental problems?

Xavier: My goal is to create eco-emissaries  to become an intelligent part of the dialogue. The solutions are for consumers to lower their consumption – anyway, consumption makes us feel hollow inside.  Having more only makes you want more.

People need to take responsibility. As I said above, when you plant a green flag next to a tree, as your tree grows so will your advocacy. It’s about you acting and engaging, not just awareness. I want to create a dialogue so people will fall in love and commit to doing something.

After the election in 2008, there has been no real discussion about global warming because everyone was focusing on the economy and not realizing the environment poses a greater threat. With the BP disaster in 2009 another opportunity was lost. These have just strengthened my resolve to create more eco-emissaries. We need more sustainable practices.  For instance, through our monoculture we’re destroying forests growing plants whose properties we don’t yet know. It may be efficient for agriculture for this season’s food needs, but at what cost to future generations.

Daniel:  What sort of response have you had to your eco-art and what can we look forward to in the future?

Xavier: Juan Carlos Espinosa and I were invited to spend this summer as artists-in- residence at the White Mountains National Forest (see whitemountaintrailmix.wordpress.com).  There, Icreated works about time, space and species in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  I worked with scientists to understand how global warming is affecting two species of butterfly and the Bicknell’s thrush. The White Mountain Arctic (Oeneis melissa semidea) and the White Mountain Fritillary (Boloria titania montinus) are glacial relics.  These butterflies evolved as subspecies at the mountain’s alpine elevations after the glaciers receded.  Scientist’s have yet to discover the plant the Arctic Butterfly uses to lay its eggs, so it is difficult to gauge potential global climate change threats.

The Bicknell’s Thrush (Catharus bicknelli) only summer habitat is below the alpine area in White Mountain National Forest, a habitat shrinking as global climate change allows hardwoods to encroach from below and high winds at the alpine elevations restrict the upper boundaries of their dense Balsam Fir habitat.  This bird species migrates to habitats beyond the forest boundaries, wintering on the island of Hispaniola, where its habitat is being deforested. Researchers are focused on the effects of acid rain and the deposition of mercury at the top of WMNF mountains as possible causes for dwindling species population.

In terms of response, Native Flags has been very successful: 750 trees planted in St. Petersburg and all 336 schools in Miami for three years in a row have planted a green flag and a tree on Earth Day. You can read about the 360 Eco-actions that have been adopted for the Endangered World installation. This year, we’re going to plant 500 wildflower gardens to recreate Florida’s biodiversity of 500 years ago when Juan Ponce de Leon first landed.  In the summer, we’ll distribute 900,000 native wildflower seeds to plant across the state. I’m now Artist in Residence at Florida International University’s College of Architecture and The Arts.  That’s where I’ve based my community arts practice.  Through my office (Office of Engaged Creativity) I have the potential of reaching and engaging 40,000 students! 

Daniel:  I hope you can create 40,000 or more eco-emissaries, we need them!

Xavier: As I said I’m just trying to create a dialogue so that people will fall in love with the natural world and commit to doing something. So thanks for creating this dialogue with me so that I can share my work.

For more information: http://www.cortada.com

Cortada's sketch of the bonobo, endangered. 

Endangered Species at the South and North Poles: The Eco-Art of Xavier Cortada

Blue Whale, 150 Degrees W

On a brisk January day in 2007, with the sun low on the horizon, Miami artist Xavier Cortada exiled 24 endangered species to the South Pole. He did this to serve notice that he understands their plight and to serve notice that our world is endangered.

Black Rhino, 15 degrees E

He planted 24 white flags around the pole and on each flag was printed the name of a species that was threatened. There were 24 flags because Earth's longitudes are divided up into 24 zones.

Siberian Tiger, 135 Degrees E

So on each flag, the name of the endangered animal was accompanied by the longitude of the primary habitat where it was threatened.  The twenty-four animals Cortada selected for the flags are endangered because their habitats are environmentally threatened by man and/or because they have been hunted to the brink of extinction.  

Asian Elephant, 75 Degrees E

The installation included the well-known and the not-so-known, from the European sea sturgeon (0 degrees), the Black Rhino (15 degrees E), the Eastern Gorilla (30 degrees E), the Ring-tailed lemur (45 degrees E), all the way around to the Maned Three Toed Sloth (45 degrees W), the Polar Bear (30 degrees W) and the chimpanzee (15 degrees W). The links, as on Cortada's page, take you to the Arkive, where you can find more information about the status of each animal. You can see the whole list here. Below is part of the installation at the South Pole: 

Endangered World: Art at the South Pole

Unless we act soon, the banners will soon bear the names not of endangered species but of extinct species. The next year, the Endangered World installation had another iteration 180 degrees away, at the North Pole, which is losing more and more ice each summer due to global warming. This time, Cortada brought flags of 360 endangered species, one for every degree of longitude. After the sea sturgeon at 0 degrees there was the Togo Slippery Frog at 1 degree E: 

the red-bellied monkey at 2 degrees E: 

the Mallorcan midwife toad (3 E), the European mink (4 E), the pond bat (5 E), the sculpin (6 E): 

the asper (another fish, 7 E), the slender-horned gazelle (8 E):

 and so on, degree by degree you can see these fragile, elegant animals sketched with elements of ephemerality, as if they have been brought into a temporary existence and could disappear just as quickly. Here is a human cousin, the bonobo at 22 degrees E: 

and here is another cousin, the Sumatran orangutan at 99 degrees E: 

Such a picture of tragedy there. As if it's telling us, "Look, if you keep taking us as pets, shooting us for bush meat, or pulling our forest out from under us for palm oil, we'll all be gone." Of course, these are all our cousins because all life on Earth originated from the same common ancestor some 3.7 billion years ago. We have the same DNA code, use the same amino acids, have many of the same metabolic processes. Our differences are literally by degrees, a point that Cortada makes through the interconnection of the longitude lines at the South Pole.  But for some animals, it's already too late. Here's what the the Yangtze River looks like without its eponymous dolphin: 

Haunting, isn't it? The dolphin, nicknamed the "goddess of the Yangtze" couldn't compete with the population growth, overfishing and development in the river basin and was declared extinct in 2006. 

In 2009, Cortada sketched 180 of the species from the Endangered World installation and posted them for 180 consecutive days as his Facebook profile image (these are the sketches you see above). You can see the Facebook gallery here and see links and information to the entire Endangered World installation here.

But Cortada isn't content to raise awareness. He wants us, through actions like his Facebook installation that connect us to the endangered species, to become eco-emissaries. The Endangered World installation has had additional iterations in the Netherlands and Biscayne National Park in Florida where anyone can participate by pledging an eco-action for one of the struggling species in the installation. By engaging in eco-actions, we "adopt" the species and do our part to protect it. Saving species is hard work and is going to take a lot of personal responsibility from all of us. Becoming an eco-emissary is an excellent first step. You can see the eco-actions people have already pledged here. 

Endangered World is one of Cortada's many eco-art projects. He has also been involved in reclaiming the North Pole not for shipping lanes and natural resource extraction but for nature, regrowing mangroves in south Florida, telling the stories of people affected by climate change, investigating how climate change is affecting birds and butterflies in New Hampshire's White Mountains and portraying it through ritual, restoring the wildflower biodiversity of Florida, and motivating eco-emissaries to plant a green flag with a tree so that as their tree grows so will their commitment to the environment. And that's not all. 

From his statement, Cortada is now using DNA from a diverse group of individuals [to] create work that will challenge the way we see one another and to liberate ourselves from false notions of who we are-- or aren’t. Moreover, by depicting the migrations of our ancestors over the past 60,000 years, we can see how they settled the planet in response to changes in environmental conditions: For our ancestors, the natural world was the only world.  They navigated through it —slowly moving where nature provided them with better opportunities to hunt and gather.  

Our early ancestors found a way to become a part of natural balance as they populated the planet.  Today, we are destroying that balance by overpopulation and by our attempt to use and control nature for our benefit.

It would be amazing if we could look back on the early part of the 21st century and say, Yes, that was close. W e turned a corner there. If we hadn't become eco-emissaries, we'd be lost. 

Humans haven't been on the planet that long. The leap from hunter gatherers to eco-emissaries is not large, but it's significant. By taking his art to the poles of the Earth, Xavier Cortada has reminded us that we live in an endangered world. Our response is up to us. 

For more information about Xavier Cortada and his participatory eco-art, visit his webpage at www.xaviercortada.com

You can buy the above poster here or visit his online store for some wonderful originals (be sure to check out the mangroves!). 

And stay tuned for an interview with Xavier coming soon!