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This morning I walked across the fresh snow with a gas cylinder in my arms, containing 6kg of CO2. I took it across the unspoiled snow field of the Jakobshavn Fjord until I found what, to my eyes, was a wonderful place.
From a little hill I could see massive icebergs impassably floating by, some of them breaking up from time to time with a loud bang. The sea below was deep grey, which made the icebergs stand up in all their beauty and fragility. The sky was a merge of pale grey and cerulean with a yellow glow just behind the skyline. Lichen and small berry plants could be felt under the powdery snow as I walked by. I thought this is perfect!
I walked to the top of the small hill, I put the cylinder down, got on my knees and opened the valve. The CO2 came out violently, freezing the air around the nozzle and producing an unpleasant whistle. When I lowered the cylinder towards the ground, the snow blow off all around me under the pressure of the air jet, almost to signify the melting of the Arctic ice shelf because of the Carbon emissions generated somewhere else.
Photo: Nathan Gallagher.
Reading this you might think I am an evil horrible woman. I would like to reassure you, I am not! I haven’t done anything bad. because I have offset the carbon emissions generated by the CO2 cylinder, through an online Gold Standard Carbon Offsetting scheme! Cool no? This is great stuff. one can go about consciously polluting the world, wasting energy, producing tonnes of waste and abusing natural resources without feeling guilty at all!! One can simply pay somebody to compensate for his/her ‘bad’ actions somewhere else, and become Carbon Neutral!
Don’t you think this is great?
Do you?
Personally I think it is appalling.
A lot has to be done before we can revert to Carbon offsetting as an effective mechanism to reduce global Carbon emissions.
Fundamental changes in societal behaviour are necessary to reduce our environmental impact, looking at the way we live, travel, eat, consume, go on holiday and warm our homes. Only after we have significantly reduced our environmental impact to the minimum possible, only then Carbon offsetting can start to be used efficiently.
With my performance I am seeking to throw a serious comment on the contemporary practice of Carbon Offsetting as a mean of green washing conscience and excusing bad behaviour. I am also seeking to provoke debate on why society is so resistant to change and how a collective behavioural shift could be achieved.
The cost of Carbon is still too low to drive change.
Change must come from within.
Francesca Galeazzi - Justifying bad behaviour. Photo: Nathan Gallagher
Francesca Galeazzi - Justifying bad behaviour. Photo: Nathan Gallagher
17 Comments
Birdie
Wow, this was refreshing and encouraging to read! I’ve been rolling over this issue in regards to touring musicians. I hope your mates can discuss. Some musicians swear they are green but go “tour” to write songs in the old fashion way and play to coffeehouses that may or may not have anyone in them or 10 people turn up for their shows etc. How big of an audience justifies all the flying, etc? Flying produces the most global warming of all - trains the least, as far as public transport goes. How much gear, how many trucks, are the bus or trucks running on biodiesel or what? and what IS the best way to go? Biodiesel bus - containers for all the cargo on trains. Design that tour route. Food? There is an international directory for Farmers Markets, have wok & propane or electric burner can travel
Bette Midler planted herself in Vegas rather than charge around the country or world with 10 trucks hauling everything except…people have to all drive/fly to vegas to see her..I’m keen on retrofitting vintage airstreams w/solar, electric incinolet toliet, windpower, and more…all hitched to biodiesel truck. Willie Nielsen has biodiesel buses AND his own biodiesel fuel company. SOME people have made REAL efforts…I think cargo containers going on trains for big tours are worthy of designing the tours around. I don’t know if Leslie’s airstream is all green but I have been researching converting them for years and they are an exciting alternative!! More dialogue within different industries along these lines will produce more results. The carbon offset thing seemed to me to be a weak attempt when working on the tour issues. I don’t agree with the let’s hit the road and write unless its really green down to the shiny silver rivets. I vote for more people getting sent to sit in more corners to put on more thinking caps and come up with really productive healthy planet ways to do things. THANK YOU for raising the issue and being there! Birdie
miss lake
This is a very challenging performance! Should I be angry at you for the release of CO2 in the name of art? Am I proud of your bravery in committing this intentional act of climate change crime? Can I justify these feelings of despair toward the obvious governmentally driven get-out clause called Off-setting? Is a feeling of hostility mixed with hope even possible? Your work is certainly thought provoking - and that is essential in these times of change. Provocative, educational and entertaining - brilliant, I look forward to more.
Birdie
Excellent response Miss Lake. It made me want to compare what she is doing to what a surgeon does. They do have to cut into people to get the thing out they need to remove or whatever and so the healing can start. So, yes an incision is made, but the end result makes it worth while.
Pie
I’m very impressed with you performing this action in front of some of the gas guzzling performers themselves. I’d love to hear some of their responses…
My dad used to always say ‘a sprat to catch a mackerel’ when it came to his jetting off and giving lectures around the world on sustainability. Is this what you are using as an excuse/reason for the emmissions generated in flying you all to Greenland and back?
I have to point you in the direction of a website which a few of my friends have set up - cheatneutral.com I’m sure you will enjoy it. Sign up!
miss lake
Birdie - nice analogy of a surgeon, and I’d like to add that it’s important to remember that even though the cuts are man-made it will ultimately be the body that heals itself. I think it’s true with most science (and art come to think of it) that with the good comes the bad as there are often risks getting to an ambitious goal. It’s this fine line between risk and reward that I believe as a race we have over-stepped. I hope that it’s not too late to reverse up and start heading in the right direction
Hwylo
This carbon offset idea reminds me of the medieval notion of “sineaters,” paying others to accept your ill deeds on earth. Of course, it seems rediculous now, but I believe moral/ethical concerns didn’t begin to seep into theological thought until later, with quite a bit of kicking and screaming to boot. In the same fashion, changes in environmental behavior will begin with individuals. Not mandated by governments, LEED certification badges, publicity imaging but by individual refusal to continue to participate in the clutter of consumer culture. Behavioral evolution is slow. Your question, how to initiate an environmental conscience within a population is difficult because it doesn’t happen quickly. The important activity seems to me to be is to ask the questions that initiate discussion and believe the conversation will begin to involve more and more people.
marcin
whouw!
psssssssssssssjstsssssssssssstjsssssss . . . !!!
okok, maybe this seems to be quite the silly comment amongst the serious ones which have raised more than one interesting issue in response to your fantastic thought provoking gesture/performance. But i am sure we’ll have many a conversation about it soon once you’re back!
BIG respect to the photo and film crew, they are doing an truly ace job at documenting the whole trip (nathan!)…
Can’t wait to see the posts of your second project…! Just don’t drift off yourself! Although we would still be able to find you back…
miss you
m
miss lake
Hwylo - thanks for the sineaters ref, very interesting. I heard that 10 Hail Mary’s can off-set a trans atlantic flight, but I’m waiting for confirmation on that…
Chris
Where is the link that tracks the entire expedition’s carbon footprint, from the moment everyone left their homes? I also expected to find some sort of statement about how it’s being “offset”. Have I missed it someplace?
ann marie
I think the action was justifiable and would be very interested to hear the debnate that followed. Carbon offsetting cannot continue to be the easy way out. Well done.
Birdie
I’d LOVE to take pictures and project them with text on the icebergs there. I am a writer/photographer/projectionist. Take a picture of a jet & project it as a 40 foot image on a berg with “Weapon of Mass Destruction” in text across it. I have a whole series of photo’s/text ideas like that. But, projecting involves…xenon bulbs and at least 4,000watt ones..and xenon produces…Ozone. Yes, it does. And, I have a pretty good feeling they could explode in the cold. Which means, haha, Carbon Arc for a light source. Carbon Arc light is produced by electric current running across two sticks of…carbon…which when touched together briefly, creates a flaming arc. A reflector then, magnifies the light from the flame and sends it through the slide or motion picture film. It creates a pure white light whereas xenon produces a light more blue in color. I have used carbon arc and xenon for over 30 years to show movies in studios and movie palaces. So, my job either has burned carbon (it puts off carbon monoxide btw) or created ozone. I would love to project huge images of trucks, planes, SUV’s on the bergs and more..with text…and do what I do, making a big point of it all. I am pretty sure I would need to bust out sticks of carbon, to light up the images. Would it be worth it. Ummm….yes, with the right…light and images and text - could feed t-shirts, a calendar, videos for youtube etc, backdrops for concerts, bumper stickers. It could make an impact. Once upon a time, we built fires in caves and did our storytelling…carbon arc and film is the same thing, just more techno than two sticks of wood to get a fire going. The carbon sticks would be shown as part of the process. They look like huge black pencils. Meanwhile, isn’t it interesting how flying all about the world on say, holiday is perfectly acceptable? I mean, isn’t that just a prime example of Eco-Vandalism? Why is that legal? Why do people think nothing of it or driving SUV’s? Hello!
I came up with bumper stickers that have a drawing of a SUV on them that say “Weapon of Mass Destruction” for all kinds of legal reasons…everyone can put them on their own cars and so the tailgating SUV’s can read them. Putting them on other peoples SUV’s - even if it is just a bumper sticker - is vandalism and comes with a fine. Driving an SUV and contributing to climate change, does not involve breaking “the law” nor a fine…other than the consequences and cost of what comes from Climate Change…which is far more serious than a silly little fine…what a strange world we live in….natural law, however, wins out. Oh, yes it does.
Birdie
Francesca
Thanks for this project of yours - it has helped me string a few things together I have been working on for a number of years, and I am going to go rummage around the site now and see if one can submit projects in order to be invited or if you simply have to be discovered and invited. I would project 35mm film, and sync up a 35mm film camera to film the projections on the bergs…so, will go think on directors, as I need at least one collaborator. It’s a 2 person job, min. Looking forward to your next project!!
Birdie
imagine film of a jet taking off - being projected on an iceberg and you get the idea of where I am headed…would that be something to see out your cabin door? How about images of people pouring out of grand central station on an iceberg…I am loving the pictures everyone is posting! The lighting there seems so interesting.
Birdie
I am going to ask Godfrey Reggio. He is the director of “Koyannisqatsi” - a film I worked with him on, in the early 80’s. “Koyannisqatsi” is the hopi indian word - meaning “life out of Balance” “A way of Life that calls for another way of living”. He is my perfect collaborator for something like this.
Together, we are masters of images. If Laurie Anderson or another musician/composer would be interested, get in touch. Philip Glass did the score for “Koyannisqatsi”. There are a number of ways this could go - but - that’s my background….and I have access to all the gear, etc.
Birdie
and, Laurie if you are reading - Leni Schwendinger - is a very old friend. She did lighting for me at The Castro Theatre (about 28 years ago), and worked with you on slide making for your shows. She would be great for an illumination project out there…
Alan Wainwright
Francesca has released 6kg of CO2. Plain daft ….. irresponsible ………. or thought-provoking?
On Tuesday evening at the Dana Centre, Francesca was able to give a little more background to her actions and she suggested again that we should put her 6kg of CO2 into context. So, back home, I took another look at the details on my monthly expenses form.
The figures thrown up by the spreadsheet are pretty horrendous! In 7 months since April, my car has travelled just under 7,000 miles – no more than an average mileage – and it has thrown out 2.24 tonnes of CO2. At 0.335 kg CO2/mile, I would have to travel less than 18 miles to create Francesca’s ‘appalling’ cylinder full of CO2. Francesca’s figure of 30 miles for her 6kg of CO2 seems, if anything, optimistic. I should add that my car is a common (but ageing) family model – by no means a SUV.
The Earth’s atmosphere is only a very thin layer (generally accepted as about 60-70 miles) relative to the planet’s dimensions; how can we possibly imagine that it can accept our ever-increasing production of CO2 without consequences?
Pie
I like the title of your blog Francesca. Perhaps you could justify the bad behaviour you and all your fellow creatives took in flying out and back to Greenland?
It doesn’t seem to balance well in my head, I need some help in justifying the amount of greenhouse emmissions you all released in your flight rather than your ‘tiny in comparison’ gas cylynder. You feel bad about releasing this amount - but you don’t feel bad about the amount released from the aeroplanes? Please relieve me of my confusion…