Originally when depicting the Circle Line in a visual composition, I decided to focus on the Albatross Birds. This time I wanted to create a whole new type of composition to correlate to the powers of 10. Click here for previous post.
My inspiration for this peace was The Global Citizen Festival. I think this event is interesting because it is non-profit and is able to gather almost 70,000 people each year to promote awareness to causes such as education, poverty, and even water conservation. An important visual piece such as concert posters are often times used to promote events such as this.
Through Photoshop and Illustrator I decided to create a concert poster inspired piece for the Circle Line.
The Powers of 10 laid throughout the piece very subtly so the composition would not be too over whelming.
The First power of 10 would be 10^1 where it zooms out to the coast line of the Gowanus Canal. I placed that image behind the logo. Originally the image was a photograph of the shore where garbage was collected onto the rocks. To stylized the piece I turned the photo into a polygraph composition
Here is the original photo:
The Next Power of Ten is 10^7 where you are able to see the earth. Here I wanted to display a map of the world and its surrounding water. I also created a swirl pattern in the poster to depict where the main gyres are located.
Third we start to zoom back in again to 10^0.2 where the background of the poster is the water of the Gowns canal and in it you can see floating images of plastic bags and water bottles.
Around 10^-2 is the size of water droplet which is the shape I am holding in my hands.
The last power I included was around 10^-4 which is all the bacteria and amoeba that can be found in water due to pollution from plastics and other non decomposable resources that can be found in our water ways.
For this project, one of our biggest challenges (aside from actually cooking) was converting our food’s virtual water. We went through many resources online, but only found pdfs on the view of virtual water. However, flipping through “The Green Blue Book” we were able to gather some facts. We did miss a few items on the list though.
Another issue this project faced was calculating the water consumption during transportation. It was hard to find items such as limes and salt because they can no longer be made at all in the US. Limes are no longer made in the US and prices have increased a lot because they are grown in Mexico. It is becoming difficult to grow limes in Mexico though due to weather, disease, and crime.
Here are all the data collected:
A majority of the items was purchased from the Farmer’s Market and a few other’s from Trader Joe’s. A lot of the prices fluctuated between which market priced their goods higher. Although, we chose the Farmer’s Market as a healthier and greener solution for buying produce than Trader Joe’s. At the Farmer’s Market, many of the foods look as if they were just pulled straight from the ground and delivered. Other grocery stores have some of the fruits cut already and baggage. Because of this, we were left to assume that the food tended to be put through a bigger production system than the food that goes into the farmer’s market.
“Ratio of water to rice. This is the area where most people have trouble cooking rice. Most rice is perfectly cooked when the final moisture content is between 58% and 64% moisture. At lower moisture contents, the rice is firmer. The final moisture content is a matter of preference and preference can differ with the type of rice and final cooked application. The math is very simple; 100 grams of rice with a starting moisture content of 12% needs 110 grams of water to be fully cooked at 58% moisture. 100 grams of rice with a starting moisture of 12% needs 145 grams of water to be fully cooked at 64% moisture. One cup of rice weighs about 205 grams. The same cup of water weights about 240 grams. If no water is lost in the cooking process, one cup of water is enough to cook one cup of rice, and yet most recipes call for two cups of water to one cup of rice.
It all comes down to how much water is lost in the cooking process.
The reason for rice being chosen for this project was that the water consumption and ratio differs for every person’s preference on how they want to cool the rice.
Exfoliating beads made from plastics in toothpastes or body washes get into the waterway and don’t dissolve once spit out or washed off
Solution: Micro net that captures .3 millimeters
Made of aluminum
Catches toothpaste beads, plastic bags, styrofoam
Beware of toothpastes with polyethylene
Plastic have been with us since World War II
The discovery of bad plastics is very young
Gyre – 5 main gyre in oceans
Ocean currents bring together all of the trash
High tech device allowed to determine how much plastic was in water finally developed
Troll
Approximately 5.2 trillion particles of plastic was found
Ideas on ideas to sift plastic is becoming difficult
Need to deviate around the idea of disposable items
Newton creek is the backyard of making the city possible
What happens to your body happens to the earth
The earth is breaking down at the same time your body is
Look at the smallest plastic sources
Landfill
Can see plastics in water
Albatross birds being killed by plastics in their bellies
Clean Water Acts/ Super Fund
The CWA is a federal law that was put in place by the United States in order to govern water pollution. It is a basic structure to regulate pollutants in the water and the quality standards for the surface waters. It also sets wastewater standards. It is now illegal to discharge pollution to navigable waters unless a permit was obtained.
The Super Fund is a government run fund to clean up the nations hazardous waste sites.
Source: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/
On a scale I would put both of these examples on the 10^5-10^7 scale. Both are held on a national basis. Meaning they aim to clean up the United states. However, if we scale back farther we can see that this would benefit not only our nation, but the surrounding nations and the planet as a whole.
In an illustration I would place side by side a comparison of what would the legislation aims for versus what might happen without these acts to environment. I would want to show a full range of possibilities of what is to come on a global scale.
I would also want to illustrate the issue on a small such as the Albatross birds. One event can end up becoming so impactful that people end up recognizing it as an issue and feel evoked to promote awareness for the problem. However, the scale has to be at the same size as them or else people wound up confused and distracted from the original problem. The scale needs to be relatable to them.
What does it mean for polluters like Exxon when you go online and discover that Newton Creek and Gowanus are Super Fund sites?
I don’t think it is that surprising that these sites might promote the Super Fund websites. Newton Creek and Gowanus directly deal with receiving the waste we create and they directly attack the issue of water pollution and wastefulness by attacking back as the source that caused the problem. These areas are threatened by these types of companies since they have already been made into a dump. In order to at least prevent from any more waste from coming through they defend themselves against polluters by teaming up with government run organizations such as Super Fund.
A diagram of this kind illustrates one of the issues you recorded, but could cover two or more scales– (1)10 ^ 7illustrating the federal Act and Super Fund,(2)10 ^ 0how the water looked at the surface with industry at the shore ( a picture you captured), and (3)10 – 2for worms and fish that may have mutated from the effects of industrial pollution,(4)10 – 5for # of recorded cancer occurrences of people who live near Newtown creek and(5)10 – 8for how the NYC Billion Oyster Project on Governor’s Island is helping to clean our waterways at a cellular/molecular level to reduce viruses that kill the health of our water’s ecology. So with one large illustration you would have five scales represented – two items captured/ heard on the trip and three items that come from additional research on the topic your heard about briefly on the trip.
As stated before, I chose to illustrate the problem with the Albatross birds. This type of bird is threatened faster than any other types of birds with 17 out of 22 species of albatross being globally threatened for extinction. In order to portray this issue, I sketched it out on five different scales. They are killed in such vast amounts that they can’t breed enough in time.
The albatrosses used fly across the world ocean’s 50 million years ago. Now they are known to be located in all of the world’s oceans except for the North Atlantic. Although they are seen to typically populate the Southern Hemisphere.
10^7 – illustrating a scroll that represents both the CWA and the Super Fund
10^5 and 10^8 – The first part of the drawing shows animal rescue trying to save the endangered birds from their dying natural habitat. The second part is the logo for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds which is an organization that serves to try and preserve these birds. This is to prove with the help of many individuals, the birds have a potential at flourishing once again.
10^0 – Both the Act and the Fund point towards a scene we saw on the boat ride. This is a sketch of when the boat explored the landfill at Newton Creek. At the shoreline there were plastic bags scattered on the rocks and other waste floating in the water. I wanted to display that the Act and Fund were made to regulate these forms of waste and prevent this from further occurring.
10^-2 – This next scale also shows something the Act and Fund were made to prevent. I wanted to depict how the polluted water affected the Albatross birds by drawing one bird with it’s stomach filled with the plastics it eats.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups long-grain rice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 to 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Juice of 3 limes and zest of 2 limes (hold back juice of 1 lime for garnish)
Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
Directions
Watch how to make this recipe.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the rice and salt. Cook over a low heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly to make sure the rice doesn’t burn. Add 2 cups of the broth and the juice and zest of 2 limes and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the rice is done. Add more liquid as needed. The rice shouldn’t be sticky.
Just before serving, stir through the juice of 1 lime and lots of chopped cilantro.
2012 Ree Drummond, All Rights Reserved
Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/garlic-cilantro-lime-rice-recipe.html?oc=linkback
Why is water such a big issue? We have systems like the one described above to help replenish our clean water source, right? There is so much of it, yet a lot of it is not really usable for drinking or sanitation purposes. Water is a pretty replenish able resource, but we don’t really think about what happens to the water we use after it comes out of the faucet and down the drain.
Even with these systems, there are still 2.5 billion people in the world who still practice open defecation. This allows human waste which carries deadly bacteria, parasites, and micro organisms to make their way into our water sources.
Nearly 1 billion people are not able to reach clean drinking water, 90% out of 30,000 deaths that occur each week are due to unsanitary drinking water. But the problems don’t just stop there. The water crisis can end up leading to problems with education, health, poverty, and women/children.
There is always room for improvement, and the water crisis is not an end of the world case. The problem is solvable. There are solutions such as rainwater catchments, spring protections, latrines and more. The impact can be tremendous.
We are not the only people as citizens or individuals who can make an impact on the water system. The UN passed a resolution to recognize water and sanitation as “essential to human rights”. They called upon hundreds of nations and international companies to provide the necessary money, tools, and capacity to build to give clean and affordable drinking water. They believe that clean water is needed to push forward ecosystems, businesses, communities, agriculture, and commerce.
The UNGC works with 8368 companies, 161 countries, and 32,919 public reports. It is a comprehensive guidance for companies to teach them about how they can respect the human rights to water and sanitation. Their goal is to “create sustainable and inclusive global economy that delivers lasting benefits to people, communities, and markets.” In order to help guide them, the organization comes up with a business plan that aligns its strategies with the ten principles of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.
Their view on companies is that businesses and industry associations can have a significant influence on corporate sustainability. They would also be established throughout the world and gaining a deep understanding for specific industry trends and needs.
Companies around the world, no matter the size, consult associations for advice on critical issues related to sustainable development and corporate citizenship. These associations are motivated to help these companies with the incentive to improve their own reputation and competition. The associations are also able to get very specific and narrow in on issues specific to certain industries. Businesses and associations also then publicly engage with consumers to spread awareness on how associations can help change and promote sustainability.
On their website, the UNGC maps out a Water Stewardship Maturity Progression to help assess where you are on your water management journey with the help of a progressive path.
There are many other organizations that are now also partnering up with companies to improve sustainability and our water and sanitation systems such as wateractionhub.org which enlists 365 organizations, 197 projects, and 383 project locations.
Sustainablewash.org easily compacted their method into three steps: Actively promote WASH sustainable charter, complete sustainability self-assessment tool, and conduct third-party assessment to decide organization’s adherence.
Even with the progress made so far there are still a lot of questions being asked like “if corps could save the world with all the money they already have, why not just do it?” But I think this is too much of a generalized statement and ignores all the other efforts that needs to go to change and make things more sustainable
Another question that comes up; “is desalination to water shortages?”
This is the process of turning the salty ocean water to clean usable water. It sounds like a good idea since about 96% of our water on the planet is actually made up of the ocean and many areas of the planet facing serious droughts.
However, these processes (reverse osmosis and distillation) takes up a lot of resources and requires a lot of energy, time, and money. It can also end up harming or killing our ocean life. It is a lot more expensive than just turning to our freshwater resources, but there are still companies trying to find their way around this issue. There are corporations looking to help sustain our environment. Forbes publishes the top sustainable companies.
