Background
Today, a shocking 10% of the world’s richest produce half of the world’s CO2 emissions, while the poorest 50% only produce 10%. This is due to the fact of how our economy works, the richest make more money, and therefore spend more money and engage in consumerism. They drive fast and expensive cars, emitting tons of CO2, while the poor take public transportation or walk. And more importantly, they travel the world in airplanes, sometimes even private jets.
But how is this social gap justified, what excuses rich people from saving the environment?
In Germany, where I am from, the little island of Sylt, in the North Sea, is the vacation spot of the “rich” Germans. Often times, it is referred to as the German Hamptons, or the German St Tropez, due to the consumer behavior of the people traveling there. Especially during “Pfingsten” (a German holiday in May) the whole island is packed with sports cars, expensive watches, designer handbags, and bodies and faces that are a result of plastic surgery. On this weekend, everyone that is someone, or more likely wants to be someone, meets in Kampen, a little town in Sylt, pretending they just want to party, while it is actually all about showing off and being seen.
In order to be seen, and to stand out in the masses of money, everyone tries to do a little more than the other, resulting in countless sports cars racing around the little town, where the longest distance is a 5 minute walk. Most islands in the North Sea are car free, which makes total sense when you look at the size of the island. Everything is easily accessible by foot or by bike. However, Sylt does not have this law, leading to this show off, that I have previously described. Personally, the thought of driving around in a fast car, that burns more CO2 than necessary, just to make people think you are someone is disgusting and sad, and I feel bad for the people, that money is the only thing they think they can distinguish and define themselves with.
Kampen has the highest price per square meter of residential space in Germany, but it almost seems like none of these people made their money using intelligence.
Other than driving cars around the block, trying to go as fast as possible so that the engine is nice and loud and even more CO2 is emitted, people’s behavior in other aspects is just as unsustainable. People don’t drink and eat local products, they have tropical fruit imported from the other side of the world, Caviar from Russia and champagne from France. They arrive on the island by plane, sometimes a scheduled flight, sometimes by private jet, while they could have easily taken a three hour train ride. They consciously choose to harm the environment, just in case someone sees them getting out of a plane.
What most people don’t know, however, and what is the biggest problem, is that Sylt is facing a serious environmental crisis, caused by global warming, and therefore caused by the people’s CO2 emissions. While the people are enjoying themselves, not thinking about the consequences their behavior might have, Sylt is slowly disappearing.
When the sea level rose 8000 years ago, a strong current along the island’s steep basement formed, eroding the sandy core. During the process, sediments were accumulated north and south of the island. The west coast, which was originally situated 10 km off today’s shore, was thus gradually moved eastward, while at the same time the island began to extend to the north and south. This leads to a constant loss of land and a shifting of the island. Records of the annual land loss exist since 1870. According to them, Sylt lost an annual 0.4 m of land in the north and 0.7 m in the south from 1870 to 1951. From 1951 to 1984, the rate increased to 0.9 and 1.4 m respectively, whith shorelines at the island’s very edges being more affected. This shows what effect our increasing CO2 emissions have had on the island.
dotted blue line = island around 1648, blue line = island today, yellow = sand
For decades now, environmentalist have tried coming up with a solution to save Sylt, but have failed with all methods tried except for one: sang flushing. Since the early 1970s, a mixture of sand and water from the deep sea has been flushed onto the shore using dredging vessels. This substance is then spread by bulldozers. Because of this, Sylt has been saved in many storm flooding, as only the artificial sand was washed away, and the actual core of the island stayed more or less intact.
Since 1972, more than 35.5 million cubic meters of sand have been flushed onto the beach, costing around 5 million euros per year! Considering the annual income of people traveling to Sylt, you would assume that it is these people that pay for the sand flushing, since they are in a way also the reason the island is even disappearing. But this is not the case, it is the government together with an NGO funded by voluntary donations that pays for this. Every year though, they struggle to find enough funds to pay the whole sand flushing, while more and more sand is needed, due to the increasing effects of global warming.
Instead of spending their money on saving the island, the rich decide to waste it on bottles of champagne that are then not even drunken, but just sprayed around with. I think that this is largely due to a lack of awareness within this group of people, as they don’t know the struggle and crisis that Sylt has to overcome, and are ignorant to how they actually are one of the reasons these changes are taking place. With my project, I want to try and educate these people, raising awareness for the consequences their behavior has on the island.
Growing up on this island, this behavior and especially this ignorance disgusts me. These people come here once a year, destroy the island, but don’t take care of what they have done. Instead, they leave it in the hands of the people actually living there, who don’t have close to the means the tourists have, to fund the saving of the island.
Sand Flushing since 1972
Art/Activism
As I already mentioned, every year there is the “Pfingst” weekend, where the island is more crowded than any other day of the year. The big party that everyone is always talking about is in a restaurant right at the beach, in a spot that would have been long gone if it wasn’t for the yearly sand flushing. In this party only, the money that is spent on just drinks, could fund a quarter of the annual sand flushing. If you count in the value of all of the watches, designer clothes and sports car, the island could easily be saved. However, as I already mentioned, there is a huge lack of awareness within this group of people. With my design activism project, I would like to change this and try to convince these people that it is in their hands to save the island, and to make sure it is sustained for more years of partying. It is time for them to pay for their actions and for the consequences their actions have had. Because if not, the restaurant, for example, will be very likely to be gone by 2050.
Stumhaube: the party hotsopt
In order to reach out to these people, there are two means of conversation that I will make use of. First of all, there is an exclusive Facebook group with more than 10 000 members that are all planning this weekend. Posting a source of information there will cause every single one of these people to get a notification on Facebook, and will therefore lead to a large audience. Furthermore, there are only two ways to arrive on the island: Either by plane, or by a car train, that transports people in their cars from the main land onto the island. Everyone that takes the car train gets a canvas bag with a newspaper and some flyers once they drive onto the train. I have contacted the people that organize and put together these bags and they have allowed me to submit either a flyer or an info graph to them, which they will then put into every one of these bags over the weekend. Furthermore, I will try to either distribute flyers, or post posters at the baggage claim at the airport, so that I can also reach people arriving by plane.
As for the media of the design project, I am not yet sure if I will make a flyer or a poster, or maybe both. What I do know, however, is that I want to digitally draw an info graph that portrays the effect that they have on the island. In order to show this, I am thinking about comparing the amount of sportscars driving around to the rate at which the island is disappearing. I don’t want to have a lot of text, as I feel like most of these people are too ignorant too even read it. I would rather have an image that is understandable at first glance, so an image that is rather simple, but still memorable.
My goal for this project is to raise awareness, and to make people consider the environment a little more. If only one person decides to walk instead of driving, only one person decides to donate the money, instead of pooping the 100th bottle of alcohol, I would consider my project successful. Even though it is always better to effect as many people as possible, a little change is better than no change. I know it will be very hard to really impact these people, because I have spent many of these weekend with them and have seen how ignorant and selfish they are.
Timeline
April 22: Project Brief due
April 23-April29: Layout and ideas, come up with a final design that then only has to be digitally created and finalized, try to get permission to put up posters at the airport
May 4th: Finish the design and post it on Facebook, so that I will have responses to it by Friday
May 5th: Print the design, so that it is ready to exhibit in class on Friday, May 6th
May 7th: Send the project to the German printer at the car train, so that they have everything ready to distribute the weekend after. Unfortunately, this will be after our project is due, so I won’t be able to use the feedback I get there. However, I still thing it is a great chance to raise awareness and to spread the word, so I would not want to miss the chance. Maybe: have posters printed and find a friend to put them up around the airport.
