squandered opportunity

The World Climate Conference held in Geneva in February of 1979 accrued the collective will of some fifty nations and the public and scientific consensus that climate change was a real and imminent threat to the survival of human kind and for the next decade, it seemed that we were on the cusp of effecting real and permanent change and the that the course towards global catastrophe was not inevitable.
During this decisive time, however, a group of determined scientists failed to convince and influence the requisite governmental participation and policy—which yielded to business interests and unchecked capitalism.  The New York Times presents a truly compelling, long-format, multi-media essay comprised of interviews and anecdotes that helps one to appreciate how close science came to saving the environment and ourselves from what we can now only to defer as long-term disaster and negotiating what we’re willing to sacrifice since we’ve pivoted past any better outcomes. This narrative on the wilful abrogation of leadership is not to exhaust nor to resign the rest of us to our impending doom but rather demonstrate that the future will not look like the past and that we are all stingy with our imagination and rallies us all to be aware of the consequences of our choices.  The warnings are not new.  Though we may be on course for disaster and have remained at the same bearing, we are not beyond redemption.

double exposure

Via Everlasting Blört, we are introduced to the portfolio of the pioneering and intrepid Margaret Bourke-White (*1904 – †1971), LIFE magazine’s first female staff photographer and the first accredited female photojournalist, covering World War II and its aftermath, including the liberation of concentration camps—prompting her to pen an autobiography (one of several) as a way to reconcile the horrors that she had witnessed.
First recognised for her architectural and industrial photography at a time when people seriously doubted that a woman had the constitution to enter a steel mill to take pictures much less work in one, Bouke-White became the only foreign reporter invited to document Josef Stalin’s implementation of his first five-year plan (1928 – 1932). Bouke-White was equally renowned for the calibre of her coverage of the partition of India and Pakistan, producing some memorable and iconic images that brought this conflict to the rest of the world. Friend and colleague Alfred Eisenstaedt credited Bouke-White’s success not merely to her uncanny knack to being in the right place at the right time (a talent to be sure) but to her belief that no photograph was unimportant. Incredibly, Bouke-White went on to establish the first photo laboratory at the magazine, which had previously outsourced its work.

anthropocene

Via Nag on the Lake, we are invited to ruminate over the indelible mark that humans are leaving on the planet through insatiable greed and a feeling of entitlement to exploit Nature, which will result in a future world inimical and inhospitable to human life through anthropogenic climate change and destruction of vital ecosystems. This is not something that we can look away from and pretend is not happening.  Learn more about the filmmakers and their trilogy of documentaries here.

pew pew

Tedium gives us an interesting overview on sound design and the history of foley artists (the distinction being that foley effects concerns themselves with dramatizing human and natural sounds, like footfalls or a yapping dog, whereas sound designers are tasked with imagining how a laser blast ought to sound) and acquaints us the award-winning individual behind many of the iconic science-fiction and fantasy sound effects that are not only instantly recognisable but often serve to place one at a precise point in the narrative. Ben Burtt created the hums of lightsabres, Darth Vader’s respirator sounds, the satisfying, solid sound of Indiana Jones throwing and sustaining a punch as well as the crack of his bullwhip plus many others. Find out more at the link above.

talent pool

As part of a larger discussion on the pace of technological advancement, Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen introduces us to the Grand Ise Shirine complex in the Mie prefecture of Japan and how process and institutional knowledge play a big role in progress.

The architectural style dates back to antiquity and can be referenced in no other structures—this site being holy to the sun goddess Amaterasu, housing the Imperial artefact the Sacred Mirror—and is characterised by gabled and thatched roofs with plank walls. To ensure that the buildings are forever both new and ancient and that succeeding generations know the craft and technique of construction, for at least the past twelve hundred years, the old shrines and the wooden bridge that spans the Isuzu River (namesake of the automotive company) have been dismantled and rebuilt on a site adjacent to exact specifications every twenty years. The cycle of renewal is called Sengu, and the present buildings (originals in their sixty-first iteration) date from 2013.