“City planning has been way too pragmatic for a long time.” So says Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, who creates artistic environments that break down the industrial expanse of cities with faux-natural elements, hot sun, waterfalls, rivers, and take over the senses of their spectators.
Recent Posts
Frederick Douglass on the 4th of July: Injustice and Cruelty
Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and became one of the most powerful and eloquent orators of the abolitionist movement. Listen to his 1852 Independence Day talk, organized by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society and performed by James Earl Jones.
BOOM: Crude Oil Bomb Trains Exploding in North America
A documentary investigates the threat from volatile and toxic crude oil bomb trains now rolling through neighborhoods across North America. After five fiery accidents in the first five months of 2015, one can only ask: “Whose community will explode next?”
Los Angeles: Stop Oil Trains Day of Action – July 11
The time for action against oil trains is now! On Saturday, July 11, SoCal 350 Climate Action and its regional partners rallied at L.A.’s Union Station and held a teach-in in front of Olvera Street, calling for an end to bringing exploding bomb trains loaded with tar sands and other volatile crude oils into our communities.
Jack Eidt on the Nicaraguan Canal and Trans-Amazonian Railway
Jack Eidt of WilderUtopia spoke on the dangerous race for global control by the Chinese through mega-development projects such as the Gran Canal of Nicaragua and the Trans-Amazonian Railway, both with major human rights, ecological, and indigenous sovereignty consequences.
Geo-Fauvism: Waking to the Wild Earth Through Visual Art
This is the first post in a series where I present the case for Geo-Fauvism, a growing movement of wild earth inspiration in art, literature, music and design. Taking off from the early 20th Century French art “Fauvists” or “Wild Beasts,” these cross-disciplinary creations respond to and react against the collapse of global environmental systems, the destruction of indigenous earth-based societies, and a narrowing of cultural opportunities in the mainstream corporatized media. Geo-Fauvists create to reconnect with the wild and heal humanity’s rift with the landscape, building a new community based on integration with the ecosystem.
Santa Barbara Oil Spill Spreading: Big Oil Plans for More Tar Sands
The most recent oil spill on the Santa Barbara coast that has decimated wildlife and soiled California beaches with tar over a 350-mile area has been an unmitigated disaster. It illustrates weaknesses in basic safety measures for pipelines and crude by rail, as well as risks associated with industry plans to expand tar sands and other extreme drilling infrastructure on the West Coast.