tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69069849054830425802024-03-13T23:41:30.687-04:00Soapbox Henryhfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02294254040482897668noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-34443295354932773252017-08-31T06:24:00.000-04:002017-08-31T06:24:56.008-04:00The Hardness of Steel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Steel</b> is a mystery. Essential to our psyche and civilization, it is perhaps our most useful invention, as well as the <b>third largest industrial cause of climate change</b>. Its myriad properties which enable that usefulness are due to its endless formulations, which have evolved with us.<br />
<b>Molybdenum</b> is one of the minerals which give steel its hardness, but the quantities used are so small that the demand is limited, causing an oscillating demand, which has prompted the mining industry to mine it only periodically.<br />
One such mine in my list of interests, is on <b>Copper Mountain</b>, southwest of Denver. <br />
Also on my list to shoot are two power plants that are among the <b>100 largest CO2</b> and mercury emitters in the USA. This group of attractions, in combination with an exhibit in Denver and lecture invitation, suggested a photo flight.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-joyEinLXtz8/WZiCuQ6_BaI/AAAAAAAAACI/ptTp0jEfegIPzMrwgoBAsxKds0m2ucIPACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-joyEinLXtz8/WZiCuQ6_BaI/AAAAAAAAACI/ptTp0jEfegIPzMrwgoBAsxKds0m2ucIPACK4BGAYYCw/s200/Fair_jHenry_4391-623.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.lighthawk.org/" target="_blank">Lighthawk</a> is a group of pilots that fly for the environment, and are frequent partners in my work. Their pilot <b>Stephanie Wells</b> agreed to the mission, and I laid out a flight plan, which Stephanie modified with her local knowledge and experience of high altitude flying, an exacting experience set combing science, local knowledge, skill, aerodynamics, and the knowledge of her aircraft. The steel would have to wait.<br />
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We agreed to go west to the power plant at Craig, CO, the <b>51th largest CO2 emitter in the USA</b>, which is also near several coal mines, one deep below ground, the other on the surface.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TbjEqPJe3Vk/WZiDek72bEI/AAAAAAAAACY/B5OJiPMog3YHt-LUWceYUKR9_jMeDSZNgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TbjEqPJe3Vk/WZiDek72bEI/AAAAAAAAACY/B5OJiPMog3YHt-LUWceYUKR9_jMeDSZNgCK4BGAYYCw/s320/Fair_jHenry_4391-092.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Trees affected by bark beetle in Colorado Rockies</b></td></tr>
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Much of the success of these projects comes from <b>predicting and praying</b> for the right weather, and we had luck on our appointed day. For a coast native that studies those regions, the mountains held a novel fascination- what Stephanie saw as normal was unique and beautiful to me as we crossed the “Front Range” as the mountains closest to Denver are called.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g5UeHQd7H6s/WZiEGQy6PvI/AAAAAAAAACk/K9paWkXeNOsYZDrGzpWC6vaeqDPCkP4IQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g5UeHQd7H6s/WZiEGQy6PvI/AAAAAAAAACk/K9paWkXeNOsYZDrGzpWC6vaeqDPCkP4IQCK4BGAYYCw/s200/Fair_jHenry_4391-118.jpg" width="133" /></a><br />
The first environmentally interesting site, a <b>deep coal mine</b>, had not been on my plan, but with an abiding curiosity to see these things and how they work, we circled, before moving on the the power plant at Craig. So as not to seem like a <b>sinister character</b>, cautious pilots limit the number of circles they will make around a power plant. We agreed to pan around it once, circle the nearby mine, and pass by again on the way back to the nearby airfield for fuel, (Stephanie had flown with a minimum for the mountain crossing) and then pass the plant again on our way to the open-pit mine. Power plants are often rather ugly affairs, and this one is no exception, being all stacks, boilers, and turbines enclosed in a utilitarian building.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_KtVDTp7EQE/WZiEigvGApI/AAAAAAAAACs/IS_--S-LPJErFy6yp2Vpv-Hfs8DdGUppgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_KtVDTp7EQE/WZiEigvGApI/AAAAAAAAACs/IS_--S-LPJErFy6yp2Vpv-Hfs8DdGUppgCK4BGAYYCw/s400/Fair_jHenry_4391-232.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Coal-fired power plant. 51th largest CO2 emitter in the USA</b></td></tr>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n0gGB7KUWAk/WZiFX9jVTEI/AAAAAAAAAC4/NqPVNnlHhTcGesdLobiSvQEkr14rf5hyACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n0gGB7KUWAk/WZiFX9jVTEI/AAAAAAAAAC4/NqPVNnlHhTcGesdLobiSvQEkr14rf5hyACK4BGAYYCw/s320/Fair_jHenry_4391-292.jpg" width="213" /></a><br />
<b>Open-pit mines</b> use drill rigs to make holes which are “charged” with <b>ammonium nitrate</b> to blast away the dirt (overburden) covering the object of the mine (in this case coal). The overburden is scooped and dumped to the side by a giant walking <b>“dragline”</b>. <br />
After one pass around the mine, Stephanie expressed nervousness about our fuel level, so we went back to tank up from a charismatic old Coloradan gentleman at the tiny air strip (sadly, I left the cameras in the plane). As we took off again, a giant cloud filled the distant sky, and we reasoned it was a blast at the mine, probably executed after everyone left for lunch, due to the danger of flying rock. Still, it was a sight I was disappointed to miss.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ipzz9vPbsY4/WZiGZbHOb5I/AAAAAAAAADE/qsQv2g8rRXEhOyWkG2veu91gzmU-B6oQQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ipzz9vPbsY4/WZiGZbHOb5I/AAAAAAAAADE/qsQv2g8rRXEhOyWkG2veu91gzmU-B6oQQCK4BGAYYCw/s400/Fair_jHenry_4391-578.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Compressor trucks, well-heads and chemical tanks at fracking site</b></td></tr>
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<b>Hydro-fracking</b> has been a controversial gas extraction technique around the world, and Colorado is no exception. Between the close proximity to houses and schools, and the <b>regional scarcity of water</b>, a resource mightily depleted by this process, local people were organizing in opposition to the industry near their homes, and I was asked to get the bird’s eye view. So we came down from the mountains and out to the plains around Boulder to find the sites, and they proved to be a textbook series of illustrative examples of the process. <b>Hydro-fracking is also a rather ugly business</b>, visually as well as its side-effects. A giant drill makes a deep and meandering hole, then leaves to make room for a group of large, powerful compressors which pump that bore full of water and chemicals at excruciating pressure, endeavoring to fracture the gas-bearing layer of rock below.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U_urdmdx1zU/WZiGyA7qIcI/AAAAAAAAADM/6pzUfiHqMtgtoJm14-x2Vwv8Ra4hEwXMgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Fair_jHenry_4391-512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U_urdmdx1zU/WZiGyA7qIcI/AAAAAAAAADM/6pzUfiHqMtgtoJm14-x2Vwv8Ra4hEwXMgCK4BGAYYCw/s400/Fair_jHenry_4391-512.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Factory farm for cattle</b></td></tr>
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I have many topics of abiding interest, and never know when opportunity might arise to further those stories, and I was quite pleased to see large factory farms of beef cattle just on the other side of the fracking sites. <b>Beef is the most climate-change intensive of foods</b>– and, <b>one hamburger requires upwards of 8,000 gallons of water to produce,</b> this in a water-challenged region.<b><br /></b><br />
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The day really seems a smashing success, even if we did not make it to see the steel, and both pilot and artist were glad to get back on the ground and run to the head.hfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02294254040482897668noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-41330300627988052402015-08-11T18:09:00.000-04:002015-08-11T18:36:12.810-04:00The Hidden CostsMuch contemporary art is so esoteric as to leave the incognoscenti out in the cold. Much of what is au courant in the world of “art” photography currently is far less remarkable than the story behind the picture - which is often the story of the artist’s travails.<br />
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This narcissist tendency is perhaps natural in a time when real issues are so murky and insoluble, but the classical concept of art being about the world seems suddenly relevant and necessary. Art should move people, not just be a cascade of insider references. The development of the techniques of manipulating emotions comprises most of the history of art, till the time “art” became precisely the rejection of such techniques.<br />
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My work is about creating a sense of irony by utilizing these techniques to make compelling images that have layers of meaning based on contemporary issues.<br />
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But narratives are what we crave, the balm for awareness, the explanation of the unknown. As a story-teller, one wants to relate those stories, and this current exhibit at the UmweltBundesAmt (The German Environmental Agency) is just that. For the first time, we assemble maps and satellite views, detailed explanations of the pictures in German and English, and a set of graphic icons that represent the various impacts of the processes.<br />
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Assembling all of the components, an old desire, has been several years in the making. The exhibit was born at Natur Museum Südtirol in Bolzano, Italy, but the creation of this extensive appendix was beyond time or budget.<br />
Ideally, the appendix would be web-based, so viewers could browse at any time. One even imagines using QR codes with each image to link directly as the viewer is experiencing the picture. But ushering smart devices into an exhibit is a gift from Pandora, and it’s nice to make it physical, and to separate information from image so viewers must first contemplate. Also nice is to credit the many people who make an exhibit happen, especially one so complex, from pilots to curators and translators.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">View of "The Hidden Costs" exhibition at <a href="http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/the-hidden-costs" target="_blank">Umweltbundesamt</a></span></div>
JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-53120128370393675492015-06-18T11:29:00.000-04:002015-06-18T11:29:26.023-04:00Heroes<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
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--</style><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">One has many heroes throughout life which seem to
increase in complexity with our edge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">My heroes now are those that risk life and comfort in
the service of others. And since the environment is my life mission, my heroes
tend to be those that have worked in that realm. The Russian photographer that
knowingly sacrificed himself to document Chernobyl, Anatoly Rasskazov, Edward
Snowden, who gave up a comfortable life to expose a grave wrong by his country,
Bradley Manning who exposed an even greater wrong, and suffered even more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">In my work as an artist, working on the environment I
have been lucky enough to photograph many of my personal heroes, and will
launch a tribute to them with a series of social media posts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most of them have guided me on missions in the flesh or
direction, and all of them have clarified my understanding with their knowledge
and experience. In the interminable battle to save our life support systems
from parties that would profit by disrupting them, these individuals stand very
large. #HeroOfTheDay</span><br />
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Larry Gibson, mountain top removal activist</div>
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Larry's death a few years back is still being felt throughout the MTR activist community and beyond. He was a leader in the movement to end MTR and a good friend. He is deeply missed.</div>
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JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-31986535335174175902015-06-04T13:37:00.001-04:002015-06-04T13:37:22.915-04:00SpuiBeing from a big city, and traveling to others, creates a set of behaviors and cautions that usually come from a few painful experiences. It also creates a self-confidence, which enables the smooth transition from one chaotic city to the next. And we adjust our behavior in relation to the perceived inherent danger level of the locale. A deep phone conversation at the end of a busy day in Amsterdam, a city in which I feel quite at home, paused me on a bench in a lovely park, where I placed my backpack next to me. In the space of seconds, I sensed it simply disappear. Panicked, phone in the pocket, I turned to the three men sitting at the next bench and asked if they had seen someone take my bag.<br />
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In spite of the lack of a visible perpetrator, I raced breathlessly down the street they indicated, and asked a waiter on the sidewalk who had not seen someone running away with a blue/orange backpack. I raced back to the scene of the crime, queried the witnesses again, and, becoming suspicious at their vague responses and their rather suspicious demeanor, offered them 500Eur to get my backpack returned; to which one of the men responded that if I gave him the 500, he would call the perp. <br />
All the while, my brain was reviewing the incident, and marveling at the speed and quiet with which it transpired, and settling on the fact that there were no running feet. Suddenly it was clear, my bag was still there and a cursory search of the environs turned it up under a pile of bicycles. My antagonist promptly changed his tune, assuring me that he had been watching my back, and that I should reward him. My declaration that he was lucky I was not looking for the police met with a meager attempt to look and sound menacing. Needless to say, my relief at finding laptop, passport, money, and whatever else therein which loss would be catastrophic, and desire to continue my evening trumped my drive for a justice I knew could never be obtained, and waving him away like so many pests in the city, I continued on my way.<br />
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Amsterdam is a place where the social contract somehow, miraculously, seems to work. Somehow many different with their distinct histories and motivations go about their business in relative harmony. <br />
These men that tried to take my bag were black. As someone coming from the USA, where the policemen look like robocops, and to be a man of color means a certainty of harassment in life, this smooth functioning of society seems unusual. When two clean-cut Dutch policemen rode by me some time later, I stopped them, related the incident, and directed them toward the perpetrators. In the USA, I probably would not have, from a combination of my own bad experiences with police, concern for police mistreatment of minorities, and a sense of futility about the efficacy of action.<br />
Conversely, in a place where the “social contract” is working, one feels obliged to participate, even though the possibility of “justice” is equally slim. But at least they know someone is watching.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-89041755739826084692015-01-26T09:52:00.002-05:002015-01-26T09:53:11.463-05:00A Day in the Life of A PhotographerOne of the things I love about my job is that I never have to do the same thing two days in a row. On any given day it can alternate from satisfying and frustrating to terrifying, and the next day will surely be different. This is not to complain, rather to confess that if I don't keep changing it up, I get bored with myself, then self-destructive.<br />
And I have been very lucky to have two branches of my art for which I am so passionate: making portraits of some of the greatest artists and thinkers of our day, and then being feted for my own body of "artistic work" about a subject for which I care so deeply.<br />
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It's a real honor to be able to make portraits of these women and men who are the best in the world at what they do. What I want to show is that mixture of intelligence, ability, curiosity, tenacity, and luck that makes them unique. <br />
I make pictures of environmental issues because I care so much and believe I can, with luck, tenacity, curiosity, and ability, bring a unique viewpoint to their urgency and ubiquity.<br />
So I pursue these two branches of my craft with equal passion, which inform and enhance each other. The essence of photography is the capturing of the precise moment in time when subject, composition and lighting come together to make a magic picture, and then I just count myself lucky to be there with a working camera.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A6xdQ2oXs0c/VMZUOSBxvHI/AAAAAAAAAwY/E_Mgy_qhu6Y/s1600/jhFair_005631.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A6xdQ2oXs0c/VMZUOSBxvHI/AAAAAAAAAwY/E_Mgy_qhu6Y/s320/jhFair_005631.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">The World's Great Composers</div><div style="text-align: center;">as featured on the cover of Gramophone Magazine </div>JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-84250097107025191072015-01-15T12:32:00.001-05:002015-01-15T12:47:15.328-05:00Albany TerminalHow quickly we change from a world in which extracting a barrel of oil from some cold distant place and shipping it via a tenuous supply chain across a continent seemed like a great deal – until the price of oil dropped below $50 a barrel, far below the cost of getting that oil from the frozen North.<br />
So who, in these giddy days of easy oil, wants to hear any grousing about old train cars carrying precarious amounts of oil through fragile regions of the USA?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_dUnByg06TA/VLf7XNpvQZI/AAAAAAAAAvs/ckS8ZWPTFHU/s1600/jhFair_4164-164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_dUnByg06TA/VLf7XNpvQZI/AAAAAAAAAvs/ckS8ZWPTFHU/s320/jhFair_4164-164.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Railroad tank cars at terminal for off-loading oil onto barges</div><br />
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America's new-found oil prosperity has a number of causes, one of the most productive being the Bakken shale formation in the remotest part of North Dakota, near the border with Canada which has pushed the USA up to the lead of world oil producers. So much oil is being pumped there, in fact, that they don't know what to do with it. There is no infrastructure to get it out of this remote location, to the point that drillers are burning off the natural gas found with the oil just to get to the oil. The only transportation infrastructure in the region is the railroad which had been used to haul grain. Now the grain rots at the terminal because the trains are hauling oil, to the tune of 50 trains a week, and that is just on one of the many train routes out of the Bakken. This oil is unusually volatile, and these trains are fully loaded and heavy. This, and the poor state of America's rail lines combine to produce a series of accidents waiting to happen. In summer 2013, a Canadian town, Lac-Megantic, was literally blown off the map by one of these "Bomb Trains." A ludicrous number of these trains have exploded, spilled, and crashed damaging lives, property, and the environment.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dof4VW3bMIU/VLf7jqMuz-I/AAAAAAAAAv0/aCRtehqGZJM/s1600/jhFair_4164-421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dof4VW3bMIU/VLf7jqMuz-I/AAAAAAAAAv0/aCRtehqGZJM/s320/jhFair_4164-421.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Long train of tank cars on Canadian Pacific train line</div><br />
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There are two main rail freight routes across North America, Canadian Pacific (the old Delaware and Hudson Line) which goes north of the great lakes, through Canada, winding down a precipitous cliff above Lake Champlain as it comes back into the USA, and CSX (the old New York Central line) comes through Chicago, and on the south side of the Great Lakes, both terminating in Albany, where it is off-loaded onto barges and shipped to refineries up and down the east coast.<br />
Between the poor maintenance of the infrastructure, the laughable safety record of the industry, the volume of product being moved, and the fragility of the ecosystems through which the network passes, the only question is when will be the next disaster, not if. But perhaps we should wait until one of these trains filled with oil derails and plunges into Lake Champlain before we protest this nonsense, or another small town gets blown off the map (who cares if a few more Canadians die anyway), or perhaps we wait until one of those barges capsizes and spills its contents into the Hudson?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z1Vdw-OkQWE/VLf7sN-G5ZI/AAAAAAAAAv8/HiLpaxOkAoU/s1600/jhFair_4164-527.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z1Vdw-OkQWE/VLf7sN-G5ZI/AAAAAAAAAv8/HiLpaxOkAoU/s320/jhFair_4164-527.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Children on playground next to railroad tank cars</div><br />
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This discussion is about the safety and reliability of the transportation infrastructure, and leaves aside the larger question of our overall reliance on petroleum. As a society, we are ignoring both questions. As New Yorkers, we should address this question of the reckless movement of a toxic, volatile material through our neighborhoods. The geopolitical anomaly of cheap oil is temporary, and soon those trains will once again be running down the Great Lakes.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-17283519171495530452014-11-13T14:56:00.001-05:002014-11-13T15:04:56.907-05:00InterCityYou arrive at New York's Penn Station fifteen minutes ahead of the train's scheduled departure, uncharacteristic of you, but your morning meeting in DC is important, and out of nervousness, you left the apartment a little early. While you stand on the platform, you shake your head thinking of the old days in which you would be biting your fingernails in the taxi crawling through traffic to the airport, and suffer the indignities of the security line for a flight, the door to door time being four hours. You never cease to marvel at the sleek white bullet trains as this one pulls into the station, or at the ease of the 2 hours door to door that your journey will take today.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="//1.bp.blogspot.com/-2fDOrITRPk8/VGUL3kZKm2I/AAAAAAAAAuk/v3rYmoCs2Ek/s1600/4187-005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="//1.bp.blogspot.com/-2fDOrITRPk8/VGUL3kZKm2I/AAAAAAAAAuk/v3rYmoCs2Ek/s320/4187-005.jpg" /></a></div>High speed train in Hamburg Station<br />
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Though this may seem like a fantasy, it is the reality today in Europe. Germany, especially, has made tremendous investments in its high-speed rail system, and is reaping the rewards. The world marvels at the German miracle, but it is no miracle, it is the result of smart investment. The Deutsche Bahn connects Europe, creates a very efficient place for people to work and live, and, not coincidentally, binds the continent together. Germany is also making major investments in renewable energy, investments that will pay off many times in the future, as have the investments in high-speed trains.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="//1.bp.blogspot.com/-ArZhXQCzCAg/VGUL-06cGdI/AAAAAAAAAus/Y3fV5HR0t2g/s1600/4093-211.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="//1.bp.blogspot.com/-ArZhXQCzCAg/VGUL-06cGdI/AAAAAAAAAus/Y3fV5HR0t2g/s320/4093-211.jpg" /></a></div>Evening storm clouds over wind mills in Baltic Sea<br />
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In America while our politicians debate the reality of climate change, scientists, unless they are under the pay of climate deniers, unanimously stress the urgency for action to reduce carbon release. Investments are never easy when they are made, but they pay off. As the world changes, the conditions will favor new industries, and the old interests will resist that change. It has always been so: carriage makers undoubtedly fought the dominance of the automobile. The world will change, and carbon energy will be obsolete. Those that have invested in alternatives will come out ahead, those economies that have been dominated and directed by obsolete industries will stumble.<br />
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Humans are not good at reacting to threats that they cannot see. When there are opposing information sources, one saying to worry, change will happen, the other saying not to worry, one wants to believe the voice of inertia. But the time has come to act, and get that fast train to DC.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-89211970889115936692014-11-05T15:01:00.000-05:002014-11-05T15:01:07.180-05:00Images from the BakkenI can always count on myself to do the wrong thing.<br />
Often I act even knowing that it is the wrong thing, but usually it's just a reflex.<br />
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As a visual artist in the digital age, one struggles with the questions of reproduction, rights, usage, and of course money.<br />
Reflexively one wants to limit access to images, and thus make every use more dear, yes? Isn't that the basic model of supply and demand? And we have all watched the media giants struggle with that question, losing their shirts more often than not.<br />
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Then there are the respective policies of the web giants with whom we entrust our oeuvre, all of whom claim unlimited usage of our property.<br />
All these factors have caused me to limit the exposure of pictures on the internet.<br />
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But there are stories to tell, and social media provides a great platform for so doing.<br />
And, these stories won't be told if the pictures stay interred on hard drives.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BjAg4Pqbg0Y/VFp8PkNpYBI/AAAAAAAAAtk/PUzY3gXXtTA/s1600/4175-219_Bak1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BjAg4Pqbg0Y/VFp8PkNpYBI/AAAAAAAAAtk/PUzY3gXXtTA/s320/4175-219_Bak1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Letting go and resignation are often inevitable aspects of contemporary life, a two-step that we seem to do automatically in this world. Because who can question every issue, read every notification, check the ingredients of every product?<br />
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One story that burns to be told over and over is the source of the petroleum we use so heedlessly. As we have exhausted the easy access resources, we must now exploit the remote, and they are generally located in more challenging topographies and at greater distance from help.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CN6_vtImzf4/VFp8Sm0rrHI/AAAAAAAAAts/Hb1YVJWqIZs/s1600/4175-812_Bak2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CN6_vtImzf4/VFp8Sm0rrHI/AAAAAAAAAts/Hb1YVJWqIZs/s320/4175-812_Bak2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
One of the fruitful new exploits in the USA is the Bakken Shale Formation in the bread basket of North Dakota, from which we are extracting a goodly amount of oil using unimaginable volumes of fresh water, while, like a junkie that prefers the drug to even food, we allow grain to rot for want of transport to market. The trains are all busy carrying the oil to refineries.<br />
Meanwhile the farms that once fed the nation are left with piles of radioactive drilling waste and contaminated water.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VETIfR_MtqM/VFp8UYMdKWI/AAAAAAAAAt0/GPhfmfveVT4/s1600/4175-818_Bak3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VETIfR_MtqM/VFp8UYMdKWI/AAAAAAAAAt0/GPhfmfveVT4/s320/4175-818_Bak3.jpg" /></a></div><br />
One wonders how to tell this complex story with a visual narrative, whether to create a story board and illustrate the process step by step, or perhaps lay out my method and timetable, thus my slice, and then show the pictures as they were taken.<br />
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Given the arbitrary schedule of social media viewers, we have opted for a more random presentation, and will post these pictures more or less as they were shot, hoping that anyone who is interested will go back, look at the totality, and formulate their own impression of the process.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-818JkmVwZIc/VFp8YDq2aHI/AAAAAAAAAuE/AQC5JexKtsw/s1600/4176-534_Bak5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-818JkmVwZIc/VFp8YDq2aHI/AAAAAAAAAuE/AQC5JexKtsw/s320/4176-534_Bak5.jpg" /></a></div>JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-27217168260934393682014-09-24T10:18:00.000-04:002014-09-24T12:14:04.286-04:00The Real RewardAmong my working artist friends runs a common joke about the hardships of a career that forces one to sleep late, while away most of the morning drinking coffee and complaining about galleries, then spend a few hours attending to the mundane business of life, only to reconvene over some libations and resume the discussions. But in actual fact, the life of the artist is a burden: one works long hours for minimal remuneration in pursuit of some nebulous vision. Most of the time is spent alone, testing that definition of insanity which says the sane would not repeatedly try the same thing and expect a different result. And there is the humiliation of constantly needing to sell yourself. The only reason to be an artist is if you can't do something else.<br />
Some few are lucky enough to get their reward monetarily, but for most the recompense comes from seeing others enjoy the fruits of the artist's frustrations.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YC8eX3XD5-g/VCLQVwQPB1I/AAAAAAAAAqE/_hqLzPx9W1M/s1600/Bolzano_4180-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YC8eX3XD5-g/VCLQVwQPB1I/AAAAAAAAAqE/_hqLzPx9W1M/s320/Bolzano_4180-008.jpg" /></a></div>An artist works with a chosen medium to express his or her vision, a process that usually involves a struggle between imperfect materials and over-exacting specification. And that is when the variables are within reach and controllable to some degree. To arrange an exhibit in a remote location, collaborating with an unfamiliar team, using unknown materials, can be an arduous process. In this situation, one can only pray to be lucky enough that the new team comprises exacting professionals, and the standardization of processes in the modern world will lead to an unexpected good result.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f1Eix0s42Ik/VCLQ5FlqReI/AAAAAAAAAqM/1eIR3He78rY/s1600/Bolzano_4180-038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f1Eix0s42Ik/VCLQ5FlqReI/AAAAAAAAAqM/1eIR3He78rY/s320/Bolzano_4180-038.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LLAoIycOo7w/VCLQ8k0nW6I/AAAAAAAAAqU/VBsWPqUpkTs/s1600/Bolzano_4180-078.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LLAoIycOo7w/VCLQ8k0nW6I/AAAAAAAAAqU/VBsWPqUpkTs/s320/Bolzano_4180-078.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJVsRa4Xyao/VCLRvykF_hI/AAAAAAAAAqc/JFrxh_omzDE/s1600/Bolzano_4180-040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJVsRa4Xyao/VCLRvykF_hI/AAAAAAAAAqc/JFrxh_omzDE/s320/Bolzano_4180-040.jpg" /></a></div>Such was the case with a recent exhibit in Bolzano Italy, and it was a great pleasure to finally travel there, meet the team, and see the result.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kPw1CjSqs2o/VCLR5Ed3ebI/AAAAAAAAAqk/L4hpqdRZc24/s1600/Bolzano_4180-048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kPw1CjSqs2o/VCLR5Ed3ebI/AAAAAAAAAqk/L4hpqdRZc24/s320/Bolzano_4180-048.jpg" /></a></div>But the greatest reward was to see visitors, especially children, enjoying, and really contemplating the work. One of the most interesting aspects of the visual arts, perhaps more than any other form, is the Rorschach Effect: each visitor will take away something different. These pictures are about pollution, and straddle a line between abstract and literal, and even with captions that identify the subject, every viewer brings different preconceptions and opinions that will shape his or her impression. Thus children are the most interesting audience for me, and it was a great reward to see so many and that they were so captivated by the work.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ere3Zk5A34s/VCLSKLV6L4I/AAAAAAAAAqs/0VUtD2Aic0M/s1600/Bolzano_4180-056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ere3Zk5A34s/VCLSKLV6L4I/AAAAAAAAAqs/0VUtD2Aic0M/s320/Bolzano_4180-056.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vbrc4rj6t9k/VCLSY9vCrYI/AAAAAAAAAq0/88CPpx-_pZ0/s1600/Bolzano_4180-069.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vbrc4rj6t9k/VCLSY9vCrYI/AAAAAAAAAq0/88CPpx-_pZ0/s320/Bolzano_4180-069.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1JNhYLSHcWU/VCLSatD8IMI/AAAAAAAAAq8/yiyGc2C4AL4/s1600/Bolzano_4180-044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1JNhYLSHcWU/VCLSatD8IMI/AAAAAAAAAq8/yiyGc2C4AL4/s320/Bolzano_4180-044.jpg" /></a></div>The other great reward was meeting the team that produced and assembled the exhibit at the Museum Südtirol. So many thanks to Massimo and Vito for the great work.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-toAQ5CGUg7U/VCLPybuZ_7I/AAAAAAAAAp8/UucMfwQTUd4/s1600/Bolzano_4180-020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-toAQ5CGUg7U/VCLPybuZ_7I/AAAAAAAAAp8/UucMfwQTUd4/s320/Bolzano_4180-020.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Please check out my current exhibit: <a href="http://www.galerie-wesner.de/de/events/index.php"><i>Abstraction of Consumption: A Dream of Plenty</i></a>JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-42556363832159668092014-07-11T12:44:00.002-04:002014-07-24T08:39:31.491-04:00North Dakota LandscapeI'm sitting on a rise in North Dakota (it's pretty flat out here) and admiring the rolling farmland that has supplied our country with grain for so long. After the beauty of the landscape, so different from where I was raised, in the Deep South, what strikes me first is the constancy of the wind. In the three days I have been here, it is always there. From my perch, I would expect windmills as far as the eye could see. After all, who could argue with free electricity? Instead, I'm surrounded by drill rigs, each a tremendous industrial zone on its own "pad" cut out of the farmland. The traffic on this small dirt farming road is constant, most of it being tanker trucks hauling fresh water to the sites and contaminated water away, the process of "hydro-fracking" being such a thirsty one.<br />
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Discussions with local people orient mostly around the jobs the industry has brought to the community, and everyone wants prosperity for themselves and their neighbors. Then they might wistfully speak about how the town has changed from a place where no one ever locked their doors to a Wild West boom town with crime and infrastructure overload. There is a tremendous influx of people who have come here for work, from the oil field workers to the waitresses. At a point in history when our country has actively exported so many of its manufacturing jobs overseas, and gutted the middle class, leaving your family to come to ND for a well paying job seems like a good opportunity.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kQTZT0_Gcxs/U7_ibcM-iEI/AAAAAAAAAno/FUTky0m3U6E/s1600/jhFair_Bakken_Fields.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kQTZT0_Gcxs/U7_ibcM-iEI/AAAAAAAAAno/FUTky0m3U6E/s400/jhFair_Bakken_Fields.jpg" /></a></div><br />
And we are told this is the way it must be. "Progress has its costs." But it's only this way because the people that are making the real money from these extraction industries are preventing any change. The senators who give impassioned speeches about climate change being a hoax, and decrying the conspiracy of the scientists who would impose world government on us are not stupid. They are venal.<br />
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Our economy will change. Will it happen at our behest, and evolve into an economy of sustainability, or will it happen in reaction to multiple catastrophic weather events that destroy coastal infrastructure and completely disrupt agriculture, and rising sea levels which force us away from the coasts?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L47Hcru2-5Q/U8ATxuJLXfI/AAAAAAAAAn8/2YH6X-BFUHY/s1600/jhFair_BakkenFlare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L47Hcru2-5Q/U8ATxuJLXfI/AAAAAAAAAn8/2YH6X-BFUHY/s400/jhFair_BakkenFlare.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Like all economic booms based on extractive industries, this one will end. The irony is that this could be a boom based on implementing a new paradigm, and that boom would not end. Windmills need constant maintenance, but they don't need water, and they don't cause climate change.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-69898597548919772682014-06-18T12:03:00.000-04:002014-06-18T12:03:06.771-04:00Red TideAs summer is finally upon us, I can't help but think about an issue I encountered in a big way while shooting along the Jersey Shore last fall. <br />
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Red tide is a (usually) toxic to humans and animals algal bloom caused by a combination of warm water, sunlight, and nutrient overloading (from fertilizer and sewerage). It can cause rashes and other manifestations in people coming in contact with it, the most severe being death for those who eat infected seafood. <br />
Since bivalves and crustaceans continuously strain water, they accumulate large amounts of the algae, which, being toxic, is a real problem for shellfish consumption, both those who consume it, and the economy that provides it. <br />
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Red tide is also catastrophic to marine fauna because, when it dies, the bacteria that consume it absorb all the oxygen in the water, thus suffocating the other marine organisms. There have been red tides throughout history, the difference being that now we know the causes and how to decrease the occurrences.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t1C2SHQNBLU/U6G2MRh9SmI/AAAAAAAAAmc/jrEUK5dhRlQ/s1600/4075-023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t1C2SHQNBLU/U6G2MRh9SmI/AAAAAAAAAmc/jrEUK5dhRlQ/s320/4075-023.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So it was with some astonishment that, while doing a photo flight to look at Post-Sandy construction on the Jersey Shore, I saw a giant red tide in New York Harbor. <br />
Given the health and environmental hazards, I would assume that such a thing would have been newsworthy. Did I miss something, or is it just not "news"?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nxEMr58d9mE/U6G2XB2o8dI/AAAAAAAAAmk/8yonEgoMIY0/s1600/4075-041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nxEMr58d9mE/U6G2XB2o8dI/AAAAAAAAAmk/8yonEgoMIY0/s320/4075-041.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Algal blooms are one more sign of a natural system in distress, and those come so many and so often these days that such a seemingly insignificant one is hardly noticeable. In fact, we seem intent, as a society, on ignoring them. Facebook posts about nice breakfasts, cute animals, or smiling children garner tremendous response, while those warning about clear and present danger, either to our life support systems or the transparency of our government attract the attention of only the like-minded concerned audience. And certainly many of these issues are complex, seemingly intractable, and come with the erroneous impression that the individual can do nothing about them.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MtplLmQYtOs/U6G2gpC4VrI/AAAAAAAAAms/l2ooM5ToJEU/s1600/4075-379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MtplLmQYtOs/U6G2gpC4VrI/AAAAAAAAAms/l2ooM5ToJEU/s320/4075-379.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The runoff from excess fertilization causes a surfeit of nutrients in the water, which is the starting factor in the chain of events leading to an algal bloom. The New York Harbor bloom actually posed a serious local hazard to anyone consuming shellfish. But New York Harbor is the least of the problem. The Great Lakes are dying and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico covered nearly 7,000 sq miles in 2011, and grows larger every year.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7uSdNBf2ONU/U6G2oFvNvVI/AAAAAAAAAm0/lCG9MBD8Ujs/s1600/4075-383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7uSdNBf2ONU/U6G2oFvNvVI/AAAAAAAAAm0/lCG9MBD8Ujs/s320/4075-383.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Reducing that nutrient loading is a vital but complex issue involving regulation and education. Farmers and homeowners must decrease their fertilizer use, an outcome that will only evolve with a mixture of persuasion and coercion. Success in that goal will require that all the stakeholders realize their contribution to the problem and their gain from the solution. JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-9662892570332123552014-02-24T14:39:00.000-05:002014-02-24T14:39:23.944-05:00The True Costs of Coal, with InterestIt seems the day hardly passes without some new industrial disaster popping on to the headlines and disappearing just as quickly, all the while the media derides the environmentalists' anxiety. Often these accidents involve toxins leaking into water supplies, and those who pay attention heave a sigh that it happened in some poor place of little importance. The current disaster is a coal ash spill into the Dan River in North Carolina from the coal ash waste impoundments at a retired power plant owned by Duke Energy, the largest energy producer in the nation. The USA produces about forty percent of its electricity from coal, burning about a billion tons of the mineral per year. Aside from being the largest single cause of climate change, the largest source of uranium, mercury and a host of other toxins released into the environment, coal combustion produces about 100 billion tons of ash waste per year, a toxic mess that comprises the largest waste stream in the country. Ironically, as regulations have forced cleaner emissions into the air, the ash has become even more toxic, as the toxins are mixed in with the solid wastes. There are about 600 ash waste dumps that we know of in the country, and many unknown. <br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NqZ359nGlzw/UwueMJ7cOjI/AAAAAAAAAjQ/8CFexOIFZRA/s1600/1-3765-572_jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NqZ359nGlzw/UwueMJ7cOjI/AAAAAAAAAjQ/8CFexOIFZRA/s320/1-3765-572_jhFair.jpg" /></a></div>High hazard coal ash waste storage ponds.<br />
Ashville, NC</center><br />
When the Clean Air and Water Acts were written, certain categories of waste were exempted from regulation, largely because the volumes involved were so great that proper treatment would have been prohibitively expensive. Thus, as a gift to the industries concerned, these "true costs" were effectively shifted to the public, specifically to future generations that would be handed these time bombs and forced to live with the consequences and pay to clean them up. One of those time bombs exploded 10 days ago when a rotting drainage pipe collapsed, releasing tremendous volumes of this minimally regulated toxic waste into a river in North Carolina, which happens to be the drinking water source for people downstream.<br />
Power plants use tremendous amounts of fresh water for steam to spin turbines and for cooling; consequently, they are often built on rivers. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_plant_retirements#Table_1:_Age_of_U.S._Coal_Plants" target="_hplink">Of the coal fired power plants in the USA, the median year of construction is 1966</a>, and <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia923/" target="_hplink">of the North Carolina plants for which data is available, the average produces 1,618,795 tons of ash a year</a>. You can do the math, but that adds up to a lot of toxic sludge, and since it is even less regulated than your household garbage, utilities have just built tremendous unlined impoundments next to the power plants (and next to the river) and ignored the problem.<br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6SBMfiLv7IQ/UwueiOFE1II/AAAAAAAAAjY/Z1oUltJ7UaA/s1600/2-3765-562_jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6SBMfiLv7IQ/UwueiOFE1II/AAAAAAAAAjY/Z1oUltJ7UaA/s320/2-3765-562_jhFair.jpg" /></a></div>Houses under high hazard coal ash storage ponds<br />
Belmont, NC</center><br />
<a href="http://timesfreepress.com/news/2013/dec/20/insurer-pay-tva-150-million-more-kingston-ash-spil/" target="_hplink">These lakes of sludge tend to collapse with distressing regularity, and five years ago, near Knoxville, TN, a major one burst, essentially filling the Emory River with 1.1 billion gallons of coal combustion waste, causing a cleanup bill of $1.1 billion dollars</a> (who do you think will pay it?)<br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6b21MDM9L6c/Uwue0CQLfxI/AAAAAAAAAjg/eyLH3WyrDfw/s1600/3-3765-377_jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6b21MDM9L6c/Uwue0CQLfxI/AAAAAAAAAjg/eyLH3WyrDfw/s320/3-3765-377_jhFair.jpg" /></a></div>Coal combustion waste from power plant<br />
Terrell, NC</center><br />
The Kingston disaster focused national attention on the issue, prompting a nationwide evaluation, highlighting the fact that North Carolina is one of the states with the largest number of hazardous coal ash impoundments (31). So this is a known issue. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nc-regulators-shielded-duke-39-coal-ash-pollution-165901402.html" target="_hplink">Last year, environmental groups started three separate Clean Water Act lawsuits against Duke Energy to force them to clean up these ticking time bombs, but at the last second, the state stepped in and interceded on behalf of Duke, saving them a fortune in fines, and much embarrassment, and excused them from actually cleaning up the problem. Did we forget to mention that the NC governor, Pat McCrory, worked for Duke Energy for 30 years and also received over a million dollars in "campaign contributions" from Duke Energy</a>? We expect this kind of corruption in the third world, and, one assumes, in North Carolina.<br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1rtBv-YNqQo/UwufCpRPGmI/AAAAAAAAAjo/Mbl4Nul9nNo/s1600/4-3765-190_jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1rtBv-YNqQo/UwufCpRPGmI/AAAAAAAAAjo/Mbl4Nul9nNo/s320/4-3765-190_jhFair.jpg" /></a></div>Coal combustion waste from power plant<br />
Walnut Cove, NC</center><br />
Of course we all know that mercury, lead, uranium, and arsenic, all of which are concentrated in coal ash, are things we don't want to drink, but there is another, possibly even more insidious toxin therein that poisons our drinking water. Hexavalent chromium, which is very soluble in water, first came to public attention thanks to the efforts of Erin Brockovich, and in the last years it has been found in 31 of 35 municipal water supplies sampled in the country. It's one of those elements which proves more toxic with each new study. California has recently lowered its recommended safe limit to 0.02 parts per billion, while the current national limit of 100 ppb has been shown to cause cancer in 1.4 of 1000 people. <a href="http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/CoalAshChromeReport.pdf" target="_hplink">Note that even before the spill, the Dan River Power Plant was known to be contaminating the groundwater with hexavalent chromium</a>.<br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Orr8rVZUz9c/UwufP-W7oCI/AAAAAAAAAjw/7ng08l76bqA/s1600/5-3765-170_jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Orr8rVZUz9c/UwufP-W7oCI/AAAAAAAAAjw/7ng08l76bqA/s320/5-3765-170_jhFair.jpg" /></a></div>Dan River power plant with ash containment ponds <br />
Eden, NC</center><br />
With the help of <a href="http://www.southwings.org/" target="_hplink">Southwings</a> and <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/" target="_hplink">NRDC</a>, we documented many of the high hazard coal ash sites in the state in 2010.<br />
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Meanwhile the EPA, which has been trying to regulate coal ash for years, has been stymied in its efforts by the friends of coal in government. Perhaps this is an ideal time for citizens to pick up the telephone and express their feelings to their elected representatives about keeping coal ash out of our water.<br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l4Z_LQodnSs/Uwufan8IX6I/AAAAAAAAAj4/0It4FKjm88A/s1600/6-3765-499_jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l4Z_LQodnSs/Uwufan8IX6I/AAAAAAAAAj4/0It4FKjm88A/s320/6-3765-499_jhFair.jpg" /></a></div>Dan River power plant with ash containment ponds<br />
Eden, NC</center>JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-80017432407769540322013-07-29T09:52:00.000-04:002013-07-29T09:52:36.823-04:00Erie and OntarioOne of my current projects is photographing the coasts of the USA.<br />
As climate change impacts become more severe, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-henry-fair/disaster-economy_b_3429389.html">the coasts will be increasingly affected</a>, from heavy storm damage with tremendous economic impacts, to large-scale amelioration projects which will change the look of littoral areas. We could even witness a societal decision to retreat from the coasts and let them resume their buffering function.<br />
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The Great Lakes are a vital part of our coastal perimeter, and conditions are in flux there like everywhere.<br />
While climate change is expected to cause increased storms and rising ocean waters, the effects on The Great Lakes is less well known, though increasing and increasingly erratic storm activity is a universal reality for any region in this age.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N6R_-IT6Je8/UfZx1YQbKxI/AAAAAAAAAgk/rJ9f7sk8eaA/s1600/1amusementpark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N6R_-IT6Je8/UfZx1YQbKxI/AAAAAAAAAgk/rJ9f7sk8eaA/s320/1amusementpark.jpg" /></a></div>Paradoxically, while oceans elevate due to climate change, the lakes shrink due to reduced precipitation (especially snowfall) and increased evaporation. The Great Lakes fishing industry, valued at $7 billion per year, is under threat from numerous sources: invasive species, climate change induced water temperature change, and industry.<br />
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<a href="http://www.lighthawk.org">LightHawk</a> pilot extraordinaire Bob Keller, with his usual skill, finesse, and insight, volunteered to fly this project. We documented extensive development on the coast, industries that are polluting the water, killing the fish, and contributing to climate change. Some of the highlights:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mb9MYrPHW6I/UfZxrv0PENI/AAAAAAAAAgc/oYimPGxwIMM/s1600/2problem_nuke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mb9MYrPHW6I/UfZxrv0PENI/AAAAAAAAAgc/oYimPGxwIMM/s320/2problem_nuke.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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-The most problematic nuclear plant in the country, with numerous leaks and accidents.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HfVeNwbOKEQ/UfZxn7gmFqI/AAAAAAAAAgU/B48z5KAhvlQ/s1600/3expens_nuke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HfVeNwbOKEQ/UfZxn7gmFqI/AAAAAAAAAgU/B48z5KAhvlQ/s320/3expens_nuke.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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-The most expensive nuclear plant in the country. So expensive, they stopped construction when they were nearly finished.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_1yEw3yyZUU/UfZxL-NTCOI/AAAAAAAAAgM/kinZmRiwOHc/s1600/4power+plant-refinery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_1yEw3yyZUU/UfZxL-NTCOI/AAAAAAAAAgM/kinZmRiwOHc/s320/4power+plant-refinery.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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-A refinery taking tar sands oil, then selling their waste as fuel to the power plant next door, which is the largest killer of fish on the Great Lakes (an estimated value of $30 million worth of fish annually).<br />
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The Great Lakes are the seat of the "rust belt;" that stretch of industry that propelled the USA in the era when manufacturing was dominant in the country, and environmental regulation was weak or non-existent.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-shY84fTcv8k/UfZwT9gcX7I/AAAAAAAAAf8/jReZZRtLrvc/s1600/5rustbelt_Lorain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-shY84fTcv8k/UfZwT9gcX7I/AAAAAAAAAf8/jReZZRtLrvc/s320/5rustbelt_Lorain.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Much of this has disappeared, but much remains, perpetuating a legacy of pollution and climate change.<br />
Among the points of interest:<br />
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-Seven coal-fired power plants emitting a total of: 43,000,000 tons of CO2, and over 2,300 pounds of mercury.<br />
-The site of America's failed attempt at nuclear waste reprocessing, one of the most toxic sites in the country.<br />
-Abandoned power plants, and paper mills.<br />
-A train locomotive factory that is scaling back production due to reduced demand for coal, a result of hydro-fracking.<br />
-A harbor with material transfer stations being dredged and dumping tremendous amounts of silt out into the lake.<br />
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The Great Lakes are a tremendous source of food and fresh water, two resources which are becoming increasingly rare in our day. We might do well to put efforts toward protecting them.<br />
JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-86541538651230132732013-06-24T13:12:00.001-04:002013-06-24T13:12:18.456-04:00PrivacyArriving at my destination after a recent international flight, I opened my suitcase to find it had been ransacked. In it was a nice note from the TSA which said: "You have no privacy. We can open your luggage, listen to your phone calls, read your mail and all electronic communications, even kill you if we deem you a threat to our agenda." Actually, that's not what it said. It assured me that my bag had been pillaged for my protection, and that the government was here to help.<br />
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Meanwhile, one of the biggest current news stories of the day is the revelation that the NSA (an agency of which most Americans were unaware) has been snooping wholesale into all of our electronic communications. Incredibly, when queried, most people respond that they have nothing to hide, which misses the point entirely. Most if not all of the people that were blacklisted in the McCarthy Era had nothing to hide, yet their lives were ruined. J. Edgar Hoover used personal information to blackmail many people, including presidents. If you have nothing to hide, is it ok that we watch you undress in the bathroom? After all, we must verify that you have nothing to hide, since you cannot be trusted. And I'm sorry that we had to listen to that personal phone call in which you were talking to your paramour, but it's in the name of national security. What's that you say? You don't want genetically modified products in your food? Sounds like you are an enemy of the state. You object to the polluting of the Gulf Of Mexico by BP? Arrest that man.<br />
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Power corrupts, as has been proven again and again. After the world trade centers were destroyed (watch <a href="http://video.cpt12.org/video/2270078138/" target="_blank">this doc</a> from Colorado Public TV) we allowed an unprecedented intrusion into our lives in the name of security. Since then, as we are engrossed in our smart devices, the government and the corporations that own it, have increasingly invaded your house, your communications, and your health, with little objection from the public. As our world moves daily closer to the reality laid out by George Orwell, that lame defense, "it's ok, because I have nothing to hide," will soon become, like Winston Smith, "I have one corner in my house free from the eyes of Big Brother, in which I can go to read the banned books about genetic modification or the children that are maimed around the world in our name (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan)."<br />
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On the first Earth Day in 1970, masses of people were in the streets protesting. Last year, most people did not know it was an important day, and the few announcements of it were made by companies trying to sell "green" products.<br />
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Privacy matters. Not because we have something to hide, but because it is our right. If we relinquish that right, then, when the government oversteps, (McCarthy Era, Nazi Germany) then it is our obligation to set it back on track. That will not be possible if they have already incarcerated the dissenters.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-71328750572934556962013-05-03T15:37:00.000-04:002013-05-03T15:37:13.569-04:00The Gibbes VoteSometimes it takes a while for me to get the picture.<br />
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When the Gibbes Museum in Charleston announced a "People's Choice" exhibit, I happily completed their questionnaire about favorite artists and what not, and basically ignored their further requests for me to drum up the troops via the various "social" interfaces that seem to be the rage.<br />
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Only at the last minute, the day before Easter, did I finally read the email and understand that I needed to call the hearty to arms to vote for inclusion of my piece in the exhibit. <br />
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Mind you, I was on a little agriturismo, eating oranges and drinking Portuguese wine. In spite of the intermittent internet, I valiantly put down my drink (we were on to port by this point), and logged-on to the one and the other and begged my friends and connections to perform two clicks and vote for my piece (“Pig Shit” (alternately titled "Bacon" in politer circles)).<br />
And it worked, proving that you can get your friends to cast a few clicks on your behalf on short notice. Or, maybe that your friends don't have any other lives than to be looking at social media the night before Easter.<br />
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Ironically, if one posts an urgent call for action about an arcane but vital environmental bill, we are much less likely to act.<br />
Somehow the information overload makes me less able to respond and act on weighty citizenship issues, and more in search of divertimenti. Ironic that we all seem so preoccupied in our digital world, when the physical world cries out for our ministrations.<br />
JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-36237786464588343232013-04-12T12:20:00.000-04:002013-04-12T12:20:52.743-04:00The Gas BubbleMarket bubbles come and go, but they all have things in common: a few people get rich, a lot of people get taken, and a mess is left for the taxpayers to clean up. To understand the hydro-fracking bubble, there are some things one must know: each well only produces a little gas (and exhausts relatively quickly), reserves were significantly overstated at the beginning of the game, and most important: Wall Street is very invested and wants its money out.<br />
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The devastating environmental effects of the process are well documented, and not the subject of this essay (water depletion, water pollution, habitat and farmland destruction, and significant climate change impacts).<br />
<center><img alt="2013-04-05-3613088_JHFair.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-05-3613088_JHFair.jpg" width="800" height="533" /><em>Hydro-fracking drill sites during drilling process with drilling slurry containment pond<br />
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The process of fracturing rock to create a cavity in a thin layer of shale, deep under ground, to extract the gas trapped in cells there does not create a large pocket. So, only a small amount of gas is produced, and the well is exhausted quickly. Given the low volume of gas produced by a single well, sustained supply depends on the production of many, many wells, which means many leases must be signed with landowners. As the gas rush caught on, there was a big push by gas drillers to sign as many leases as possible, as these "reserves" increased the company's value, and thus its stock price. When those leases began to come due, they had to be exercised, or else they would expire, thus increasing the market glut.<br />
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In any resource extraction rush, the easily obtained reserves are the first to be taken, and as they dwindle, more difficult and expensive assets are pursued until such time as extraction cost plus profit exceeds market cost, at which point extraction ceases.<br />
<center><img alt="2013-04-05-3914748_JHFair.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-05-3914748_JHFair.jpg" width="800" height="533" /><em>Hydro-fracking site with drill rig next to pond, cut out of forest</em></center><br />
The Energy Information Agency has predicted that the USA will shift much its energy production to natural gas in the coming years, based on the imagined plentiful supply, and clean combustion characteristics of this fuel. With the sudden oversupply brought on by the hydro-fracking rush, the price of natural gas has plummeted with numerous consequences. Most alarmingly, the bottom has dropped from the sustainable energy markets, as gas has became cheaper than wind or solar, which have already become competitive with oil and coal. Given the low price, and the EIA predictions of plenty in the future, many industries have placed significant investments on gas-fueled technologies. Last year, the USGS significantly lowered its estimate of recoverable gas in the East Coast shale deposits to at least one twentieth of their previous estimates, upon which the gas bubble was based. But as the money was already invested, there is little discussion of this.<br />
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The oversupply of gas in the USA has driven domestic prices to about a fifth of the worldwide average, a situation that can only be temporary. Last week, a pump on a gas pipeline supplying Britain from the continent failed, causing a 50% spike in wholesale gas prices. Though it was not revealed at the time, Britain, suffering an unusually cold winter, was down to a two day supply of gas. This week it was announced that a US gas company had signed a contract to supply hydro-fracked gas to Britain, starting in 2018, in the form of liquid natural gas, via tankers loaded in Louisiana.<br />
<center><img alt="2013-04-05-4022451_JHFair.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-05-4022451_JHFair.jpg" width="800" height="520" /><em>Liquid natural gas compression terminal</em><br />
</center>The Keystone XL pipeline, proposed to carry heavy crude oil from northern Alberta to refineries in Texas, figures into this equation as well. Canada was formerly the largest supplier of natural gas to the USA, but the tar sands operations consume a tremendous amount of natural gas in the processing of that dirty crude, thus eliminating that supply.<br />
<center><img alt="2013-04-05-3632411_JHFair.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-05-3632411_JHFair.jpg" width="800" height="533" /><em>Oil sands upgrader in Alberta</em></center><br />
In the last few years, the EPA has finally enacted air quality regulations that will force electricity utilities to either retire or upgrade the most dangerous coal fired power plants. Many of these utilities, taking into account the projections of future gas supplies, and current USA market price of gas, are converting their electricity production to natural gas. In 2000, the USA produced 51% of its electricity with coal, and 16% with gas; in 2010 the ratio was 44.5% and 24.1%, and the trend continues.<br />
<center><img alt="2013-04-05-3596547_JHFair.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-05-3596547_JHFair.jpg" width="800" height="521" /><em>Coal fired power plant in SC, soon to be retired</em></center><br />
So let's add up all of these facts and draw a few conclusions: <br />
-tremendously overstated supplies<br />
-an overstatement upon which bankers make large investments<br />
-increasingly expensive and difficult reserves remain for extraction<br />
-commitments in place to sell gas overseas in markets with higher prices<br />
-numerous domestic industries (especially electric utilities) implementing technologies to utilize the erroneously projected plentiful, cheap gas supplies<br />
-coal powered electrical generation converted to natural gas to avoid the expense of adding pollution controls<br />
-Wall Street wants its money back before the bubble bursts, so the pressure is on the gas companies to keep drilling wells and producing gas to pay the interest on the loans.<br />
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So where will that leave us, the average citizens in the USA?<br />
The first thing that will affect all of us will be a tremendous spike in electricity prices in the next few years as US natural gas prices equalize with world market prices, which will have risen from current levels due to the voracious demand of Europe, Asia, the tar sands, and diminishing world supplies. More importantly, we will be faced with depleted and polluted groundwater, and tremendously degraded farmland here at home as we rushed to keep the bubble inflated.<br />
<center><img alt="2013-04-05-3803099_JHFair.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2013-04-05-3803099_JHFair.jpg" width="800" height="552" /><em>Farm with four completed hydro-fracking well pads</em></center>JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-64722867647867952922013-02-22T10:34:00.000-05:002013-02-22T10:39:39.865-05:00Texas CoastTexas is certainly one of the most enigmatic states in the USA, with a contradiction jumping up immediately for most any assertion. The petrochemical industry calls Houston its home, and bestows upon it many gifts and afflictions from fine museums and wealth to poverty and pollution.<br />
Though I have photographed the Houston harbor petrochemical complex several times, there is much else to see along the coast which has eluded me. <a href="http://www.southwings.org/" target="_new">Southwings</a> pilot, Tom Hutchings, evinced a similar interest and volunteered to make the trek down south along the coast to Mexico.<br />
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I booked a ticket to fly to Houston and meet him, but then the weather man spoke badly about the coming days. This is always the tough gamble: bet on the prediction and change all of the schedules, or go when it's the most convenient. This time I chose the former, changed my ticket, and as always the front rolled through a day after the man predicted. Generally a storm front is followed by clear weather, which is ideal for shooting, though often also a bumpy ride–not to be attempted by the weak of stomach. But it didn't work that way this time; the front was weak and came through late, so we did not have that bluebird day or two. When you throw dice with God, you take what you get and be glad you got out of the game at all, so off we went.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BcxDEdG7xTA/USePaXkF_vI/AAAAAAAAAdE/D7mUF0GMG6g/s1600/4022-170.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BcxDEdG7xTA/USePaXkF_vI/AAAAAAAAAdE/D7mUF0GMG6g/s320/4022-170.jpg" /></a><br />
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Our goals were grand, so we decided to do it in two days: Houston Harbor to Galveston and south to Freeport the first day, picking it up there the next day (after waiting out the weather) and going down to Corpus Christi, then even further south to the Mexican Border (had to indulge the pilot's whim on that). The Houston Harbor is fascinating (for those who are fascinated by the infrastructure that drives our world (40% of the refining capacity in the USA is along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and much of the petrochemical industry)). In the Harbor itself we photographed a few sites for environmental groups that were pursuing lawsuits, and otherwise pursued the current directions of the Industrial Scars project, which is recently tending to more mechanical abstracts than the fluid dynamics of the last show. Tom later told me, as this was the day before the front blew through, that the air was so thick that it was like a magic carpet ride to fly the plane, and of course I felt it as well.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8O3P3faOpq4/USeIssxDfAI/AAAAAAAAAck/5_y30SmWP9s/s1600/4022-180.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8O3P3faOpq4/USeIssxDfAI/AAAAAAAAAck/5_y30SmWP9s/s320/4022-180.jpg" /></a><br />
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Tom and I have flown together many times, and it's always a three-way contest of wills on these missions: him versus me, with the air traffic controllers trumping both. After looking at the BP refinery in Texas City, the site of so many disasters, we moved to Galveston, where I spotted several cruise ships docked in the bay. These things are tremendous environmental pigs, not to mention sociological fascinations, so I requested a flyover. Tom averred that there was nothing interesting there, and we were moving on, an outcome I was not about to accept. We started our collaboration on the BP Deepwater disaster, and our relationship is similar to that of combat veterans. I spotted a drill rig across the bay in the Haliburton dry docks and said, "Oh look, isn't that the Q4000 over there in drydock?" (the rig that did all the heavy lifting at the BP Deepwater site), and of course he could not help but fly-over to have a look, which took us right over the cruise ships, and they were as interesting as I has suspected. The rig in drydock was The Uncle John, a deepwater pipe-laying machine.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5amybP0GZMg/USePPJj2tXI/AAAAAAAAAc8/zVY9ScEzzEU/s1600/4022-144.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5amybP0GZMg/USePPJj2tXI/AAAAAAAAAc8/zVY9ScEzzEU/s320/4022-144.jpg" /></a><br />
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Over the coastline, we were immediately struck by the tremendous amount of construction right to the water's edge, and a six foot sea wall "protecting" Galveston City proper. Having just come through Hurricane Sandy, where so much coastal construction was destroyed, the topic of building near the water looms large in the national dialog. As we face the specter of ocean rise, wise planning would dictate a significant setback from the water. And in this era of budget constraints, taxpayer financed flood insurance is nothing short of a boondoggle. The houses along this coast are an invitation to the next hurricane, and one amusement park in particular reminded me of nothing if not a ball teed up to be swatted away.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ld6XvmU9rc/USeHyBFFaPI/AAAAAAAAAcY/6f4q5BRdsZY/s1600/4022-270.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ld6XvmU9rc/USeHyBFFaPI/AAAAAAAAAcY/6f4q5BRdsZY/s320/4022-270.jpg" /></a><br />
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Further southwest, we ventured to Freeport, home of one of the most poisonous chemical/plastics plants in the country, making nice things that insulate your house and surround you every day. Ironically, some of the most toxic things are the least photogenic, so aside from a few shots for documentation, we have not much to show. One other interesting thing in Freeport confronted us: two giant tanks connected by a complex pattern of pipes to a large array of fans. We flew around and around trying to ascertain the nature of the beast until it hit me: a compressor station for liquefying natural gas. Oh, the works of man. Thus ended the first day.<br />
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JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-72672216055972144702013-01-02T17:55:00.000-05:002013-01-02T17:57:17.985-05:00Vegetarian in BerlinI've been around the world, but never to a restaurant with the entrance in an industrial loading dock. You really must look to find Cookies Cream in Berlin, but it's worth it. <br />
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There is no sign on the street, and one must walk back into an alley by the Comic Opera Berlin. Just when you think Mackie Messer is about to jump out and do something rash to your person, you spot a large antique chandelier hanging in the loading dock, the incongruity of which give a bit of hope. An unmarked steel door with a buzzer allows you entrance, at which point the decor resembles a downtown NYC club. <br />
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This is a fine vegetarian restaurant, really nice helpful staff, and great food. We had, for appetizers: the pumpkin soup (out of this world), Mozzarella di Bufala with figs and toasted walnuts (quite good, though once you have had the real thing in Italy, everything else is just a reminder of what could be). Main course was Parmesan potatoes filled with peppers and goat cheese (fine) and kohlrabi with beluga lentils (hmmm good)<br />
We opted for the cookies and cream for desert (vanilla ice cream with chocolate cookies with bits of olive (quite good).<br />
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Coming from the USA, where plates are gigantic, the tendency to smaller portions at first site leaves one disappointed, but you don't go away hungry, and it's certainly much healthier to eat less.<br />
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I highly recommend this place, and will return.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-27139781137094559732012-09-10T11:05:00.001-04:002012-09-10T11:12:40.794-04:00Eulogy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Iq9HwYItHOc/UE4AM4mKxfI/AAAAAAAAAbg/oOWGZ-XG4zo/s1600/Larry%2BGibson2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Iq9HwYItHOc/UE4AM4mKxfI/AAAAAAAAAbg/oOWGZ-XG4zo/s320/Larry%2BGibson2.jpg" /></a></div>Some people are too important to die. The effort they make inspires too many, the work they do has too large an impact, and their selflessness and generosity propel so many others to great efforts. One cannot imagine that they are mortal.<br />
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Though short in stature, Larry Gibson was a giant of a man. In life, he did more to fight mountaintop removal mining (MTR, one of the great environmental injustices of our day) than any other person. His tireless campaigning and constant willingness to guide journalists, activists, and concerned citizens through the scenes of this nightmare were both an inspiration and an invaluable component of the effort to stop this crime.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VnbL9bHyVt4/UE4Ag2swtNI/AAAAAAAAAbs/8ym_z7vWxng/s1600/Larry%2BGibson3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="214" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VnbL9bHyVt4/UE4Ag2swtNI/AAAAAAAAAbs/8ym_z7vWxng/s320/Larry%2BGibson3.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Wanting to photograph MTR, I called Larry on recommendation from a friend, and he opened his home, his calendar, and his heart to me. I went to his place, adjacent to one of the largest MTR sites, numerous times, and Larry always had time to feed, house, and guide me.<br />
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One of the large coal mining companies had acquired the land around Larry and destroyed it, then used every possible method to take his. They killed his dogs, they sent bullies to intimidate him, they broke up his parties, and those are only the stories he shared with me. But, Larry was not a man to be intimidated.<br />
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The world is a smaller place now that Larry will not answer the phone with that thick West Virginia accent. But he still lives with all of us who loved and were inspired by him.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMFURlLS3wM/UE4AwFygWuI/AAAAAAAAAcE/cON5L3vXe20/s1600/Larry%2BGibson4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMFURlLS3wM/UE4AwFygWuI/AAAAAAAAAcE/cON5L3vXe20/s320/Larry%2BGibson4.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-30713566851089935312012-08-14T22:29:00.000-04:002012-08-14T22:29:53.262-04:00ThumbCareWhile the debate about "Obamacare" rages, with the doomsayers claiming national fiscal ruin, and the proponents touting the GAO's projected savings, I will throw a couple of personal pennies into the fray.<br />
Recently, in Germany, i had a small infection on my thumb, which i ignored till the pain prevented me from retrieving coins from the pocket. A friend made an appointment with a doctor she knew, elaborating that i was in a hurry, and could i run in the next day and be seen promptly. Contrary to my usual tiresome tardiness, i was more or less on time, and, with a minimum of paperwork, was shown in to a treatment room. Shortly thereafter, the doctor entered, listened to my explanation, prescribed treatment, and walked me out to the desk to sign out. <br />
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Time to pay at the doctor is always stressful. Must I give them my firstborn?<br />
They inquired about my insurance, and i embarrassedly told them that I was an American artist, and we lived without those luxuries, praying for health, and dreading the fiscal consequence of illness. They expressed the usual disbelief of the civilized for the unwashed, and asked about the new health care law, to which I replied that the battle was still under way. I assured them I would pay, and, based on my experience with the US healthcare system, expected that I would have to cash in my plane ticket home to cover it. In the most apologetic way they handed me a bill for 38 euros, about $45. In the USA, this would have cost at least $200, and i would never have waltzed in the next day, be seen promptly, and on my way.<br />
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So when someone tells you that it doesn't work in countries with universal health care, look at this <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/heres-a-map-of-the-countries-that-provide-universal-health-care-americas-still-not-on-it/259153/">map</a> of the countries that provide it and note that Amerika is the one "developed" nation that does not. And i can personally attest that Germans live as well or better than us, so don't start with the "it will bankrupt us" line.<br />
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Please. Healthcare. Now.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-2049569842524040882012-07-18T11:41:00.001-04:002012-07-18T12:11:39.010-04:00DartmouthWe were extremely pleased when Dartmouth's Hood Museum notified us that the student curatorial team had chosen “Arsenic is Grey” as their addition to the permanent collection last year.<br />
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The Museum's focus on environmental photography is a pleasure to see in this world of denial. It was also gratifying that they invited me to come speak in conjunction with the exhibit “Looking Back at Earth” for which my image was chosen as the key artwork.<br />
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The trek from NYC to Dartmouth is long, and, as I always prefer mass transit, the best option was a bus from the Yale Club, which proved to be a door-to-door pleasure, complete with internet and decent coffee. Hanover, NH has many features of other college towns: a thriving cultural life, good organic and local food (so hard to find elsewhere in the USA), and decent coffee, though the boutique cafe brews each cup singularly using a plastic drip funnel, a horror for a plastiphobe like myself. I spoke first to a Photo 101 class, and as usual in that setting, bounced back and forth between photo-technique and environmental. My query established that there were some climate change deniers in the group, so I did not hammer that sensitive issue too hard (god bless amerika). We live in a land polarized by vitriolic dialog, and a rabid denial of science. The water is rising and storms increasing, yet half of our population clings to the Fox party line that climate change is non-existent (god bless amerika). But God will not save us, only we can do that, but the tipping point comes perilously closer. Once we push up global temperature enough to release that frozen methane in the tundra and ocean floor, game over.<br />
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But it's pointless to tell this to someone fed on a diet of Fox disinformation, because, like the Incas that could not see the murderous weapons of the Spaniards, they will not hear it.<br />
So I take pictures. Of the things that are causing cancer and climate change. And I make them disturbingly beautiful, so they create doubt in the minds of the certain. Because dialog has failed in our country, and hard has a magical way of getting around that, of sidestepping the “rationalizing brain.” So just look at the pictures, and I will try to keep my mouth shut. And think about the impact on your grandchildren of that next roll of toilet paper you buy.<br />
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After the class there was a well-attended public talk in the auditorium, with lots of questions at the end, which I love. Dartmouth was a wonderful experience, and it's a pleasure to interact with young people that are asking questions with open eyes. I hope they can awaken the rest of us.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-22699085938816953662012-06-13T15:25:00.001-04:002012-06-13T15:26:06.479-04:00Projekt SenckenbergAs the world becomes ever more virtual, with seemingly any purchase, communication, or information available through the ether, leaving the house seems ever more a tiresome inconvenience. And noone can deny the importance of the web, to the point that lack of a presence there seems anywhere from charmingly anachronistic to downright dangerous.
The Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt is one of the most respected natural history museums in the world, on par with New York’s Museum of Natural History. Their recent symposium “Exhibit Nature, Explain Science” was an examination of the role of traditional museums in the contemporary electronic world with presentations by a range of participants from other nature museums showing cutting-edge exhibits to technology vendors with new tools for dissemination. And me.
Ironies abound in our world: everyone loves nature shows on television, but participates (albeit unwittingly) in the destruction of this realm we love. Perfect example: toilet paper. Who would think that paper companies denude old-growth forests to make this product that we flush away several times a day? The lesson? One of the simplest things the individual can do to save wildlife is buy TP made from recycled stock. This is the type of message that goes perfectly in a nature museum.
The experience of presenting to such an audience was fantastic, with more to come, we hope. To speak to such a group, talk about one’s project, then get the live feedback, is something that the internet can never do; and thus the importance of live interaction. We are social animals. Nothing can replace the experience of the face-to-face meeting and exchange.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-88270100398940059092012-03-07T13:08:00.000-05:002012-03-07T13:08:11.615-05:00Marc1One of the interesting things about hydro-fracking for shale gas is that the plays are relatively low production. So, a lot of wells must be drilled to produce a significant volume of gas (thus dotting the countryside - nay - now read: industrial zone, with well pads, like one every few blocks). And of course, all that gas must be collected from all those wells and routed to a central distribution point, and from there to your home. (By the way, it leaks a bit at every step of the way, creating a tremendous local pollution and climate change problem). To move the gas from well to home, pipelines are the preferred method, over hill and dale and through the rivers they run.<br />
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Currently, in the pincushion once known as Pennsylvania, the new scheme is to run a pipeline through the Endless Mountains. The appeals to the reason of the courts have been struck down by the arm of the American Petroleum Institute, once known as the Pennsylvania legal system, and the logging machines are in gear, like the army of Saruman, cutting a wide gash through the wilderness in preparation for the giant ditch soon to follow. Run, ye precious flora, fauna, and nature lovers alike, your haven is destroyed.<br />
So, like the armies mustering for the battle of clear futility, I prepare to fly today to photograph the destruction.<br />
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The similarities to the Lord Of The Rings are just too precious.<br />
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LightHawk, personified by the great aviator Bob Keller, like the Great Eagle who rescued Gandalf, will take me to enjoin the battle wherever we find the machines of desecration on their tortured path.<br />
But like true believers, we never concede defeat, living in the hope of the miracle - that the citizenry will awaken to their peril, throw off the mind-numbing media oppressors and rise to the occasion to demand a shift to a non-hydrocarbon economy.<br />
We promise to be generous when the poor people of Pennsylvania ask us for some of our water.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-11520090565620556112012-02-02T08:33:00.000-05:002012-02-02T08:33:36.695-05:00Song of the Earth in WeimarIn 1905, having just been expelled from his position as court composer in Vienna, discovering his heart failure, and grieving the loss of his daughter, Gustav Mahler put the poems of Hans Bethge to his signature sound, creating one of the great pieces of modern music, and musically anticipating the turmoil soon to engulf the world.<br />
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Multi-media projects in their best iterations magnify the good of each of the component media, just as Mahler's music enhances the words of Bethge. <i>Das Lied von der Erde</i> was created during the apocalyptic collision of the historic narratives of Europe. Juxtaposing lyrical images of the detritus of our consumption with <i>Das Lied von Der Erde</i> is a natural fit for the creation of a larger work to address these modern issues.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aODXm-vx6oM/TynoVjlcLVI/AAAAAAAAAa4/IFCe2vLVt5I/s1600/3955-257jhFair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="223" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aODXm-vx6oM/TynoVjlcLVI/AAAAAAAAAa4/IFCe2vLVt5I/s320/3955-257jhFair.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Creating a multi-media piece involves interweaving multiple narratives, which sometimes speak to each other, and otherwise tell their own stories. Here was an opportunity for my work to reach a completely new audience, one that was largely unexposed to this message about the looming disasters that face us, and our causal behavior.<br />
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So many times a magic idea needs just the one person that “gets it” and makes it happen, seemingly with the snap of the fingers. In this case, that person was Stefan Solyom, conductor of the <a href="http://www.nationaltheater-weimar.de/staatskapelle/sinfoniekonzerte/index.html?mid=16" target="_new">Weimar Staatskapelle</a>. Then arise the complexities of actually executing a simple idea. The visual animation of the <i>Industrial Scars</i> images was redacted by Joel Plotch, done with an old recording by Bruno Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic to set the meter, a recording Stefan and I had agreed was our favorite.<br />
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What a foolish assumption to think that all would go according to plan. The two soloists, of course, had their own interpretation of the proper tempo, and it did not match that of Bruno Walter. The tenor, Andreas Conrad, preferred a much faster rendition, and the soprano Tuija Knihtilä, slower. So there I was, dripping sweat in the dress rehearsal as my masterpiece seemed about to crash and burn. With a deep breath, the idea of continuously adjusting the video playback rate to keep time with the music was the obvious solution, albeit one requiring intense concentration, especially not being a German speaker.<br />
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Ultimately, the performance was breath-taking - the projection of Industrial Scars images in HD over the heads of the orchestra was a transformative experience (at least for me).JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906984905483042580.post-35665970770137293052011-12-20T13:43:00.004-05:002011-12-20T13:55:40.944-05:00Buy A HouseI'm a little blue. Circumstances have conspired so that I must leave a house that I love. We have all been there. And of course, the consolation is that this is a great time to buy a house, or so they say. I want to stay in New York State, and Westchester is too expensive, so I am looking north. There are some great places on the market: nice houses, large properties, old farms. I look at the listings and imagine myself there - a beautiful picture. Then I look them up on the map, and my heart sinks, as I cross-reference each location against a map of the existing gas drilling leases in New York State. The sad fact is that much of New York State has been leased for gas drilling, and as a prospective buyer of property, there is no way I would buy something that might have hydro-fracking near it.<br />
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Admittedly I have a good understanding of the process, and thus the risks inherent. But even for the layman, all one needs to know can be summarized in <a href="http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20111213/OPINION02/712139975" target="_new">this editorial</a> by an environmental engineering technician: “Hydraulic fracturing as it’s practiced today will contaminate our aquifers.” Why would I, as a home buyer looking to invest life savings in a property, buy something that will have poisoned water?<br />
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The question arises whether I should believe this technician or the glowing industry reports (from an industry that has wheedled exemptions from the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and hopes to get in and profit and get out). I will err on the side of caution, thank you very much. And of course I feel badly for those who were duped into signing leases for their land, and even worse for those that live adjacent to leased land. Caveat emptor.JHFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10180756177225529399noreply@blogger.com0