Ecological Art And Its Effects On America And The Impact On The Entire Globe

The Earth is our home, so why don’t we take care of it and preserve it? Most people think that they can’t make a difference as just one individual in a world of over 7 billion people, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Anything from being a vegetarian, which highly reduces the amount of water used and byproduct created when farming animals, to carpooling to school helps combat global warming. By convincing my English class that global warming is an important issue that we are facing today and will face in the future, I hope to get them to take their own initiatives to reduce their footprint on our planet Earth.

According to an annual Gallup survey, “Americans are way more worried about water pollution than global warming, air pollution, or other major environmental concerns.” (Loughlin). Drinking polluted water will harm individuals and their families but global warming has not appeared to danger us and so we do not worry about it (Walker). In the article, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, by David Suzuki, it is indicated that humans have lost interconnectedness with nature. In other words, people have put importance to the more unnecessary things, which are the main causes for us consuming chemicals in food and creating dangerous pollution and diseases. The ignorance of our modernist society faces has led us all to severe problems. One should be more aware of what 's happening around us instead of just letting things happen. We must be more cautious so that we can live in a safe environment.

Climate change has been a subject of discussion in the media for many years, supported with the use of arguments against oil polluting the environment and extreme scare tactics of Polar ice caps flooding civilians backyards. The issue has been ignored by the majority of lay people as seeming too complicated, and with all the conflicting information in the media in the past, who can blame them? However, scientifically, climate change and what perpetrates it is fairly simple to understand and society as a whole is beginning to come to a clear consensus on climate change. Thanks in part to more readily available forms of media and information, people have become cognizant of the fact that climate change is a legitimate problem which requires immediate amelioration. While this may seem melodramatic, society is realizing that climate change is an issue which can no longer be denied if the human race wishes to continue.

As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial, by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan, is a graphic novel about the state of our environment. They use cartoons and abundant sarcasm to convey the message that the attempts people are making to save the environment are not enough to do any real good. Their message challenges both those of Edward O. Wilson and the University of Connecticut in that Jensen and McMillan’s ideas are much more radical and suggest that the ideas posed by Wilson and UConn, such as the importance of recycling and sustainability efforts, are ineffective at saving the environment. We must resolve the challenges posed by Jensen and McMillan so that all of the ideas put forth in the sources may work together rather than against each other. In order to do this we must accept that some of the ideas given by Jensen and McMillan may be too extreme to do any real good and that the ideas suggested by Wilson and UConn, though slightly ineffective, are nonetheless important steps in saving the environment. Taken alone, none of their ideas will save the environment; instead it is necessary to combine the ideas of Wilson, UConn, and Jensen and McMillan in order to create a more realistic plan to save the planet.

In order to compose this assignment, I visited the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum (CAM). The USF Contemporary Art Museum is a compact museum on campus located near the Dance buildings and the Theatres. The museum opened its establishment in 1989 and has offered a wide range of art from around the world including the United States, Africa, Europe, and Latin America (usfcam.usf.edu). In order to keep students engaged in the art, the museum changes its exhibits a couple times a year. Currently, the exhibition on display is entitled Extracted and incorporates “the extraction and circulation of natural resources around the globe” (Megan Voeller). Despite the museum being not large in size, I was able to attain a sense of nature through photographs, sculptures, video messages, and banners produced from artists including Otobang Nkanga, Marina Zurkow, Claire Pentecost, Mary Mattingly and Daniel Shiffman. The social angle most strongly related to the exhibit on display at this time is nature and culture. Extracted was motivated by relationships between humans and the environment referring to “complex technical processes behind oil drilling and mining or industrial agriculture” (Megan Voeller). Most of the artists focus their work on nature including the environment, ecosystems, and life itself.

Global Warming has changed American’s perspectives in many ways though-out the past centuries including: the way society views our environment, technology, cultural values, as well as expectations. According to Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein, The Real World; An Intro to Sociology; 4th Edition (pg.45), a paradigm shifts, “occur when new data force new ways of looking at the world”. In the 1950’s increased awareness was placed on global warming and the Green House Effect due to new technology showing that the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were rising each year (Encyclopedia of Global Warming). As a result Americans were concerned with pollution for the first time in history; and in return, our cultures perspectives slowly started to change the way we look at the world.

With the rise of calamitous news regarding extremists groups taking over certain states, countries threatening to go to war, and viruses spreading throughout the world; the outlook of humanity does not look good. In addition to these dire headlines is the matter of climate change, which, unfortunately, is not as alarming to the public eye. Nonetheless, climate change is a pressing matter as it will impact every facet of society from economy to even human survival. Perhaps the general public find climate change as a vapid subject because of its nature to react belatedly to human activity, and how it is often represented with numbers, graphs, and projections; things that are not compelling to those that do not understand its importance. Even

The environment can be described as all those elements, both the living and the non-living that surrounds us. The environment can also refer to the condition within which individuals, animals and plants lives. Mankind has a role to play in the environment, which mainly concerns taking care of the environment as well as improving it. Since, we as human beings are different from animals as we have a gift consciousness, we have an obligation of being improvers of the environment through ensuring that we observe environmental consciousness and that we avoid all those practices that negatively affects the environment and cause ecological crisis and problems. This essay will use the article “Towards a Buddhist Environmental Ethics” by Rita M Gross to help in the answering of the question “What is our appropriate role in relation the environment?” The essay will additionally look into the concept of ‘deep ecology’ by Bill Devall and George Sessions to get a deeper understanding of the ecology and our relationship with it, a concept that will help us to be in a better position to answer our appropriate role concerning the environment.

Artwork that depicts the environment is fascinating. Artists that create artwork about environmentalism and ecology tend to focus on nature as a whole or one specific thing from nature. They like to create artwork that shows how things shape our understanding of the natural world, show the changing of landscapes of the American West, or even artwork that addresses some of the problems with animal rights. Mark Dion is an artist who observes how ideologies and public schools tend to mold our understanding of the natural world and history. Robert Adams is a photographer who documents the issues about the changing of the American West. His photography shows how nature is being destroyed because of the fast paced growth of human living and society. Marco Evaristti is an installation artist like Mark Dion but Evaristti’s art focuses on animal rights. He uses living animals in certain situations to where the audience could potentially cause harm to the animals. This kind of artwork focused around the environment and nature really appealed to me because I like the outdoors and seeing animals in the wild. These three artists appealed to me because I liked their reasoning behind their artwork. I do believe urban cities are growing at a really

Mother Nature in my opinion is considered the worlds most vibrant and influential art mediums. Being able to work with various raw and earthy materials can often convey a sublime, meaningful, and provocative message. Environmental artists act out as their own free individual creator, especially when constructing their artwork.

Green living is one of the hottest topics in the 21h century since we are facing the shortage of resources and the degradation of the environment. Waste sorting, recycling, light saving and so forth, we regard them as basic steps of environment protection. However, in “As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial”, by Derrick Jensen, Stephanie McMillan, 2007, authors use visual arts illustrates this way of protection is not on the right track. They pointed out that the earth will burn out before we die out, and those simple steps we do to protect environment only reduce the urgency but do not solving the problems. In "The Politics of the Natural in U.S. History and Popular Culture”, by Noёl Sturgeon, 2009, the author discussed that advertising of popular culture would affect negatively on the environment in future concern. Both readings use visual rhetoric to demonstrate the current environment situation and its problem.

Art is a catalyst of change. It can confront both social and political issues as well as providing people with a creative outlet in which they can express their innermost thoughts and feelings - but what effect can art have on our society as a whole? Artists today have the unique ability to connect with people in a creative, innovative way that they can understand and interpret themselves. With this ability, artists are able to express their own views as well as influencing the views of others. Art is an immense part of our world – so much so that we barely even consider its impact upon us – but just how significant is the work of artists in our modern day society?

Art is not just a picture on a wall or in a museum, art comes in many forms. It can be a song you just heard, a video you watched, or a painting you saw in a gallery. Also, art can be just text. All forms of art grasp you in different ways and make your thoughts evolve to new distances. Art can bring you feelings you did not think you had. You can perceive the art in many ways and the creator wants it to influence you. I believe that yes, at can truly influence society and inform human behavior. While it may seem to some that pictures, songs, and videos influence you the most, it is actually true that books are the most influential and informative because they get in touch with your mind and emotions.

This film depicts the devastating effects of human activity in modern society on the environment resulting in global climate change creating extreme weather events such as floods, tornadoes, droughts, and hurricanes. Change in Earth’s overall temperature is difficult to conceptualize because its long term effects do not present urgency in most people’s minds; consequentially, the film discloses the lack of concern for environmental issues throughout government agencies and most citizens. Even with the recent international industrial pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the objectives are poorly defined and lack the intensity to reverse the damage. Incorporating both the scientific and governmental explanation of climate change, the film illustrates the tremendous positive impact civilian activists can accomplish. For example, the activists are planning the first major climate change march and rallying local citizens behind a common goal to create meaningful change. Following the movie the Eco Reps initiated a discussion session regarding Elon’s impact on the environment and specific ways students can alter their habits to make positive change such as recycling, turning off electronics when not in use, and eating less meat. Although most of the students were impressed with the measures Elon incorporates to be sustainable,  I think the majority of the student body during their daily lives do not consider environmental issues; thus, students’ perspectives on climate change need to be altered.

As a 17-year old teenager going to high school, contrary to the environmental activist, David Suzuki’s, remarks about the ignorance of humans about nature, I receive much information about these kinds of problems at my school, from dedicated assemblies, eco fairs and special days that address our responsibility to deal with nature in a more responsible fashion. Yet, when the school day is over, all of the information seeps out of the roof of the school; plastic water bottles are still found in the corners of hallways and leftover Tim Hortons cups are still present in the desks of my former Business class. Even when I step inside the door of my house, the disconnection from nature is apparent. Most of my time at home is spent looking at a screen and doing homework and the only sign of nature would be the fly