'Ice Watch' in Paris raises awareness on global warming
Date
12/5/2015 6:47:10 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) A Danish-Icelandic artist has corralled 80 tons of icebergs from Greenland and trucked them to the heart of the French capital where the UN Climate Change Conference is underway to raise awareness about global warming.
The 12 melting ice boulders harvested from free-floating blocks of ice in Nuup Kangerlua fjord outside Nuuk in Greenland are positioned in a circular arrangement to resemble a clock; they reached Paris on Dec.3 and have been left to slowly melt by Dec.11 at the end of the conference on the cobbles in front of the Pantheon building in the fifth district of Paris.
The project made by visual artist Olafur Eliasson and developed with Danish geologist Minik Thorleif Rosing aims "to encourage public action against climate change at [the conference] COP21”.
"As an artist I hope my works touch people which in turn can make something that may have previously seemed quite abstract into reality" Eliasson said in a statement.
Eliasson had already created a similar installation in October 2014 in front of the city hall in Copenhagen Denmark by transporting 100 tons of ice that fell into the sea as a result of global warming.
"Art has the ability to change our perceptions and perspectives on the world and ‘Ice Watch’ makes the climate challenges we are facing tangible.
“I hope it will inspire shared commitment to taking climate action" Eliasson added.
Rosing professor of geology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen said: "Through our actions we are now close to terminating the period of stable climate that served as the condition for civilizations to arise and flourish.
“Science and technology have made it possible for us to destabilize Earth’s climate but now that we understand the mechanisms behind these changes we have the power to prevent them from growing."
The “Ice Watch” project is part of the initiative of “Artists4ParisClimate2015” under which major contemporary artists from around the world are mobilizing action around climate change and desertification through art projects.
"Depending on weather conditions Ice Watch is expected to be on view until December 11 the last day of the conference. Remaining ice will then be brought to local schools and cultural institutions as part of an extended community educational program" reads a statement on the project's website.
More than 25000 delegates are holding negotiations in Paris suburbs Le Bourget in a bid to strike a deal on carbon emissions regulations.
The deal is meant to keep the global average temperature within two degrees Celsius of what it was at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.
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