Will the stark reality between Australia’s climate future and the denial, the fudging and blustering for economic and special interests finally come home to roost?
Will the stark reality between Australia’s climate future and the denial, the fudging and blustering for economic and special interests finally come home to roost?
Will our government finally be dragged kicking and screaming to join the consensus of our nearest neighbors, whose future as proud island nations reach to an inevitable, whimpering conclusion?
Will it acknowledge its contribution to our current, escalating crisis and take appropriate action or will it continue to nibble away, staring blankly ahead, irrespective of the calamities that are increasing befalling our nation?
A gas lead recovery is a fools errand that will be our nations shame and the demise of our nations pride.
Audiovisual animation for Michael Mann’s upcoming book – The New Climate War.
Audiovisual animation for Michael Mann’s upcoming book – The New Climate War.
The style of the video was a bit of a homage to The Expanse which has some great scenes of planets in their trailer.
Spent a lot of time picking a great track from Storyblocks and then aligning the animations to the beat. This one is Arabic Cinematic Middle Eastern Music from Artist, Volodymyr Piddubnyk.
Here I used maps and cloud textures from NASA and created globes using Adobe After Effects for the realistic Earth scenes. For the single colour Earth’s I used Adobe Illustrator to colour and simplify them. I also used effects from Mister Horse Animation Composer, to speed up the animation process.
Finally, I added some sound effects to animations which rounded out the animations.
Animated videos for Michael E. Mann’s upcoming book – The New Climate War.
Here’s some animated videos I created for Michael E. Mann’s upcoming book – The New Climate War. Creating animations like this, is a way I can give back and highlight the climate crisis and support our advocates .
The first is a 15 second clip and the second one minute but includes quotes from reviewers.
Short clip
Clip with quotes.
More info on The New Climate book can be found here:
The animation concept was to keep it aligned to the book cover and not make it too overly dramatic.
The animations were created using Adobe After Effects. The globe maps and clouds were flat maps from NASA which I flattened, simplified and coloured in Adobe Illustrator. I used CC Sphere effect and set the rotation of the earth and clouds to difference speeds. I also added additional turbulence to the clouds as well as several illumination effects.
We are at risk of losing everything that we hold dear. Before our eyes record temperatures on the rise year on year.
An animated short film on Australia’s climate change denial and the importance of moving away from fossil fuels and embracing a renewable future.
An animated climate change video that tries to connect with the audience. History will not judge us favourably until we stop obfuscating and set aggressive goals to reduce carbon emissions. Accounting tricks and woefully inadequate Paris Targets do us all a disservice. Blatantly wrong strategic choices on a gas led recovery are going to come back to haunt us unless do the right thing.
“EU set to deny gas power plants a green investment label”
This animated video tries to capture the audience emotionally rather than through facts and figures. It focuses on the potential of extinction of some of our most beloved animals.
I think I’ll keep coming back to this video and adding additional scenes that bring this important issue to life.
Climate FoolAustralia’s emission’s denial
We are at risk
Of losing everything
that we hold dear.
Before our eyes
record temperatures
on the rise
year on year.
Undeniable.
Extended bushfire seasons,
more severe.
Droughts and floods
now our constant companion.
Irrefutable.
This climate crisis
threatens the very existence
of the symbols
that define our nation.
Koala extinction in NSW by 2050.
Can you imagine a future
without them?
Is this the Australia
we want to leave
our children
and our children’s children?
Will the destruction
of our country
be our legacy?
There is a way.
Carbon emission targets
that reduce emissions by 50%
in the next decade
and zero targets by 2050
can take us back from the brink.
We can make a difference.
If we stop listening to the lies
of polluters
mining, coal, oil and gas industries
with their insatiable greed.
Politicians at their beck and call
ignoring science
with outrageous lies
and slights of hand
to get money,
to stay in power,
regardless of the consequences.
There is hope.
We can chart a path using renewable energy.
If we act now
to stop
the destruction
of our lucky country.
Forgive me For I fear We will stumble We will fall For our species Has proven Is incapable of more.
We trip over our own excesses Without recognising our indulgences Frame an equation without countenance Our regard It weighs In favour of our privilege .
Lifting our gaze imperiously From a bloody floor We pick ourselves up Squeezing out a breath so painfully Heaving with all our might Turning to sneer at those miscreants Our poor undeserving brethren The invisible For on their backs As always We will Unashamedly crawl.
Our eyes fixated on futures past Illusions born from papering thin walls A denial of our own morality Our impending inescapable mortality A consequence for all to bear.
There is no fairytale ending here Blind optimism Wishful thinking Will make no difference We will deny all truth And with our ever so selfish acts Our world inevitably Tragically disintegrates Until our very end.
Inevitably temperatures rise Destroying all that is society Satisfied with the consequence Of our inaction We party on Why not? To the very end.
As long As if At the very last That gasp So final To draw Is ours Not theirs At the very end.
Forgive me For our inevitable extinction Is the only rationale scientific conclusion For within a 100 years Civilisation as we know it Will surely end.
=====
Part of a series of poems of potential futures. This will part of an art exhibit later this week.
I read some research on likely outcomes and where we are headed unless we change our ways… and wanted to show one future that is becoming increasingly likely. I know everyone likes an optimistic ending but I wanted to try something that ends bleakly – where we end up with what is the 6th major extinction event to befall this planet with a very different society and planet.
I used Adobe After Effects to create a 3D earth based on
map textures from NASA and then a dust effect similar to that of the
Avengers movies from tutorials on the Internet.
A hard yet fulfilled life on the land. Lines etched on his face by hard won gains. Battling against all elements. Against nature’s bane.
A hard yet fulfilled life on the land
Lines etched on his face
By hard won gains
Battling against all elements
Against nature’s bane.
With a farm inherited from his father’s father
With a proud lineage and strong legacy
He is a pillar of the local, rural community
He doesn’t say much
But is always there to support those in need
Our honourable battler.
A harsh Australian outback
A parched corner of the land
In futile search of rain
In constant yearning,
In constant pain.
With cattle in desperate need of feed
Foraging in dusty paddocks
For meagre grasses
That are distant memories
Long gone
They are starving
Sagging skins draping skeletal frames
Disease takes hold
Too late — they can’t be sold!
No option left but culling stock
Too late to remake his lot.
With debt also the way of life
With incessant bills to pay
Mounting up, perilously high
An amount so obscene
Teetering
On the brink
Threatening to come crashing down
To destroy his life’s work
To take away his crown.
For all of his experience
For all his father taught him
From generations passed knowledge
The practices and ways
The tricks in his kit bag
The wisdom of the age
With slow governmental policies
That sow confusion
With handouts that shame
They are unable to help him face today’s demons
That climate change has unleashed
Nature’s revenge
Unchecked by man
Upon his unwary, tempered land.
And now his façade is slipping
His belief system is faltering
The pressure continues building
His failings are exposed
This strong and unfailing farmer
Has to grudgingly turn to face a truth
A truth that he has tried desperately to stow
That the master of his surroundings
One that he has shaped with his own two bare hands
That represents his essence, his being
That represents his soul
Well that world
That his world
Is slipping through his fingers
Is inexorably crumbling
Disintegrating
Turning to dust.
How does he reconcile this new truth with his wife?
That he has to break her faith?
That all that he could do — has been done
That there is no honest answer
That there is no other path to follow
That he has faltered
That he is lost this fight
That he has failed
That he is cast adrift
In that unforgiving, sun-burnt land.
The knot in his chest grows tighter
Sweat drips from his brow
Sleep continues to evade
And it is in those witching hours
In the pitch black of night
The darkness before dawn
When despair is at its zenith
With innermost fears brutally exposed
Ominous rumblings become louder
His thoughts turn to something wretched
Dreadful whispering surround him
Of a final escape from his onslaught.
He dismisses it in a second
But yet
There is a slight delay…
But yet
It sits there just below the surface
Lurking
Festering
Welcoming
Enticing him
Seducing him
Growing at the edges
Biding its time
Waiting
Offering its warm intoxicating embrace
A final resolution
The bringer of peace
The harbinger of rest
To be rid of his anguish
To take all his troubles away.
Our dear, stoic farmer
So unwittingly close to his own demise
Pondering his potential options
Options that he dare not speak out loud
Because of pride.
“Oh for the love of God!
Oh for the shame!
Another day
Another night
All consuming
More bills to pay!
No end in sight!
It’s never been this bad before
Nothing I do makes a difference!”
He sighs.
And it is in that watershed moment
At his life’s tipping point
Standing at the precipice
Preparing himself
When all is lost
To take a step beyond
To flee this world
To escape his chains.
And it is in that moment
In the stillness of the morning break
Upon lightening skies
In that oh so precious moment
As he watches the sun slowly rise
Dazzling beams reach across the horizon
Casting their golden rays on all to him that is precious
As he hears a trilling birds cry.
It is in that moment
That he remembers
In that grace
That he realises
Where all that is good in life
Envelops him
That he finally makes a decision
That he finally decides.
With great strength and ultimate resolve
With all his character
With love in his eyes
Of a shared history
Of tears, of laughter, of pain and surprise
A lifetime in its making
Against all his training
That a man must follow
His code
With a never seen before openness
His pride exposed to the elements
Laying down his shame
Finally….
He turns to his wife.
Background
Part of a series of poems on financial inclusion. This one focusing on the drought and the increased rates of suicide in farming communities. Photos edited from unsplash. In the animated video I experimented with motion capture.
At its heart its about the issue of apathy towards climate change, why there such a lack of interest and how we can engage people in this important issue. It discusses how we can find a way to move people from a position of apathy to interested and then finally to become activists.
Advance Australia Fair – A Climate Change Story
The idea for this poem came out of GovHack 2018 – a programming competition in Australia using government open data sets . Our team settled on climate change and environmental data sets and I wanted to experiment with using poem structure to explain the issue and our solution. My first attempt at a poem and recording it over a weekend was terrible but I felt so alarmed by the research I had done on climate change that I continued refine it for several months afterwards.
At its heart its about the issue of apathy towards climate change, why there such a lack of interest and how we can engage people in this important issue. It discusses how we can find a way to move people from a position of apathy to interested and then finally to become activists.
It represents one of my first spoken word poems and I was initially quite nervous to put it out in the wild… but then I thought life’s too short!
I recorded a video version using many photos from unsplash.com – so thanks to that site and the many photographers whose excellent work I’ve used that are provided for free to the community.
It’s extraordinary climate deniers remain in Australian Politics
David Attenborough
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair
The majestic beauty of our land
Its frailties so easily exposed.
Crops inundated by floods
And starved by drought
Farmers wandering what to sow
The beauty of our coastal plains
And our coral reefs diversity,
Whispering their bittersweet swansong
To our nation
So Poignantly
A story of unrelenting turmoil and tragedy.
Un-listened
Unheard,
Unrecognised
Affected by this new and terrible reality.
The imperceptible creeping rise of H20
It’s higher tides and storm surges
With its urges
To wash away all signs of our humanity
While we struggle to see the impending calamity
As it lurches ever closer
The harsh price we pay
With weather patterns
Taking no pity on our damaged lands
Our bedraggled homes pummeled by downpours and blight
Our browning lawns gasping
Eeking out paltry vapours as they fight
For their very survival.
We stare on in false ecstasy
With false bravado at our lucky country
With idle chatter and polite social conversation
We fixate on investment,
Of house prices with all their fallacies
Choosing to ignore the elephant trumpeting in our room
Can you not see Caesar!
Rome is burning!
We stare on…
Our gazes carefully ignoring that which is in front of our eyes.
Like lobsters in a pot
Frozen
Oblivious of our impending culinary demise
An hors d’oeurve,
To be quickly nibbled, digested and our remains to be cast aside
Why so much apathy to this danger?
The signals clearly in front of our eyes
How big do the billboards need to be
to be recognised?
Do the neon lights need to be flashing?
The foghorns blaring?
What can we surmise?
What will it take
For us to stumble off the couch
Stumbling as if drunk
With bleary eyes
With uncertainty
With sweaty bodies fattened by inaction
With little consensus of the right path
With trepidation and meditation
But now with conviction
Be brave
Suck it in
We will enter the fray.
Lead on McDuff!
Lead on!
Are we deer frozen by some blinding headlights?
Is our political system too broken?
To focused on sound bites that have no might
Our media chasing headline stories
Of vacuous celebrities that amount only to a pregnant pause.
Our scientists shouting in the wilderness
Their voices drowned out
Not finding a voice that can be heard
Not finding a connection to the greater cause
In this desert
Do we simply bury our heads in the sand?
Is the problem too large for us to understand?
So do we shrug our shoulders and continue on our way?
Do we have the power and wherewithal to stay
To fight
Are we delegating our responsibility?
Believing that a higher power will be our salvation?
That there is no need for consternation.
That the Mighty Lord in his revelations
Will save us from our flaws.
Is that our mitigation?
But just in case…
Can we not in our busy lives,
simply take a moment to
Inhale
Close our eyes
Listen
Pause…
Do we not feel some foreboding?
A faint tingling in our bodies
The tip of our tongue
Our second sense
If we strain our eyes
do we not see the shadows lurking?
How do we tear away a popcorn generation.
One weaned on the teat that is our fixation.
A Facebook generation that will pout, take a pic, and share their devotion
Hungrily counting their ephemeral adulation
And a commitment so slight
That as a wispy breeze it simply ends with a like.
How do we put a stop to mind numbing activity
How do we shift our gaze to the fore
To help us realise that the world’s fuse has been lit
That this may lead to a moment
A moment that leaves the world with no option
No option but to eject us
Eject us while our species
Our species that is still in its infancy
A not-so-innocent babe in arms
Snuffed out
Before Its legacy has even begun
How do we wake up a generation from its slumber
That it is being led by a Joker
An orange pied piper – a ludicrous New Yorker
Perhaps to our eventual elimination?
To shake man, women and child from their complacency
To show them it is not too late
That we can crawl to the starting gate
And That we through many small steps walk the talk with conviction
And then, as a nation our future generations will be ready to run at the problems head on, tempered by experience
and armed with the knowledge that there is no one else
That we have gifted this world to them
This problem to solve
In our shame…
For there is no one else to blame…
I hope …not too late…
The is hope…
Can we use technology effectively to connect emotionally
To tear the bleary eyed from their stupor
With tools to hook them
Not with far fetched fantasy
But to show them the effects of climate change now to their hometowns, communities and families
With tools that let them see the impact first hand
That tell a story that they can understand
To open their eyes and digest a future chapter to be written
From that dusty book
You know – that book that they never picked up from the library
In a lonely corner
What’s it called?
Ah yes!
That’s the section
That’s called non-fiction
With attention hooked
Can we take the protagonist on their life journey
The ups and downs
Can we show them the bigger picture
The impact of inaction
not simply to the economy.
But life itself in all its glory
On a knife edge
and in that cutting moment
Which way will it fall?
Can we help them guide its sway?
Can we show them how the lack of environmental policy,
not demanding we answer the hard questions,
Gaia’s wicked problems to be solved.
Can we put data in their hands.
Help them with the crossword puzzle
To make informed decisions for our land.
Can we dis-intermediate the flow of information
Not controlled by faceless men
Of corporations who seek to profit
From a status quo
That cannot be maintained
Disintermediate
Those who want to hide and ignore the worse cases
And those who seek to alarm of only worst cases
Allow people to understand
To understand the risks
and take their own journey
Allow them to find their own story
Can one empowered with information
Armed with knowledge
For with knowledge comes enlightenment
Can one build a sense of urgency
And With conviction to follow it to its bitter end
To be willing to make sacrifices on the way
A way that should have started yesterday
And though we fear our fortune
Let us believe, let us hope that it is not too late
The Spoken Word 