Peninsula Europe Part II: The Rising of Waters The Warming of Lands, 2007
A research based work, which indicates that the Peninsula of Europe will undergo serious drought as well as continuing glacial melt and in two images, the Harrison Studio indicates how much land will be lost, how many people may need to move upward and the trajectory of the drought from the Pyrennees toward Central Europe. The work poses the question, ‘Who’s thinking about this eventuality,’ and thereafter suggests how one might begin doing so.
Exhibited at Nobel Peace Museum, Oslo, Norway and traveling.
Commissioned by: UNEP for the group show, Envisioning Change.
Peninsula Europe: The rising of waters, the trajectory of drought.
So with this scenario the peninsula loses about half its ability to produce its own food. Somebody said that it can be grown on the Russian plain instead. You said, or I said, “Are you sure?”
The European peninsula is clearly surrounded by water on tree sides making it almost an island. However, It can be understood as almost surrounded by water on the fourth side when the eastern boundary is determined by the Vistula River flowing north from the Carpathians to the Baltic Sea and the Dnester River flowing south from the Carpathians to the Black Sea. These rivers do not themselves quite meet, but their tributaries are separated by only about 30 kilometers. Thus, defined by the waters, we see the Peninsula of Europe as a field of play.
For instance Looking at the Peninsula of Europe as a cultural landscape The overproduction of sameness emerges as Dangerous A potentially de-stabilizing pattern Mono-cultural farming becomes obvious in the cast fields of single crops Mono-cultural forestry becomes obvious in the vast plantations of pine There is obvious sameness in the production of goods And in the productions of media by the multinationals And sameness emerges From the blending of the many once diverse cultural patterns Now a disturbing question emerges If diversity helps ensure survival Then Can this sameness be the best possible state of things As the Peninsula And all on it Face the changing of climates, The rising of waters The warming of lands
Looking at the mapping to the right Seeing the waters’ rise noted as about 5 meters an extreme but nonetheless possible prediction for the next hundred or so years Seeing 95 thousand square kilometers of land disappear Much of it indefensible So that 23 million people will have to move upward As the world ocean begins reshaping the Peninsula How can endangered but necessary mean of production Be moved to high ground Wondering whether the endless array of truncated road and railroad systems Really need to be replicated Now we imagine a new set of emergent properties Driven by the rising of waters And the dramatic changes of landscape production And the availability of resources suggesting this is indeed a bifurcation point in a state of becoming A point of reorganization of its own complexities Into a new form of entityhood And if so Peninsula Europe becomes a center of the changing world.
PENINSULA EUROPE: THE RISING OF WATERS, THE TRAJECTORY OF DROUGHT. SO WITH THIS SCENARIO THE PENINSULA LOSES ABOUT HALF ITS ABILITY TO PRODUCE ITS OWN FOOD. SOMEBODY SAID THAT IT CAN BE GROWN ON THE RUSSIAN PLAIN INSTEAD. YOU SAID, OR I SAID, "ARE YOU SURE?"