Earth Day 2012: Maya Lin's "What Is Missing?"

Maya Lin and me discussing "What is Missing?" in 2008.

A few years ago, Maya Lin told me about her plans for a "last memorial," an ongoing, multimedia, multi-site project that unfolds every Earth Day. 

She calls it "What is Missing?" 

I wrote about one component, "Unchopping a Tree," back in 2009.

Another component is a global online memorial that Lin hopes will "connect us personally to what we are witnessing diminish or disappear from nature, in the hope that raising awareness about these poignant stories of loss will help spur action."

Last year, she quietly launched phase one: a Map of Memory. But, as Maya says, "to focus only on loss was too depressing, which is why we waited until this Earth Day to go public." 

The second phase is called Conservation in Action and features stories about ecological restoration and conservation around the world. 

On the site viewers can learn what is being done by conservation groups to protect what is missing before it is missing, including partners such as  Cornell Lab of Ornithology and World Wildlife Fund. 

"We are here to give people hope that so much is being done to help," says Lin.

Yesterday, Maya sent around a helpful guide for using the site:

Click on Time Travel  to go between map of past (the Map of Memory) and the present (Conservation in Action).  

Check out View in Time and View in Place  and see what happens.  

Then select Sort   to better understand the content.(On the Map of the Present, Red 's and green 's highlight conservation successes and disasters) we also allow you to see all the Core Videos we have produced. Those Core Video dots have a sound rollover. With over 600 historical entries on the Map of Memory, you can learn about what the world used to be like from an environmental standpoint.

Lin also wants this to be a truly interactive memorial, where you can add your own memory of what is missing for you -- a place that was important to you that is now paved over or a species that meant a lot to you that is no longer found where you remember it being. She also wants to know about the work you and others are doing to help save or restore a place that's important to you.

"What Is Missing?" Screenshot

Throughout her career, Maya Lin has challenged us to look at the world differently. Her art and architecture often use elements of the natural world to shake up our perception of what is around us. Her memorials have changed the way we think about memorials and how we interact with them and with our memories.


With "What is Missing?" Lin challenges us again to think differently about our relationship to the Earth and the species with which we share the planet.


This Earth Day, take stock of what is missing and spend some time on "What is Missing?" contributing your own memories.

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 04/22/11

CREDIT: NASA via Ron Garan/Astro_Ron

Earth Day edition of the Green Skeptic LinkFest.

When I worked for The Nature Conservancy every day was Earth Day.  So this day was just like any other. Now it is Earth Day and it seems a tad precious, a bit outdated.

Not to my daughter, who reminded me this morning that it was Earth Day and that it's a good thing we recycle. (I didn't have the heart to tell her what I learned from the folks at Glass Recycling Technologies: that of the 12 million tons of glass in the US waste stream annually, over 9 million tons end up in landfills.)

Here are my links for this week:

GreenBiz.com asked 13 corporate executives to answer the question: What's your company doing for Earth Day? 

Stephanie Pappas on "Why You Won’t Read This Earth Day Article (And Why That Doesn’t Matter)". 

Cortney Fielding of GigaOm suggests that "As Cleantech Matures, So Does Approach to Funding."

David Chen of Equilibrium Capital posits "Invest in B Corps; Invest in Our Future."

One year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, The Economist offers a reading list for those interested in the catastrophe. 

Not on The Economist list (but it should be) is my pal Wes Leckrone, who writes The American Partnership blog, on  "Federalism and the Gulf Oil Spill."

A spill of a different sort happened on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon: Pennsylvania Natural Gas Blowout Spills Thousands of Gallons of Toxic Wastewater into Local Community. 

Meanwhile, the US gives green light to Cape Wind project. 

D.R. Tucker of Notes from D.R. and The Urban Right has a compelling post in FrumForum: Confessions of a Climate Change Convert.

Another conservative voice, Jim DiPeso, (The Green Conservative) writes about The Erosion of Conservation as a Conservative Value.

  

Have a great weekend everyone. (And try not to trash Mother Earth this Earth Day; she may just give you a dope slap.)

Has the Green Movement Stalled? Green Skeptic on Fox Business

I was on Fox Business' Varney & Company this morning for Earth Day.

Tyson Slocum from Public Citizen was also on the program and we had fun talking about whether the environmental movement has stalled:

Earth Day: Red Sox, Green Sox; Old Sox, New Sox

This just in from the Sports Desk of The Green Skeptic (aka boston.com): The Boston Red Sox will sport a special green logo on the left sleeves of their uniforms to mark Earth Day when they play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

Earth Day plans also include a pre-game presentation of an Environmental Merit Award to the Red Sox by officials from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Red Sox said.

(The green logo shown at right will be worn only for this game, a Red Sox spokesman said.)

The award recognizes the Sox for environmental initiatives at Fenway, which include the installation of solar powered trash compactors around the park and the installation of solar panels that will soon help heat water at the park, the club said. (The latter is part of $600,000 initiative to increase the city's solar energy output 50-fold by 2015, according to an earlier article in the Globe.)

EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson and John H. Adams, founding director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, are scheduled to take part in a ceremonial first pitch, the Red Sox added.

In September, the Sox, in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council, announced a five-year plan to bring green practices to Fenway Park; the plan is scheduled to culminate in 2012 in time for Fenway's 100th anniversary celebration.
(By Chris Reidy, Boston Globe staff)

A Poem for Earth Day

What a glorious day, weather was absolutely gorgeous. I got to work in the garden with my kids and help a Temple University complete her project in broadcast journalism (more on that later). Then a wonderful walk in our neighborhood and more family time, before dinner with my wife in an intimate restaurant. (Not to mention the 4-in-a-row homers by my Red Sox against Yanks.) And tomorrow, I'm off to Boulder, Colorado.

Consequently, I won't have an opportunity to do my usual 10 thoughts for Earth Day. Instead, I'll leave you with a poem of mine, "Healing," which recently appeared in The Elegant Thorn Review:


Healing

"Healing, not saving." ~ Gary Snyder


"Healing, not saving," for healing
indicates corrective, reclaiming

restoring the earth to its bounty,
to right placement and meaning--

Forward thinking, making things new
or better or, at least, bringing back

from the edge. The way
bulbs are nestled in earth,

starting to heal again--
the way a wound heals.

Keep warm. Sun following
rain; rain following drought.

Perhaps we have come far enough
along in this world to start

healing, protecting from harm,
from our disjunctive lives.

The way the skin repairs with a scab,
injury mediated by mindfulness.

The bark of the "tree of blood"
heals wounds we cannot see.

Deliver us from the time of trial
and save us from ourselves.

--Scott Edward Anderson


Another of my poems was posted today on poet Deborah Fries' new Good at Last blog: "Dead Red Wing."