HighWaterLine

Flood or drought

Today i walked past a mural in Canarsie that depicted (among other things) a desert scene. I assume it commemorates a homeland for many of the residents in the area. For me it was a reminder of the strikingly different range of effects of climate change. While I am out drawing a line where flooding could become more common, someone else could be drawing (one would presume with sand) the line of where world deserts could expand to within a certain time frame. The effects of the drastic alteration to our climate will play out in drastically different ways in various regions around the world, whether it is sea level rise, coastal erosion, increased storm strength which result in frequent floods to coastal cities. Or extreme drought which expands deserts and alters food growing patterns and water scarcity. A loss of habitat for multitudes of species, heat waves which turn fatal, the list goes on.

Today was a good day, if a bit of a busy day. I had the inimitable Ed with me, and the assistance of the lifesaver Megan (thanks for coming through in a pinch and always having the chalk there when i needed it) and Chris Neidl, who is a constant motivator and inspiration. We were joined by a handful of people documenting the project for one entity or another (more on that later). Needless to say it was a very different feeling from being on the road with only 1 or 2 other people (which is a more typical day). I can’t tell if it made people more or less likely to talk to me. I should have Ed guest blog on this as it seemed a lot more people asked him what was going on because he didn’t have all the cameras on him (which was kind of awkward and embarrassing for me - but I am glad that it will let the project reach a broader audience). Regardless, a number of people did stop to talk to me.

One woman claimed it was serendipity that she walked out of her house just as I was walking by. She was definitely already concerned about the Paerdegaet Basin overflowing and we talked about her motivating other community members to talk to their representatives. We also talked about some of the challenges a densely populated but not well served neighborhood faces in living more sustainably. She asked me a great question, “what are you getting out of this?” I had to have her rephrase the question because I didn’t understand wha she meant. She said, “well who do you represent, or what political office are you trying to get?” i had to laugh out loud. “me?! Nothing! I’m an artist, I’m just doing it to help people visualize global warming and to give them the tools to do something about it!” she was suprised that someone would be so altruistic. But then i thought about it and said that what i wanted was for people to take action to fight global warming to save new york-and the earth! And that i thought that was actually asking for a lot.