#THE GUY WHO KNEW YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY SCREWED IF YOU WENT TO THE ATLANTIC COAST AND DIDN'T SPEAK

[1st-worldsaver]

*Reading German Pomares testimony*

Me: I will not insult the gesture of Pancasan. I will not insult the gesture of Pancasan. I will not-

[greencultureforum]

David

My name is David Buckland. I’m an artist and I’ve been an artist for a very long time. I’m now living in London, England and for the last 15 years I’ve been running the Cape Farewell project.

Q: What was the moment (or series of moments) in your life that led you to become passionate about sustainability and the environment?

David: Yes, there was a moment. As an artist you’re always intrigued by next steps, and I read an article about some mathematics modellers, who had a made a huge environmental model about the Atlantic Ocean, which intrigued me. I was in Venice at the time, so when I got back to England I contacted them and went to see them. The models were interesting. Through these algorithms they could say: this is the past, this is the present, and in the future (15 -20 years) they could predict what was going to happen to the environment. All of our projections on climate change are based on these models and humanity has never had a tool like this before. We have these huge computers run it and it intrigued me, because artists always dream of the future and these guys were saying what was going to happen in 20 years. They said I should talk to the oceanographers who were gathering all the data that feed into their models, so I went to the Southampton Oceanography Center and talked to them. They were fantastic. It was very clear that climate change was real. That was 15 -20 years ago. They said: “Why is nobody listening to us?” In a way, their language was all wrong. The public can’t absorb that kind of scientific language. So the whole Cape Farewell project was started to create a different language to talk about climate change. One that is much more user friendly: we used creativity. Although scientists are absolutely uber-creative people. They're always creative but the way they think about things and the way they understand the world is through their language, so if you reframe the language you can use the same kind of creativity. What we did was use artists to pick up what the scientists were saying and then found ways of telling stories.

Q: What kind of environment were you raised in?

David: The reason I started this project is because I’m a passionate sailor. I’ve sailed all my life and I’ve sailed oceans. Then these guys come and say they’ve got a mathematical model of the Atlantic Ocean and I’m thinking: “It’s so complicated, there’s no way.” So there was always a love of wild places but it wasn’t a real awareness of climate change until this started.

Q: What would you like to tell someone who doesn't believe we need to seek sustainable solutions for our environment?

David: I think right now it depends on where you are on the planet, but most people actually understand climate change. They know there’s something happening, they just kind of push it away because it’s too complicated. In a way, my passion is to find ways to communicate to people that they can be part of the future. What I would say is: What’s going to happen next is inevitable. We’re going to move away from carbon-based fuels for our energy and we’re going to go to cleantech (solar, sun, wind, tidal flow). That’s inevitable, so why not embrace the future? That’s where all the new business, the new economy, the new everything is going to happen. It’s going to be a fantastic world, so why are you resisting? People are scared of change. They're comfortable and think they just want to carry on like that forever, but it’s not going to work. You've got to think of your children or think of the future. It’s not just about you.

Q: In your speech you were talking about bringing artists to the Arctic. Do you do that every year?

David: No, we did it for 10 years all across the Arctic. Northern Canada, northern Russia, Greenland and all around there, but then we stopped because we basically know what’s happening. We know the ice is melting, the polar bears are suffering etc. It was more interesting for us to work with people so we started working with communities in the Scottish islands. We’re now working with cities. This climate change is about human beings - it’s about us and our culture. Our organization is exactly the same: inspiring artists to create. So we need this creative energy, we need new stories, we need new engagements. We’re also working with scientists in cleantech. All the new technologies coming through are fascinating and wonderful; it’s so exciting. If people only knew how exciting it was they’d say: “I want it now!” Our aim is to tell or show people how exciting it is and creative storytelling is a great way to do that.

Q: What’s the most exciting part about it for you?

David: I think that the future is potentially amazing. It has to be. At the moment we’re screwing up the planet so we’ve got to find a different solution. There is a solution; we have the technology, we have the money, we just need the will power from the politicians. Most of all they need us. We need us. We all have to engage. We can't leave it up to somebody else.

Q: You’ve traveled to a lot of places. Have you noticed big differences between countries and their thought processes?

David: There is an enormous change. It’s always buried by the capitalist media, but in England everybody gets climate change now - actually anywhere in Europe. We’re in Montenegro and people here know it; especially the politicians we’ve met. You go to the United States and most of the U.S. is up for doing things, you just have this neanderthal Trump. But actually on the East Coast and West Coast, everybody is engaged. All of the new technology industries like in Australia and everywhere are charging at it, especially China, and boy do they need it. So everybody is on the curve, it’s just about dragging the last few: the big media communication companies, this old fashioned capitalism and the oil companies. We’ve just got to turn them around.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

David: If we just engage in the world, it can be wonderfully optimistic. It’s so beautiful, you don’t want to screw it up. Why would we do that?