Earth 2020

EDITED BY PHILIPPE TORTELL

An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet

OBP

EARTH 2020

Earth 2020

Fi� y years has passed since the fi rst Earth Day, on April 22nd, 1970. This accessible, incisive and � mely collec� on of essays brings together a diverse set of expert voices to examine how the Earth’s environment has changed over these past fi � y years, and to consider what lies in store for our planet over the coming fi � y years.

Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet responds to a public increasingly concerned about the deteriora� on of Earth’s natural systems, off ering readers a wealth of perspec� ves on our shared ecological past, and on the future trajectory of planet Earth.

Wri� en by world-leading thinkers on the front-lines of global change research and policy, this mul� -disciplinary collec� on maintains a dual focus: some essays inves� gate specifi c facets of the physical Earth system, while others explore the social, legal and poli� cal dimensions shaping the human environmental footprint. In doing so, the essays collec� vely highlight the urgent need for collabora� on and diverse exper� se in addressing one of the most signifi cant environmental challenges facing us today.

Earth 2020 is essen� al reading for everyone seeking a deeper understanding of the past, present and future of our planet, and the role that humanity plays within this trajectory.

As with all Open Book publica� ons, this en� re book is available to read for free on the publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi� ons, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com

Cover image: Earthrise (24 December 1968). Photo taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders, Wikimedia, htt ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Earthrise_AS08-14-2383_Apollo_8_1968-12-24.jpg

Cover design: Anna Gatti

An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet

EDITED BY PHILIPPE TORTELL PH

ILIPPE TO

RTELL (ED.)

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Text © 2020 Philippe Tortell. Copyright of individual chapters is maintained by the chapters’ authors.

Photgraphs © copyright Edward Burtynsky. The photos are published under an ‘all rights reserved’ license and

have been reproduced at 72 dpi in the digital editions due to copyright restrictions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license

allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the

work providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your

use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:

Philippe Tortell (ed.), Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet. Cambridge, UK: Open Book

Publishers, 2020, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0193

In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https://doi.org/10.11647/

OBP.0193#copyright

All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the

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Any digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at:

https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0193#resources

Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected

if notification is made to the publisher.

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-845-7

ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-846-4

ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-847-1

ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-848-8

ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-849-5

ISBN Digital (XML): 978-1-78374-850-1

DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0193

Cover image: Earthrise (24 December 1968). Photo taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders, Wikimedia, https://

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Earthrise_AS08-14-2383_Apollo_8_1968-12-24.jpg

Cover design: Anna Gatti

https://www.openbookpublishers.comhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193#copyrighthttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193#copyrighthttps://archive.org/webhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193#resourceshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Earthrise_AS08-14-2383_Apollo_8_1968-12-24.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Earthrise_AS08-14-2383_Apollo_8_1968-12-24.jpg

© Philippe Tortell, CC BY 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0193.02

Earth Sounds——

Philippe Tortell, Chris Chafe, Jonathan Girard and Greg Niemeyer

I ce Core Walk is a musical representation of environmental climate data taken from the 3 km-long Vostok ice core in East Antarctica. The audio clip below represents a snapshot of atmospheric temperature and CO2 data, from 850 AD to 2016, translated into

musical form. This clip is taken from the last five minutes of a half-hour-long audio tour,

which allows listeners to experience 800,000 years of climate history as they walk the

full 3 km-length of the Vostok ice core. The most recent temperature data are obtained

from tree ring measurements, sediments and other sources, while the CO2 data are from

a combination of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community

Climate System Model simulations and direct observations. The sounds are synthesized

from a physical model of a plucked nylon string guitar — indicating temperature — and

a vocal-like synthesis —  indicating CO2 levels. This composition articulates the pace of

climate change sonically rather than visually, offering listeners a stark audio-perspective

on the impacts of humans on the climate system over the past century. Ice Core Walk is a

collaboration between scientists and artists from the University of British Columbia (UBC),

Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. The project was initiated by

Philippe Tortell,1 Chris Chafe2 and Greg Niemeyer3 and was supported by the Peter Wall

Institute for Advanced Studies, UBC. More information about Ice Core Walk can be found at

http://icecorewalk.org/, along with the full half-hour-long audio tour.

https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193.02http://icecorewalk.org/

10 Earth 2020

Temperature and CO2 data in the ending section (850 AD–2016) of Ice Core Walk. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US. See web site for data sources,

https://purl.stanford.edu/mg458wc3389

Ice Core Walk© 2016 Philippe Tortell, Chris Chafe and Greg Niemeyer, CC BY 4.0

https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0193.29

E arth Symphony is a musical representation of our planet’s trajectory over the past fifty years, drawn from a range of Earth System data sets — from atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global fisheries catches, to deforestation and the size of the Antarctic

ozone hole. These data sets have been translated into a musical score, using a process of

sonification that seeks to express and more deeply understand the complex biophysical

changes unfolding across the Earth System. The piece is an interdisciplinary collaboration

between students and scholars: Philippe Tortell compiled these data from public sources

https://purl.stanford.edu/mg458wc3389https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193.29

Earth Sounds 11

with the help of Environmental Sciences undergraduate students at UBC, and Chris Chafe

‘sonified’ the data into a musical score by creating a process in which music is performed

directly by the data. His choices as composer included the speed at which the data are

heard, the instruments that play the sounds, and the influence of the data on musical

dimensions like pitch and loudness. In recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day

in 2020, Earth Symphony will be performed by the UBC Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan

Girard.4 A video recording of this performance will be available at planetearth2020.org

Earth Symphony© 2020 Chris Chafe, with Phillipe Tortell and Jonathan Girard, CC BY 4.0

https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0193.30

Endnotes

1. Professor of Oceanography at UBC, and editor of this volume.

2. Director of Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

3 Director of Orchestras at the UBC School of Music.

4 Professor of New Media in Art Practice at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley.

http://planetearth2020.orghttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0193.30