Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Our World DeliveredOur World Delivered
A collection of A collection of New York TimesNew York Times photos on page photos on page three of its international section* and the Tiffany three of its international section* and the Tiffany
& Co. advertisements that share space on the & Co. advertisements that share space on the same pagesame page
* The NY Times moved its international page in the spring of 2008. The Tiffany & Co. advertisements remain on page three.
Collected by Bill VitekCollected by Bill Vitek
Assisted by Zach Swank and Joel HurdAssisted by Zach Swank and Joel Hurd
Music selected by Andrew VitekMusic selected by Andrew Vitek
Music: “Blown-Out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole,” Music: “Blown-Out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole,” Composed and Performed by Composed and Performed by Silver Mt. ZionSilver Mt. Zion
Used by PermissionUsed by Permission
The following slide show is a glimpse of two worlds side by side. The first world is the “developed” world at its materialistic zenith; the other world, five billion people strong, is still struggling to meet its most basic needs.
The images are unintentionally juxtaposed in one of the world’s most influential media outlets: The New York Times.
New York Times Circulation
Daily Monday – Friday: 1,037,828 people
Audience Median age: 44 Over half have had some
college Over half are employed full time Median household income:
$55,416 Median home value: $216,819
http://www.nytimes.whsites.net/mediakit/newspaper/circulation/nyt_circulation.php
Influentials Influentials are the
“critical 10% of the population who drive what the other 90% think, do, and buy.” - Ed Keller, CEO of NOP World
NY Times Weekday ranked 8th
The company doing the advertising is also known around the world for its spectacular and expensive selection of jewelry: Tiffany & Co.
Estimated Cost of Daily Ads*
Tiffany Ad = 14 column inchesColumn inch rate = $452Premium for top of advertising =
$117Premium for next to reading
matter = $132Yearly total over $2,551,640 83 years of NY Times ad space,
much of it on page three.
* The NY Times would not disclose the actual cost of the ads.
These images are exactly as they appeared in The New York Times.
Side by side.
Day after day.
Neither staff from The New York Times nor Tiffany & Co. admitted any awareness of this frequent juxtaposition of exquisite wealth with abject poverty, social unrest and ecological devastation.
Viewing these images alongside the various disturbing facts and exponential trends of our times adds to the discomforting conclusion that all is not right, well or just in the world.
This presentation of the images and data is intended to show the extent of our global and environmental problems, and to motivate a change of mind.
A change of the worldview systems and “isms” that shape our lives and that run the world: materialism, capitalism, individualism, corporatism, globalism, scientism, and our technological fundamentalism.
“By what is the world led around?
The world is led around by the mind.”
The Buddha
The Tiffany & Co. tag lines seem at times to mock the scenes and people in the photographs on the left.
http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_evd.htm
There are currently 27 million slaves in the world, many of them children, and more than at any other time in human history.* In 1865 a slave cost $40,000 of today’s dollars. You can buy one today for $40.
* http://iabolish.org/modern_slavery101/
In the next photo Afghan children are waiting their turn at a garbage dump.
“Only one per customer” indeed.
Some of the children seem to be looking at the diamond rings.
Eight nations possess nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan among them, and two are working to acquire them.
Trends in natural disasters
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-natural-disasters
Around the world political unrest destabilizes governments, creating civil wars, refugees, and misery.
http://www.povertymap.net/mapsgraphics/graphics/undernutrition_en.cfm
The red zones on this map represent national or sub-national units where greater than 50% of children suffer from stunted growth.
The blue zones on this map represent the number of stunted children in each national or sub-national unit greater than 5,000
Soil destruction now claims 24 million acres a year world-wide, about half the size of Kansas, a quarter the size of California or 3.5 Marylands.
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/degraded-soils
Human rights around the world are too often viewed by governments as optional.
It’s not just the people who are suffering.
The current rate of species loss is being compared to the five known mass extinction waves. This sixth wave is anthropogenic.
http://www.whole-systems.org/extinctions.html
Two of the most populous nations, China and India, are becoming two of the largest economies.
The world is too full of refugees and displaced people.
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/ever-growing-numbers-of-refugees
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/water-availability-trends
One billion people lack access to fresh water.
Of the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3).
In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/no-shelter-refugees-sanitation-and-slums
If we are unaware of these two worlds appearing side by side on a page in one of the world’s most influential media sources it is perhaps because we still believe that the political, economic and technological systems that provided the wealth on the right side of the page are still capable of providing similar wealth and prosperity to all the world’s people without exhausting Earth.
But if these systems are unable to deliver the promise of prosperity to the world’s population because that population is too large, the natural capital on which this wealth depends too small, and the social systems too corrupt, then the world represented on the right side of page is immoral, unjust, and unsustainable.
Peak Oil: the first trillion barrels of oil were consumed in the last 150 years; the last trillion barrels may be consumed in the next 30 years.
http://www.oilcrisis.com/midpoint.htm
The Hubbert Peak
A 22 year old today has lived through a time in which 540 billion barrels of oil has been consumed. This translates to 437 trillion lbs of new CO2 in the atmosphere.
http://wolf.readinglitho.co.uk/mainpages/consumption.html
Global Oil Consumption Rate: 1965-2005
“The United States in 2005, with 5% of world population, used about 22% of total energy, and G8 countries, with 12% of the world’s population consumed about 46% of the world’s energy. In contrast, the world’s poorest one quarter of humanity consumes less than 3% of the world’s total primary energy supply. Few other comparisons illuminate more starkly the existential chasm separating the two worlds.” Vaclav Smil
Human population growth continues to follow an exponential curve.
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/world_population_development
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that “there is a 90% chance humans are responsible for climate change."
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/human-influences-on-the-atmosphere-during-the-industrial-era
http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_evd.htm
In January 2007 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday clock was moved two minutes closer to midnight, “reflecting global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis.”
It’s time to be more truthful with our language.
These are revolutionary times!
The world is led around by the mind.
It is time to change our minds and our mindset….
…about ourselves and the world.
It’s time.
