Short update on the progress on the Encyclopedia of Life, an effort to catalog all of Earth's species. A very ambitious and worthwhile project. Another similar project is the Tree of Life, which focuses more on the phylogenetic (evolutionary) relationships between species.
Chris Jordan Photographic Arts
A blogger at Ready Made Magazine is trying to survive for a week without plastic. Very interesting concept, I have seen this done a few times before with other materials. But it reminded me of the artwork of Chris Jordan, who creates mosaics using certain numbers of items.
The example above is made of 10000 dog and cat collars, which represents the average number of unwanted dogs and cats euthanized in the US every day. The gallery at his website features close-up views of the work, and most of his others, so that the individual pieces can be seen.
Very powerful work, I highly recommend visiting the site and checking out the two Running the Numbers galleries. A great visual statement on our disposable culture in America.
41 comments:
Regarding the "Week Without Plastic" article, I think that it would be kind of hard. Everything seems to be made out of plastic now and I guess it is kind of a daily necessity for everyone but if he can really survive without plastics, then kudos to him. It was a really amazing picture that Chris Jordan took of those plastic bottles. It was kind of unbelievable at first to think that Americans can use so much bottles every five minutes.
I looked through Chris Jordan's portfolio of pictures and he really captures the daily lives of Americans. I glanced through the "In Katrina's Wake" album and it was kind of depressing to look through. A natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina is something that no one would want to live through again. Those pictures of Chris Jordan really described the aftermath and it was really hard to look at.
The article concerning the Encyclopedia of Life was very enlightening about the type of work that has been accomplished by EOL. The encyclopedia has become a great tool to be used and the amount of information available on the website is vast. One of the major contributing factors to the large amount of information is the ability for the public to add information to the database. The fact that they are also trying to regional-ize the encyclopedia is also an attractive factor. EOL also allows undergraduates to contribute to the site which is a great opportunity for those students. The site has been a success considering the amount of praise and funding it has received. It will be interesting to see if they can reach their goal of completing pages for 90% of the known marine biodiversity in celebration of the 10-year Census of Marine Life project.
At first glance, the EOL gives the appearance of a glorified Wikipedia. To its benefit, however, the casual reader like myself cannot simply insert whatever I please into the media. I think this endeavor boldly tackles a conglomerate of information and will hopefully make sense of it all. After millions of dollars and hours of devoted time, this is bound to be a tool that will transcend generations. To collect such information into a pool of knowledge and make connections, i.e. unraveling secrets of human aging, will revolutionize the public's access to their ecosystems.
When peering Chris Jordan's art, I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place: either he has a bold point to make, or he just wasted a ton of plastic! Corresponding with the "Week Witout Plastic" article, I can understand the need to feel like we are helping our world with campaigns to recycle and go green and back to the stone age *cough* err I mean make eco-conscious decisions! However, I'm no better off being mocked by a portrait of plastic than I am when PETA demonizes people for being fat. The fact is, using plastics are convenient and economical. In one century alone, plastics have given us too many marvels. From tupperware to synthetics, plastics have irreversibly changed our world. I agree, the idea of my waterbottle lasting an eternity in a landfill scares me, too. I just think we need to reflect on the alternatives than just shy off our daily indulgences as evil.
I have never actually heard of EOL before this article and I just recently viewed it. The amount of work put into this Encyclopedia is incredible and work accomplished is outstanding. This immense amount of information can be used by everyone and is a great resource. Also the fact that the public can contribute to this catalog of information will further help develop the amount of knowledge gathered together.
After reading the article about surviving a week without plastic, I thought of how extremely hard this would be. Almost everyone takes advantage of how much plastic is consumed everyday, myself included. I took some time to just think about how much I use and within the first 30 minutes of waking up every morning. I use at least 6 items that contain plastic. I feel that Chris Jordan makes a powerful statement and calls for a necessary change in society in order to make our planet a safer and cleaner habitat.
His artwork is a phenomenal outlet of expression using various methods to create awareness.
I was extremely fascinated by the encyclopedia of life. I never knew such a database existed and it was exciting to hear that pictures and other forms of media are uploaded there also. I think it is a good idea to allow other people to now upload content there. Hopefully people will really participate with that and it can become a very valuable resource.
I think the idea of a week without plastic is interesting. In first thinking about that, it seems as though it would not be a problem but if you really think about it you can see how many things in your life are actually plastic. Thats also a good activity to do to help the enviroment and reduce extra pollution.o
The article on the EOL gave an enormous amount of insight as to what the site has accomplished and what it is hoping to accomplish. The site itself is a great idea and the articles on it contain a vast amount of information on a wide variety of subjects. It is nice to see that the encyclopedia is trying to reach out to everyone by creating regional versions. It will be nice to see their ideas put into effect. This site has the potential to be a huge help toward the development of scientific concepts.
I think that the Encyclopedia of Life is and will be an interesting website for people. I like the idea that all added information appears in a colored background, indicated that it is not yet approved or rejected by staff. This will prevent false information from being uploaded onto the website.
Chris Jordan's photography uses both viewing pleasure and little known facts to draw attention. He uses small intervals of time to emphasize the waste and/or cruelty of human beings. For example, just seeing the photo of two million plastic bottles and reading that we use that many in just five minutes is astonishing. Although the amount of waste angers me, I don't think I'd be able to "give up" plastic altogether. Most of the items I use on a daily, or even hourly, basis involve at least some plastic. I don't really understand what the blogger means by giving up plastic, especially because she said she would be back to blog the next day, and computers have plastic in them.
In regards to Chris Jordan’s pictures, I was amazed. I was surprised but not only the time it must have taken to work on them, but also the ideas behind them. I realize that the world does create a lot of waste and is wasteful, but I was shocked by some of what he said. I was unaware that the US used 60,000 plastic bags every five seconds or that there are two million plastic beverage bottles used every five minutes. I am not naïve, I knew that we used a lot of plastic bags and bottles, but those numbers seem ridiculously high. It just shows how much US wastes, not only in plastic but other materials.
It seems like ‘a week without plastic’ is a good idea, not only for the environment, but also for one’s health. However, plastic has become a major material in our everyday lives, from plastic water bottles, to pens and tooth brushes. For the average person, living without plastic would be a very difficult thing. It wouldn’t be impossible, just more time consuming.
The Encyclopedia of Life seems like a good website. People are about to go on and see the 1.4 million pages already up. It seems like Wikipedia, only better watched and reviewed, so only things that are true are able to be posted.
The article "Week Without Plastic" makes others aware of the amount of plastic that is used in one's everyday lives. Living an entire week without plastic is just a tad difficult. Sure, I can replace a plastic cup with a glass cup, but what about the toothbrush. Props to Katherine Sharpe for going a whole week without plastic. These days, everything is made of plastic, especially the common take-out containers and water bottles, but with everyone's awareness about going eco-friendly and going green, water bottles are made with less plastic, China is charging citizens for plastic shopping bags, and more and more Americans today are using the reusable, eco-friendly shopping bags. Maybe the next step to going green is having Americans go through an entire week without plastic.
I browsed through Chris Jordan's photographic arts. I would not say that I was shocked by Gyre, 2009 because I was already aware of the excessive amounts of plastic floating in the world's oceans. However, I did not know the exact statistics- 2.4 million pieces of plastic polluting the world's ocean every hour! Just think about all the wastes and plastic each human consumes everyday... maybe living a week without plastic would help decrease the numbers.
The Encyclopedia of Life is very interesting considering the amount of information that they are trying to obtain. Trying to get every insect, mammal, and plant is hard enough, but with the Earth still not completely explored, it will be even harder. The amount of donations that this project has received will help in the process. I also find it interesting that they have information that the Cameraria ohridella may be evolving to devastate the horse chestnut trees.
The article, "A Week Without Plastic", made me aware how a lot of the objects in this world are made out of plastic and how hard it would be to live without plastic in anyone's life. I applaud Katherine Sharpe for being able to survive a week without plastic. In today's society, plastic is found in a lot of things such as, water bottles, plastic containters to preseve food and much more. In order to replace, completely remove, or avoid the use of these plastic objects must have been a difficult task. Hopefully, society will start to follow Katherine Sharpe's step to a healthier and cleaner environment.
I was browsing through the works of Chris Jordan, and two things struck my mind. First things that popped in to my mind was how Chris Jordan is an amazing and brilliant artist. Second thing that crossed my mind was the symbolic meaning behind each one of Chris Jordan's work. For example, the "Gyre" is truly a beautiful work of art. I was also shocked how by the fact that this image was created by all the plastic collected from the Pacific Ocean. Also it was unbelieveable how this image depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, which is equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world's oceans every hour. All of Chris Jordan's art were amazing but the "Gyre" interested me the most.
Although plastic is not biodegradable and remains around for a long time, plastic items (such as bowls, canisters, etc) can actually be saving our environment if we use them correctly. When I was younger, I remember having a class assembly about not throwing things away to reduce the amount of garbage and waste going into our nation's landfills and things like that. After this, I resorted to using plastic because it's reusable and essentially, it does not need to be thrown away. Now I know people do use plastic once and throw it away like other products, and therefore, defeats its purpose, but I think if people used plastic for a better use, it could actually be better for the environment then people think.
All I have to say about the Encyclopedia of Life is that it's way better than Zoobooks. Actually, I was also surprised the project received so much generous funding. In relation to what others have said before me, if it helps prosperity, I guess it's worth it.
The basis behind the week without plastic reminds me of my aunt. When she is served meat, she eats her plate clean making sure not to leave an ounce of meat uneaten. After seeing some crazy video on slaughterhouses, she decided not to go vegetarian, but instead make sure not to waste meat. Its a good alternative. Anyway, as I'm looking in my room, there isn't one square foot that doesn't contain some sort of plastic item. It seems like an incredibly difficult task.
The EOL is an excellent idea, just a massive tome of information about everything in the world. I like the fact that everyone can examine and contribute to it, an ordinary student or a veteran scientist. Also I've always been a big marine biology buff and the fact that they're doing extensive research on marine biodiversity puts a smile to my face and the inclusion of articles concerning invasive species is pretty neat as well. As for Chris Jordan's photography, I think his shark "mosaic" was captivating, being able to arrange 270,000 teeth into that masterpiece must have taken him months, just the sheer numbers were staggering, ten thousand cats and dogs get euthanized each day, and eleven thousand commercial flights are active every eight hours, amazing.
After reading the article on plastic I found that ifnit were me doing this task I would have a very difficult time. Katherine is a very strong person for trying out this task. Without even noticing how much plastic we use on a daily basis I'm starting to be more attentative to what I use. I have never noticed the effects of not recycling would be and now after reading the article my heart has changed to be more ecofriendly. I am starting to think what wouldblife really be like without plastic for a week. Maybe I'll try it sometime too.
Wow! Chris Jordan's photography really helps one realize all the waste that is being made everyday. Reading the article about going without plastic for a week is also very shocking. Now that i think about it everywhere one turns he or she is faced with plastic. Now a days though surviving without plastic would be like surviving without air. Meaning the modern world is just so used to plastic that it would be hard to use other materials. Not per say hard just uncomfortable. Many people are also not that fond of change.
In response to the "Week Without Plastic" article, i think it is a difficult task to go without plastic for even a few days. Everywhere you go, everything you use, seems to be made of plastic. Plastic is used in out everyday lives. However, it would be very beneficial for the environment if we used less plastic. A lot of waste is created in the world and should decrease. The pictures taken by Chris Jordan was absolutely amazing and very eye-opening. It is shocking that in just five minutes the United States alone uses two million plastic bottles.
The article on "Week without Plastic" is amazing. I think living without plastic is very hard, mostly because a majority of the supplies that we use everyday contain plastic. I also found the meanings behind the paintings to be fascinating. Each different piece of artwork shows a different aspect of our daily lives. By looking at these painting, it makes me realize how much damage one person can do. These artworks show how much pollution there is on Earth.
WOW! I never imagined how much plastic is used by the world everyday till I saw Chris Jordan's picture. A lot of the questions the author asked herself are questions I find myself thinking about; like is plastic ever the more eco-friendly choice? As I kept reading the author's blogs about her daily activities it was shocking how much plastic is used everyday and how avoiding the use is difficult. Without recycling our world would be a mess.
I found the "Week without plastic" article interesting. If you think about it a week without plastic would be very hard since everything these days is made of plastic. But a week without plastic could teach Americans to conserve and recycle. Many people use plastic water bottles within minutes and just throw them out without recycling them. Those people really don't know how much they are affecting the enviroment. So a week without plastic could really be a valuable lesson.
Encyclopedia of Life is such a wonderful project! People all across the world can learn more about all the beautiful species that live in this world-some of which that are still unknown to us. EOL is extremely beneficial for students of all ages. For example, postdoctoral students and graduate students will be able to share their own research with others in the scientific community. Furthermore, the encyclopedia will be 1.8 million pages!
It's an interesting concept living without plastic. Since plastic is virtually everywhere-eating utensils, bottles, containers-it should definitely be a challenge to live without it. The picture of 2 million plastic bottles was fascinating to see!
The Encyclopedia of Life is a very impressive and admirable effort. Though this project may take a long time, its benefits are endless. More people will be able to learn about different species. It also brings more people together to reach a common goal. Scientists from different countries are all contributing to this effort. I think that it is great that the end result of this project will be the ability to share research ideas with people all around the world. I hope that someday I might be able to see the finished product.
Although I really commend Chris Jordan for trying to live without plastic, I'm almost positive that I would never be able to do it myself. However I always do make sure to recycle, and usually bother my friends to do so, as well. The picture of the two million plastic bottles to show how many bottles are used every five minutes in America really puts the use of plastic in our lives into perspective. I would really like to know what percentage of those two million bottles are recycled. The other pictures of Chris Jordan of loss in Hurricane Katrina and American consumption have a really strong impact when you look at them. I think pictures like these have the power to impact peoples' lives and their behaviors towards the environment.
I believe the article on going without plastic for a week is very interesting. Not using plastic would make our environment a better place. I believe after a week of not using plastic we can go without plastic for a month and so on. The elimination of plastic would make our planet last longer and an overall cleaner place. I also believe this method could be used for other environmental pollutants such as, the use of cars.
I thought the person doing the "A week with out Plastic" is setting an example in which we all should follow. A lot of things are made from plastic and the amount that each American uses on a daily basis is ridiculous. All were doing is creating more waste and hurting our environment. The pictures in the article were really surprising to. It shows that all we recycle isn't all being made into new things. Maybe we should all try a week without plastic, if more then one person did it it would really make a difference.
I think what Chris Jordan is doing with his art is amazing. I love it and I think his message is beautiful as well as being able to make such an impact. I think its so crazy that he managed to find 2.4 million pieces of plastic to make his Gyre artwork from the Pacific Ocean. It really shows how much we are polluting not only the ocean but the air and our land. Hopefully it makes people think twice about tossing something like a bottle or whatever into the water.
In the article "Week Without Plastic" is stunned me how people are so inconsiderate. The picture with thousands of bottles in it just says that we are destroying our planet. Chris Jordan's mission to live a week without plastic almost seems next to impossible. We use plastic everyday from soda bottles to containers. What other materials are their to use? I'm sure their are other options but we have used plastic forever and no one wants to make an effort to find a bio-degradable material.
The week without plastic artice made me think a bit. Looking around my room, i soon realized how much is really made out of this substance, and how common and normal it is. How natural things are no longer a large part of most human's everyday lives, and man-made materials reign supreme. The idea of going a week without this material is one that would seem to be a daunting task. It completely surrounds us. Maybe one day I will try something similar to that out for myself.
The blog about living without plastics is very interesting. I can't imagine not using plastics for a week because almost everything we use in modern life has some plastics. For example if I was going on a car ride I wouldn't even be able to take a plastic refillable bottle along and even most metal thermoses have some plastic in them. It is nearly impossible to avoid.
Also that artist does some very interesting work that really hits the viewer hard with a message. It must take him forever just to set up the works and the ones like the plastic bottle one are very interesting and scary at the same time because all of that is being thrown out and not recycled.
It's amazing that Katherine Sharp was able to develop such a passion for the environment at such a young age, but her thinking is too an extreme. I believe the best way to deal with plastic isn't to eliminate it completely but to recycle and find other alternatives. Plastic has become a necessary aspect of convenience. Plastic is everywhere. It would be impossible for people to live without it completely. Its use should just be slowly reduced, and people should definitely recycle more.
On another note, I love Chris Jordan's portfolio. It is such a creative way to express the ecological carelessness of most people. His creations are extremely powerful and really put things into perspective. They remind me of the pile of shoes at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Although it is a good plan to try and not use plastic for a week, peopole underestimate how important and often plastic is used. I am sure one man could refrain from using it but nearly everything in this world is packaged in plastic. It is a good cause but I don't think many other people would be able to stop using plastic even for a week.
The blog about a week without platic was very fascinating. The pictures of all the plastic bottles consumed by americans was shocking. Even thinking about each day how many water bottles a day i consume or sell at my job is mind boggling and how many of them are accually recyled? I give the man a lot of credit to stop using plastic for a week- a tough challenge within itself. Most people in my opinion could not do this- it seems like the whole world is packaged with plastic.
Chris Jordan's pictures and the article about the week without plastic were really thought provoking. I know that there is an overwhelming amount of waste that just keeps accumulating every day, but looking at Jordan's pictures really opened my eyes. I think Katherine Sharp's week without plastic is truly admirable. Like others have stated, plastic is simply everywhere. Completely avoiding it is unfathomable. I think that instead, people should just recycle. It doesn't even take that much effort. It makes me really angry when someone puts their soda/water bottle into a trash can when there is a recycling bin just a foot away. I see it at school so much, and I really don't get it. I think if more people took 2 extra seconds to put their plastic product into the recycling bin, we would all be better off.
When I first read the article about the EOL, I pictured and assumed that anyone with an opinion about a species would "contribute" whatever their hearts desired (almost as if they were commenting about something someone said on Facebook.) But after actually logging on to the sight and looking through some of the highlighted species, I realized that everything on the sight was relevent and useful. None of it was posted on the pages "just becuase." It looked as if much time and thought went in to each of the articles showcasing the species. Overall, I think the EOL gives more people the oportunity to contribute to science where they otherwise may have been unable to.
I also looked at Chris Jordan's photos and they were amazing. His art was poetic as well as meaningful. He incorporated issues worldwide into his pieces of art which showcased some of the greatest pieces of work of all time. His work took so much thought and time to complete and his hard work really paid off; I loved all his images.
I too would like to participate in the week without plastic experiment. If everyone did that i could only imagine how much of a difference it would make.
I thought the blogger who is trying to survive a week without plastic is doing a great thing for the Earth. More people should try to do this. I looked through Chris Jordan's artwork and found one of a wave which was made using 2.4 million pieces of plastic to mimic the 2.4 million pounds of plastic dumped into the oceans every hour. That is a huge number and the government should do more to stop it such as fining households or businesses that don't recycle plastic as well as other recyclables.
About the " Week without Plastic article " was fascinating. This is one of my favorite blogs! How can we do this to our planet.
Chris Jordan's photographic arts were shocking. "Reuse and Reduce" A simple concept. With heated discussions on global warming and all. After seeing this picture we should together make an effort to save this planet.
There are so many negative studies and research being done on plastic bottles. Few weeks earlier I was reading an article about the negative effects of plastic and aluminum bottles:
http://www.examiner.com/x-18054-Chicago-History-Examiner~y2009m9d4-The-negative-impact-of-plastic-and-aluminum-on-the-glass-bottling-industry
6 reasons to ditch plastic bottles:
http://www.bradenton.com/living/living_green/story/1686939.html
I do not think I can live without plastic (packaging in stores), but yes I do not misuse it (plastic bags).
Just curious: How can I find part 2 for this article!?
sharvari
Even though the idea of creating a massive interactive online biodiversity encyclopedia sounds amazing, I believe that it will be harder than it may seem. With over thousands of species, insects, and plants living within our ecosystem, collecting information would be burdensome and painstakingly long. Living in a time period, in which people want information and data as soon as possible without spending a large amount of money, this would be very hard to accomplish. However, being optimistic, one day, which is in the DISTINCT future, humans would be able to complete this project of creating a encyclopedia, which would contain massive detailed information about the majority of the species within the biosphere. On the other hand, I find it very pleasing to know that there are people who are environmentally active by taking the most unusual piece of material and using it as part of their job. This sets an example for others to try to be more environmentally friendly.
Now that I think about it plastic is literally everywhere. I wouldn't even be able to type this up if it weren't for plastic. The picture of the 2 million plastic bottles was really shocking ,and after learning that we use 2 million of those bottles in only 5 minutes, I had to stop and really digest that.
The EOL and Tree of Life are amazing, especially EOL. I never heard of it until this blog and it is awesome. The fact that any life has its own encyclopedia page is great. I love the quote on the EOL homepage (Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth) because to me it shows the progression of society. Most of the pages on the EOL were around way before internet encyclopedias, and now in the present day it is possible to track all possible life and science with a couple clicks of the mouse. That is one of the most truly amazing parts about it, of course other than the fact that the EOL is a log for all Life.
In the article, "A Week Without Plastic", was very surprising, but not surprising at the same time. It made me realize how many things are made up of plastic and how recycling really needs to be put into action. I am very impressed by Katherine Sharpe and her being able to survive a week without plastic. I know that I most likely would never be able to do that, yet I would really like to give it a try one day. People need to follow in Katherine's foot steps and give it a try as well - it would make a huge difference. Without noticing what these things will cause in the long run may really affect us greatly. We need to be aware of keeping our environment clean.
All of Chris Jordan's photographs were fascinating. He captured everyday issues in one. The pictures he took really opened my eyes and made me aware of what is going on in the US. The numbers presented in the article look compatible to the pictures and it's quite depressing.
As many other things, we tend to take everything for granted until we live without it. Upon reading the article, "Life Without Plastic" (which i found to be very interesting) it has come to my attention that living without a necessity such as plastic would be very triumphant to live without. Whether its packaging foods, wrapping items to be shipped, or even toys and cars, plastic is used and handled in millions of products which our sold nation wide. Plastic is not only a major contribution for convenience, but for consumer sales as well. The article is great because as many said in this blog i dont think many could stop using plastic.
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