;
My Daily Contribution to Global Warming
While in graduate school, I designed a self-portrait for an art installation to in an effort to better understand my role in climate change. At the time, much of the discussion about climate change was at a global scale and in the stratospheric, somewhat abstract realm of experts, pundits and spokespersons.
Emissions measured in metric tons meant little to me as n individual. Even after calculating my own carbon footprint, it was hard to understand the scale of my emissions in relation to my country or the world.
The actor Brad Pitt is somewhat responsible for giving me the idea. In 2005, according to Harper’s Index, he paid to have 1,700 saplings planted in Bhutan to counteract his personal CO2 production. I wondered how much I was responsible for.
Using an online carbon calculator, I found that my CO2 emissions for 2004 were about 22,630 pounds—quite a large number. The amount I produced in a single day was 62 pounds, a weight I could pick up and relate to. The only problem was I couldn’t see it. To make it visual, I needed some balloons, 540 of them. The air inside them was equivalent in mass to my daily CO2 emissions of 62 pounds.
Since that first installation, I've made two others. Each time, I recalculate my carbon footprint since my lifestyle has changed. As part of the most recent installation, I developed a carbon calculator so visitors could determine their own emissions and compare how many balloons would be needed to represent them to my own and also the average citizen of another country in the world.
