A great joy was announced!

“Before the year was over a great joy was announced” is the title of a recent work I completed for my upcoming solo next year, but I also posted a video on social media in ‘conversation’ with COP26 this year. I was really hoping for a great joy to be announced, realizing later that it was indeed wishful thinking.

For an interesting article on what COP26 is and what is being discussed and agreed to – check out this link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56901261

Here follows a couple of things that disturbed me:

1. “Leaders from more than 100 world countries, representing about 85% of the world’s forests, promised to stop deforestation by 2030.” Why only 2030…and not 2025?

2. “Similar previous initiatives haven’t stopped deforestation, but this one’s better funded. However, it’s unclear how the pledge will be policed or monitored. And Indonesia, one of the main signatories, later said the plan was “unfair”. Unfair?? WTF?

3. Another thing that worries me is that the ocean wasn’t mentioned here. Wouldn’t it be grand if people can leave the ocean alone for at least 5 years…and clean it up?

Earlier this month I found a wonderful book at the library:

After reading it I realized that ‘climate change’ is not new…as a matter of fact they saw it coming in the 1800’s already!!

While learning a lot about Alexander von Humboldt I also learned about George Marsh who wrote Man and Nature published in 1864:

“Marsh’s vision of the future was bleak. If nothing changed, he believed the planet would be reduced to a condition of shattered surface, of climatic excess… perhaps even extinction of the [human] species’. p294

AND

“Man has long forgotten that the earth was not given to him for ‘consumption’. The produce of the earth was squandered, Marsh argued, with wild cattle killed for their hides, ostriches for their feathers, elephants for their tusks and whales for their oil. Humans were responsible for the extinction of animals and plants, while the unrestrained use of water was just another example of ruthless greed.” p293

Pity that Marsh isn’t alive today to see how close he came to predicting the future!

“Marsh believed that the lessons were buried in the scars that the human species had left on the landscape for thousands of years. The future” he said, “is more uncertain than the past.” By looking back, Marsh was looking forward.” p297

What is even more a pity is that it seems we have learned NOTHING since the 1800s! Except for some technological advances, which will only help us in a Metaverse’ right? 😉

Not that I think Zuckerberg’s idea for social media in this Metaverse is bad, I actually had a similar idea for Art Fairs. I thought it would be great if a Fair could function like a game of Fortnite. It could be interesting if the map hosted galleries for eg: Weeping Woods is WhatiftheWorld, Steamy Stacks is Stevenson and Holly Hedges perhaps the Goodman gallery and so forth. And you go on the computer or playstation, meet with other collectors in the lobby, buy skins made by artists you want to support (see footnote*)…and jump the bus to visit the art in the gallery located on the map. Could be fun.

Anyway back to Humboldt:

“Humboldt insisted that there were no superior or inferior races. No matter what nationality , colour or religion, all humans came from one root. Much like plant families.” p108

Which made me think of Family Trees and led to this work (not available yet):

Die granaat val nie ver van die boom nie (granaat as in pomegranate) or as they say in English: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree but directly translated it reads as: The grenade doesn’t fall far from the tree. 😉

On this note I will leave you with a reminder that the Doomsday clock is now 100 seconds to midnight

Which brings me to the:

*footnote : If I could make my own Fornite skin it would look something like this:

but in reality it currently looks like this :

Because “remember you are under no obligation to remain the same person you were a year ao, a month ago, or even a day ago. You are here to create yourself, continuously.”

I will love you and leave you with this wonderful quote from the book about Alexander von Humboldt:

“Imagination soothed the deep wounds that pure ‘reason’ sometimes created.” p84