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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.)
www.openbookpublishers.com
OPENACCESS
ebookebook and OA edi� ons
also available
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https://www.openbookpublishers.com
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
Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web
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
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© 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/
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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
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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
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