A small clip of the sculpture in the photo studio. Next week we connect the technology to the sculpture.
Categorie: art
Enter Stage 2
Our 2.5 meter prototype is taking shape with natural wood material in a modular form. It’s a voyage in space, water and time that is leading us to the first splash of water flowing down from the top onto the solar panel base.
It has taken many months to reach this point and the entire team is enthusiastic about the possibilities to come. We will soon be ready for the sun to transform a work of art into a functioning structure that can harvest not only moisture from the air, but also innovative ideas on what can be done with materials within reach of our hands.
Look for more in the coming days on the final design of the prototype. The launch of art making the first drops of water could be seen this spring. Join us in presenting a unique design with a positive purpose!
The first SunGlacier Sculpture
The idea of the first SunGlacier sculpture is to build a water drop-inspired structure, placed on a base of solar panels which generate the power needed to produce water out of air. The water will be released from the top of the sculpture and then drip down onto the solar panels.
To investigate the mechanics of a splash, we recorded fluids dropping on a black surface.
To “catch” the shape concept into a state closer to reality, we built a prototype with LEGOs that forms the basis of the design. Did anyone ever say that creating art couldn’t also be fun?
In two weeks we’ll start copying the LEGO cubes in real wooden cubes: the building of the final design. We already tested the water production of our condensor, and beginning 2016 we start testing the solar installation. This is a voyage of discovery in itself.
The positive potential of this project and the other solutions it could inspire became up close and personal again when I traveled to India earlier this month and witnessed the effects of a drought. The province of Gujarat produces a lot of food for the 1.2 billion people of India, but green fields are changing more and more into deserts. This year the south of India was drenched in rain while in the more northern regions, the monsoon only lasted a couple of days – demonstrating increasingly unstable climate impacts.
Except for desalination that can relieve a bit of the drought pressure in coastal regions, there are still no real alternatives for the regions more inland. Water reservoirs and rivers are drying up as well, while the demand for water was never as large as nowadays.
With Art Project SunGlacier we aim to show people around the world the possibilities of harvesting water out of the air. In our case off-grid, only using solar energy is what makes it more unique and promising. This is ultimately a work of art that hopefully can contribute to new ideas and visions to relieve future water shortages.
Water solutions in ancient times
To support the Wetskills initiative, I visited last week the rapidly growing mega-city Ahmedabad, West India (7.2 million inhabitants) and visited the Adalaj Stepwall.
When the city was founded, the climate was arid as nowadays, so people decided to build water storages underground to collect rain water during seasonal monsoons. Dependent on which period, people had to climb more or less stairs to reach the water. In wet periods the whole building, all floors, were filled with water. My walk down was an Indiana Jones experience!
Besides a miracle of contruction, all walls and columns are decorated with beautiful ornaments. Art and Engineering, hand in hand.
A continued dry spell in the current monsoon season has driven Gujarat to the brink of drought, while the capital Ahmedabad grows yearly with 350.000 people.
People in Gujarat have to design new stairs to cope with their increasing water demand – same like they did in ancient times.
The first steps to build the SunGlacier
The SunGlacier V01 Protoype – we started!
This is it! This week we have started building a unique Art Project with potential applications for off-grid water resources in a changing climate. The SunGlacier project aims to offer solutions built within an intriguing design as it inspires more creative innovations for adaptation.
Since the start of the SunGlacier project I have been surrounded by a great team of friends who have given their time, effort and support, with a belief in building this prototype. Without their enthusiasm and determination to continue, the project may have stopped a long time ago.
Although additional financial support for this leap into a hydro-artistic future is certainly welcome, it’s about much more than money. The SunGlacier prototype is taking off with its own financial resources. It’s about our commitment to being the first to offer real solar-powered water production that can be optimized and put into use, beginning with an artistic presentation to grab public attention.
The studio where we are testing the components and building the SunGlacier version V01 is located in The Hague, the Netherlands. In the V01 we are using off-the-shelf technology to demonstrate that this laboratory-tested concept works. Later versions will feature custom technology, and the SunGlacier team is looking forward to how this first step will provide new insights and methods on how to maximize the water-production system.
Keep a check on this blog and the SunGlacier Facebook page during the building phase of the project (www.facebook.com/sunglacier). When it is complete, we hope for the working SunGlacier prototype sculpture to be invited for a trip around the world. A road show like this can increase engagement of others in our project and in other solutions for man living on a changing planet. Global media has already been reporting on our designs/concepts and we are looking out for more positive publicity as the prototype becomes a reality before the end of 2015.
Stay tuned; stay positive!
The SunGlacier Team
Project Management: Ap Verheggen, Frank van der Heijden,
Jan Alkemade, Matt Luna
Ralph The, Marcel in ’t Veen, Sander van Gent, Terry Cutts, Petra Reulings
Film and Photography: Taco Zwaanswijk, Svebor Kranjc. Boudewijn Knuistingh Neven (BKN), Davina Lamberts (BKN), Hessel Waalewijn
Let’s start plan B
We began project SunGlacier with the intention of sending a positive and optimistic signal to all in the climate debate. It has since evolved into a project focused on ways to apply climate changes for our own benefit.
If temperatures rise, the air contains more water. For instance: A dry and hot desert can contain up to 5 times more water in the air compared to after a spring rain in NYC. Normally, higher temperatures also mean more sunshine. So, why not focus on harvesting water out of the air, powered only by renewable solar energy? In this way drinking water and water for agriculture become available in most dry parts of the planet.
SunGlacier has devised a way to grow a tree in the desert, only using sunshine – as our engineering team proved with tests in a laboratory which simulated extreme desert conditions. And wait, this was only the very beginning! During the last 5 years we didn’t relax in hopes that somebody would help us to get our solution on track, but instead we worked constantly to maximize, improve and surpass initial outcomes. We are now working with a water machine concept that is inexpensive, simple to produce and low maintenance.
The SunGlacier team and I are proud to announce this promising success, but we are still in the process of refining the physical principles of this new idea. Sometimes, for myself it is actually a greater miracle that my team is still working so tirelessly – along with other commitments – to contribute to a solution for an urgent problem. This could be a contribution to the prosperity of the next generations of people like all of us.
Mr. Ban Ki Moon taught us: “There is no Plan B, because we do not have a Planet B,” which sounds like the battle is already lost. I have learned from experience with several governments and international organisations including the UN, that support for an initiative like ours, a solution, is nearly impossible to acquire because of the absence of an attached economic model. Our “business” is in fact bringing creative innovation to produce the one most critical resource: water.
I only could find one reason for inaction by potential supporting governments/organizations: A renewable energy water project somehow doesn’t fit in common visions of “plan A.”
Much has changed since we started SunGlacier in 2010 when there was already widespread discussion of global warming and climate change. The areas with drought are now spreading with unprecedented speed, climate extremes are smashing record after record everywhere…also in world leaders’ own backyards. In some areas the military has been mobilized to control of water-crisis situations. Food and water shortages are growing, and sparking local water-related conflicts that quickly spread across borders to topple fragile governments.
I watched a documentary last week about water shortages, when the man on screen looked in the camera and said: “Who will help us? Nobody cares.”
That is the reason why we continue to work to get Plan B on track.
They simply forgot that they live in a desert
My journey through California.
By Ap Verheggen
The sky was clear when we flew in to Los Angeles. Even from my bird’s eye perspective, the dimension of the deserts that we crossed overwhelmed me. I asked myself how somebody could survive in this harsh landscape. But when the plane descended on its path to LAX, the landscape turned suddenly from desert into a web of streets, buildings, gardens and deep blue spots: swimming pools.
Later in a bar (every visitor in a bar or restaurant in California is offered a huge glass of water, filled with ice, as a welcome gesture) we talked with a friend, who lives in a prestigious neighbourhood in the hills of LA about the water crises.
He told us that his area has plans to recycle wastewater into a kind of grey water that could be used by the households, as a measure of relief for the overstressed water supply to his neighbourhood. It sounded like an ambitious plan, but even he questioned how many neighbours would stay if they have to use their own sewage…. “I’m not sure how many of my neighbours would agree to drink their pee,” he told us.
Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California are mostly fed by water that comes from Lake Mead, where the water from the mighty Colorado River bounces against the famous Hoover Dam. Driving to Lake Mead from LA, the landscape changes from green into desert in a matter of seconds. Beautiful!
After a couple of hours we arrived in Las Vegas. We entered our 35 dollar-a-night room and noticed that the tap in the shower was leaking like a river. Luckily for us there was not drip-drip kind of leak (that would have kept us awake). During our stay of two nights the hotel did not bother to fix it, which can only mean that repairing a simple leak is still more expensive then the leaking itself. Potable water in Las Vegas must be free, otherwise for sure it would be fixed in a day, like everywhere else.
Arriving at the Lake Mead Park, we started our investigation at the visitors centre. The lady behind the desk showed us on a map of what remained of Lake Mead. She told us that only 36 percent of the water still remained in the reservoir, because of the drought. More worryingly, she told us that Lake Mead would never be full again. The demand for water is simply more than the supply. When the water inlets that lead to pipes dry up, they simply dig a new inlet to buy a bit of time. It’s a critical situation that we certainly didn’t expect.
Standing on the mighty Hoover Dam and looking down to the water gives rise conflicting impressions: A grey line on the rocks marks how high the water once reached, but the amount of water still there seems impressive, especially seen from a bird’s eye view.
We followed a road that promised to lead us to the lake, away from the dam and into the valley. At one point the gravel trail changed into smooth concrete and then back again. We continued to drive for another kilometre to arrive at shore of Lake Mead. Only then did we really appreciate how much lower the current water level is from that grey line that indicated the old “normal” surface level: From where we stood, a car parked above us by the rocks close to that line had the dimensions of a housefly. We realized the concrete patch in the road, way above, was once a boat launch. Now we could also explain the ladders high up against the rocks: they were ladders that people used to climb out of the water. It was like looking at the old Lake Mead from the fish’s eye view.
Continuing our tour, we found a sign – in the middle of the desert — that explained the Vegas Wash –Wetlands-. A decade ago the wetlands would have started just by the sign, but of course, we couldn’t find water at all.
The real shock came when we left the park and after just a few kilometres and some curves, we saw a huge green golf course, kept lush by sprinklers. Bizarrely, there were no golfers to be found – the desert heat was too much for them. We actually stopped the car to take in this strange scene – certainly it ranks among the weirdest things I had ever seen.
On our way back to LA I talked with a teacher who lives in Las Vegas and asked her about the water situation. She told me that she was concerned about the quality of the drinking water because she believed that pollutants sink to the bottom of the lake and she was afraid that soon the government would not be able to guarantee the quality of the water anymore. It was a worry that she came up with herself, but it helped her make the decision to leave and sell her house before others come up with the same idea and her property was worthless.
Arriving in LA, we were welcomed by again sprinkler installations, whose purpose was to water public grass next to the highway. The City of Angels appeared changed, because I was now experiencing it from my new fish eye perspective. The amount of water that is used by an average Californian household is only a small drop compared to what agriculture and industry use. People know this, and the virtual circle of no escape is created.
California is famous for its sustainability and for being the hub of the globe’s most innovative companies, it seems to have lost its perspective when it comes to own water. Even now, as the minute hand is inching toward midnight, the solutions generally proposed are founded on the idea of conservation and mitigation – which while important comes too late given the State’s state of affairs.
Instead of waiting for rain, we should all invest in revolutionary ideas and out-of-box thinking to help us raise water levels. There is always a solution, it just needs investments and time, and that’s what is also drying up. California is touching the tipping point.
A COP tale of optimism and ancient wisdom
At the COP 20 climate talks in Lima, water – water was everywhere but the world found it hard to think. Nearly everyone agreed on the urgency of water solutions, as supplies have begun to shrink.
SunGlacier Director of Communications, Matt Luna, attended the second week of the COP and talked with participants about water solutions and innovation. Representatives of global organizations reacted with surprise and interest to the relatively simple concept of solar-powered water as a step in adapting to a changing environment.
While negotiating parties in plenary sessions wrestled over single words in an agreement to limit emissions, groups holding side events were discussing adaptation, forest preservation, green growth and smart cities. Use of renewable energy such as solar was of course a key point to numerous discussions. It was remarked that wealthy financial institutions is where many solutions lie, as money is needed to fund green growth toward a leaner use of the planet.
SunGlacier was in the middle of this discussion, as it has been working for more than two years in testing to fine tune the best use of solar in harvesting the natural water source in the air. The engagement of the financial elite is certainly needed to fuel green solutions like an art project that can lead to real solutions for parched areas including off-grid communities.
Al Gore asserted himself repeatedly as an optimist for the planet’s future when speaking at a COP event briefing. He only questioned how much human suffering would take place before solid solutions are effectively implemented to many of the planet’s current challenges. Bolivian President Evo Morales in a COP speech called on pillars of ancient wisdom of indigenous people to help us all survive into the future: 1) Don’t be a liar 2) Don’t be a thief 3) Don’t be lazy.
SunGlacier does not plunge into politics, but shares Mr. Gore’s optimism for the planet and Mr. Morales’s value of an honest, natural and active approach to climate adaptation: Build a simple solution to use the sun to harvest water from the air – and share it with people to drink.
Solar water generation in Peru
Consider for a moment the country of Peru, host of the COP 20 this December, where effects of climate change are dramatic: melting glaciers, decreasing natural wetlands and inadequate water management systems. About 2 million people in the Lima area are without access to clean running water, and the number grows to 8 million in the country.
The SunGlacier Technology team has calculated that Lima area conditions for example could be ideal for our Desert Cascades water production. With the 100m2 structure in test conditions typical of Lima, projected drinking-quality water amounts are at 32 liters per hour, or 260 liters in an 8-hour period. This is quite encouraging to say the least.
Our team has been strategizing with UNESCO-IHE, the Institute for Environmental Security, the European Space Agency and others to design a program of alternative water supply and resource management that can be a step toward solutions for vast changes in our planet’s water resources. The artistic design of Desert Cascades can also help create a broader project impact by using art as a universal means of communication.
The problem is evident, the focus is clear and we are moving forward. Desert Cascades has very real potential to help water scarcity in growing parts of the world. With more hard work and vital support, places like Lima could see an innovative step in drinking water resources for communities in need.
Our team has been strategizing with UNESCO-IHE, the Institute for Environmental Security, the European Space Agency and others to design a program of alternative water supply and resource management that can be a step toward solutions for vast changes in our planet’s water resources. The artistic design of Desert Cascades can also help create a broader project impact by using art as a universal means of communication.
The problem is evident, the focus is clear and we are moving forward. Desert Cascades has very real potential to help water scarcity in growing parts of the world. With more hard work and vital support, places like Lima could see an innovative step in drinking water resources for communities in need.
SunGlacier in the New York Times
An unbelievable marriage of art and technology
Climate change is forcing new thought on innovations in facing drier conditions in vast areas of the globe. In the SunGlacier project, we have spent more than two years researching ways of capturing these changes for our advantage, with surprising results.
SunGlacier is an art project that pushes the borders of theory and present technology. A marriage of art and innovation has proved the value of “dare to dream about making the impossible, possible.” Yes, we can now build a glacier in a hot, dry desert and yes, we can generate drinking water from air.
It’s time for the next phase of building an autonomous water-generating structure that carries a zero carbon footprint. All technology developed in research has been compiled in an accessible report that provides answers to questions such as: how much drinking water can we produce out of thin air powered by only solar energy – and what does it cost?
The ultimate goal is to not only to build the art projects SunGlacier and Desert Cascades, but to see our technology applied where it can benefit people searching for an independent water source. This is art; this is climate adaptation; this is a new business concept that can make rain for investors willing to plunge into previously unexplored edges of technological applications.
Our starting point is the production of pure drinking water in dry situations for a relatively low cost. In going beyond the artistic impact of the project, we have developed promising applications for SunGlacier to be put into use in various situations.
Although SunGlacier was not initially designed as a commercial project, an investment structure now allows organizations to participate in supporting the widespread success of the project. The potential to draw positive attention to a business with an environmentally-friendly art project that makes usable water is no longer science fiction.
The technology is real, just as the inspiration that can motivate broad sectors of industry to follow in applying innovative resource adaptation.
More information: Ap Verheggen at <apverheggen@gmail.com>
Update: more drinking water than expected!
Yesterday in our laboratory tests, drinking water production increased to such an extent that we were completely overwhelmed by the results. Even at this stage of the testing I already can announce: Yes! We have found a new method that can contribute to one of world’s toughest challenges. There remain expected variables in application circumstances, but overall the outcome is far beyond “promising;” It’s spectacular!
Our new testing results demonstrated that our project: a synergy between an artist’s mind and the expertise of some open-minded and creative engineers, has opened a new door in the search for climate adaptation solutions.
My heart beats twice as fast when I think about the impact of this project on future applications.
Stay tuned as we continue…
Ap
Sun + Air = Water
In wider patches of the world, communities are struggling to adapt to increasingly severe and long droughts that are forcing a search for sustainable systems of fresh water. Access to H2O is of course the very basis of survival, and there is also growing recognition of how scarcity of vital resources can drive the spread of social unrest, political instability and conflict in affected and neighboring areas.
Project SunGlacier’s research and awareness of water’s place in nearly all levels of human security have led to the design of the autonomously functioning structure: “Desert Cascades.” This design that we’ve already previewed will create a cascade of fresh drinking water from humidity, driven purely by solar energy. And were still pushing boundaries by aiming to install this “oasis” in the extremes of a hot, arid desert.
Desert Cascades is a sculpture that can make a tangible contribution, through art, to adapting to rolling changes in the climate. Simply: It makes water from air, powered by the sun.
A sea of adaptation solutions is around us, and it’s up to us to harness resources we already have. This week we started further design tests in our laboratory that simulates desert conditions. And think, what can we accomplish working together now and in 5-10 years when the efficiency of solar power has increased exponentially?
The Discovery Channel has taken interest in the project, and sent a crew to film our successful round of testing at the laboratory last week. Andras Szollosi-Nagy, Head of UNESCO-IHE, (in photo, right) was also at the site last Thursday and said, “This is a historical moment, and of great importance for the future of our planet.”
The project’s ultimate aim is to inspire broader, collective solutions, and it seems we’ve just reached a point of no return. The need for results from our efforts is growing. The technology is performing beyond predictions in laboratories. The public is responding enthusiastically to the positive core purpose of SunGlacier. And, our team’s resolve to make solar-powered water feels like a speeding train without brakes.
We’re not going to stop until we plunge straight off a cliff and into a sea of positive solutions!
New tests can start in the next weeks
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| The inspection of the Desert Laboratory at Cofely Refrigeration |
In a couple of weeks we start testing some new ideas how to generate water and ice out of thin air in desert conditions. We built a desert laboratory that copies world’s most extreme desert conditions and yesterday we inspected the installations.
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| The Cofely Refrigeration Desert Team Ir. Tom Lubbinge, Ir. Frank van der Heijden, Ir. Erik-Jan Hoogendoorn |
Building a positive polar vortex
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| by Ap Verheggen |
How many of the millions who are now familiar with the term had heard of a polar vortex before last week? The sub-zero freeze in the United States feels like a flashback to the 2004 disaster film The Day After Tomorrow in which an eerily similar climate pattern brought on another ice age.
Is this swirling vortex of Arctic air over America so bizarre? Not really. As we’re enjoying a relatively warm winter so far here in Europe, a look out our window to the West reminds us that extreme climate events have passed the point of becoming the new norm, and are now a reality. Mother Nature seems to make her voice heard somewhere each month with a monstrous howl. It’s up to us to live under these new skies.
Working on SunGlacier is a chance to build 10% of inspiration that can lead to the 90% of perspiration that just may make some kind of positive difference in the lives of people in a forgotten corner of the planet – or in the growing urbanized part of the world. It’s important to stay positive and keep open minds for now and for the next generations. They will need solid shoulders to stand upon when searching for future solutions that just may be found in unexpected places.
Speaking of unexpected places, the Discovery Channel plans to come to the Netherlands later this month to film a segment on SunGlacier. More details will be made available soon.
Also, we previously posted about deadly tornadoes in the U.S. Midwest and the need for protective structures. Three new schools have opened in Missouri with protected rooms. Such an initiative is a simple idea in adaptation, but it requires a change in mindset and methods to be made possible.
Stay tuned, stay focused and most important: Stay Positive!
Photos from the polar vortex
Join SunGlacier on an inspiring ride
Someone pulled the lever again on the climate slot machine. Two severe storms have hit North Europe in an alarming short several weeks with winds up to about 150 km/hour, one storm at an opportune moment of high tide. Many were looking back at the lessons learned about adapting to the unpredictability of nature back in 1953 when 1,800 people lost their lives in flooding in the Netherlands. Reinforced flood-protection measures followed soon after that disaster.
Ap filmed himself on 5 December 2013
Nature will always be the stronger force. If there would have been more rain in the area when the latest storm tore through last Thursday, many may have experienced flooding at their doorsteps, even with barriers that have protected us from the water on the other side of the dikes for more than 50 years.
It’s in our survival DNA to preserve life – but relying on standard systems that have “worked so far” can have disastrous consequences. Approaches need to be as dynamic as humanly possible (and a bit beyond) to help man coexist with a more powerful nature. This is of course on a global scale: droughts are more severe and longer lasting, and super storm Haiyan made it clear that the climate slot machine is changing – and not necessarily in man’s favor. The house always wins?
So let’s just hit the pause button to allow time to find solutions that will better enable generations to come. But wait, that’s not an option. In fact, extreme weather events are becoming stronger and more frequent.
It’s right now that SunGlacier is working to create a functioning work of art aimed at inspiring a unified push for more innovative designs on adaptation. It takes a change of mindset. It takes human effort. And it takes money.
SunGlacier has had an explosion of international press coverage lately (see a few article links below), and our team has been meeting with potential financial partners to discuss carrying this unique approach forward, but more support is needed. Like-minded parties are invited to join us in what promises to be a globally intriguing art project that hopes to make people stop and say “Look at that; we can and should do more.” But more what? That is exactly the point of our exploration: to inspire discovery of the what and the how.
Find out more about becoming a part of the SunGlacier innovation. Contact Ap Verheggen at apverheggen@gmail.com
Recent media coverage – selected links:
The Weather Channel
InHabitat
La Repubblica
Discovery Brasil
TV program in Bulgaria
State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs visits project SunGlacier
Sharon Dijksma, Dutch State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs attended a meeting with the technology experts of the SunGlacier Project at Cofely Refrigeration, Zoetermeer. She was very enthusiastic about all our ideas.
A flow of ideas…
From the inspiration and research of the SunGlacier project making ice in a desert, I’ve developed the idea of creating an actual working waterfall also in an extreme dry area. The Desert Cascades concept is an art project to be made from a solar panel-based cube that independently supplies itself with energy to catch water vapor and flow the resulting water over and out of the structure. The Cascades is still an idea in-progress, but with the increasing speed of solar technology, it could soon be growing – as is SunGlacier – closer to becoming a functioning reality.
Developments in technology are ever increasing in speed. What appears impossible at the present can quickly become a reality within a number of months or a few short years. However, I believe that we can expand the benefits of technology when we accelerate current thinking on how to use potential applications in the future. An art project like the Cascades can inspire people and science to look beyond known horizons and become a type of generator for new possibilities. Consider science-fiction films from the 1970s; many Star Wars era dreams are becoming everyday tools in one form or another.
artist impression by Ap Verheggen
Developments in technology are ever increasing in speed. What appears impossible at the present can quickly become a reality within a number of months or a few short years. However, I believe that we can expand the benefits of technology when we accelerate current thinking on how to use potential applications in the future. An art project like the Cascades can inspire people and science to look beyond known horizons and become a type of generator for new possibilities. Consider science-fiction films from the 1970s; many Star Wars era dreams are becoming everyday tools in one form or another.
For us it’s essential to explore outside of conventional technology to develop ideas like how much water we can get out of the air with only solar as power generator. In the SunGlacier project, we have searched for solutions to achieve maximum results because the nature of the project calls for extreme methods. Some answers have been found in nature, like how structures and processes have developed over thousands of years of evolution. Some of these answers can also be used to build Desert Cascades.
artist impression by Ap Verheggen
We’ve noticed a huge gap between theory and reality in testing our ideas, so naturally it has been impossible to make conclusions before empirical testing. Well, such scenarios simply create a need for more old-fashioned creativity in this modern research. I discovered in this process that the experts at our partner Cofely Refrigeration are artists in their own right. Interpretation of research outcomes often requires out-of-the-box thinking. The main conclusion of our research remains: Do it! It’s funny that we actually learned a lot about water while making ice, as a result of stretching borders to conquer larger extremes.
SunGlacier is in essence a very close concept cousin to Desert Cascades. From one project we learn a lot about the other project. Both are conceived with the purpose of demonstrating that we need to think in terms of solutions as man always has done – also in adapting to a changing climate. A core message is that if our living conditions change, we can also change our mind set try to shape these changes for our own benefit. For me it is clear that climate change = culture change. I am quite positive that we can generate, even now, an autonomously working waterfall in a desert, and I am confident that the results can somehow inspire new applications for the future. Believe the impossible. The art project ‘Desert Cascades’ is still in a concept phase, but it is too interesting to me to not build it.
It’s ironic that the big ball of fire in the sky that makes one feel thirsty can also power the creation of water over elegantly-sculpted cascades.
The Climate Balloon Theory
A balloon helps explain our climate
As an artist I don’t feel as confined by boundaries of science when considering natural phenomena, because it’s more my purpose to see things in a certain way, rather than to offer concrete explanations and/or solutions. But with my long-time interest in nature and the radical changes in the Arctic regions, I’ve worked up a simple conclusion: Earth’s climate laws are comparable to a balloon.
The climate change subject has been thrown into an arena with multiple contestants struggling to advance their own theories. Nobody yet has a 100 percent certain answer if the entire earth is heating up or cooling down, but all participants are sending a similar message: our climate is changing.
The Climate Balloon Theory
The Climate Balloon Model (in complete balance)
Temperatures
One good example of a climate consensus is that the Arctic is heating up, but it is difficult to find a unanimous statement on global changes. In the climate change balloon, if the Arctic is heating up, as a consequence, another part in the world must be cooling down.
Consider seasons and daylight: as one side of the Earth receives light and heat from the daytime sun, the other side of the planet is cooling down in its night shadow. If the Northern Hemisphere is shivering in winter, the South of our planet is bathing in summer.
Water
The Earth’s surface is covered with 75% water, but water makes up only 0.02% of the total mass of the planet. Because earth has an atmosphere (like the skin of a balloon) water cannot escape into space. Therefore, we come to this artist’s conclusion that the amount of water on earth will never increase or decrease, regardless of if the earth’s system is in balance or not. Water is the only real constant factor.
A common prediction is that as some parts of the world become dryer, other parts will become wetter. This perfectly fits my climate change balloon model.
Wind and currents (the equalizers)
In the climate change balloon we can learn that if we have great changes in temperature and water balance, there will be a noticeable effect on winds and ocean currents. The air and oceans are the players who control the system: the climate equalizers. Wind and water currents function as the motor of the system’s balance. In the Climate Balloon Theory, these forces are responsible for changes. A change in an ocean’s current has a larger but slower overall impact than its weaker counterpart, air.
Declining sea levels?
Sea levels rise because of some easily-explained factors: 1) increased water temperature = increased water volume 2) the melting of glaciers 3) wind pushes water to the side, or other way around. In my balloon model, the same effects also can occur because of a current that pushes water to or from a continent.
While we know that sea levels are rising in many areas, some data on the NOAA world map caught my attention. I saw dramatic sea level decreases indicated in the Baltic Sea, and it became apparent that water is getting sucked out of those areas. When I consult my balloon model, I see the main streams in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea becoming more powerful so that they are indeed stealing water straight out of the Baltic Sea!
It makes sense that if sea level rise was only a result of melting glaciers, it would be impossible to explain why some areas are having decreasing sea levels. General consensus essentially states that sea levels worldwide are increasing because of melting glaciers, BUT…..
On some Northern and Southern stations, a sea level decrease is evident. (Alaska and Spitsbergen)
Following my balloon theory and the possibility of greater currents redirecting water flow, other places with few or without stations: Antarctica, Greenland, and many other parts of the Arctic Ocean will experience decreasing sea levels.
But perhaps it’s too ambitious for an artist to create a new theory that sea level rise is mainly driven by the power of changing of currents instead of melting ice caps.
http://www.psmsl.org/products/trends/
The Climate Balloon is never in balance
In a perfectly balanced climate system, every same calendar day over years would have exactly the same temperature. This, as far as I’ve seen, has never happened. Our climate is changing from year to year. Many factors play an important role: the sun, planets, the moon, etc. I believe there are more factors involved than we are all are of…
Newton’s third law: “When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to that of the first body.” (OK, so if a balloon is squeezed in one place to become smaller, another part of the balloon will react by becoming larger).
To maintain a balance, there must be a dynamic system. It’s a quite complicated process that I think nobody completely understands, and it’s anybody’s guess what long-term climate effects will be.
Our weather is essentially like a slot machine. Too many factors are playing their roles. Looking back into trends of recorded history to hypothesise what the weather/climate will be is like observing patterns of slot machine’s previous results and then pulling the lever armed with only a small probability of knowing the outcome – jackpot.
Somebody squeezed the Balloon: Climate Change!
Climate science is relatively new, and in relation to the earth’s age, we are just recovering from an ice age. Our equalizers helped create a balance, but now signs are pointing to a new era: Climate Change. I see the situation as climate changing at unprecedented (and yet unknown) speed and intensity. A result is more extreme climate conditions.
I have seen the Arctic with melting glaciers around me, and I have also seen temperatures in the same area at 40C above average. The local Inuit said the changes started in the 1970’s, and every year is becoming more extreme. And likewise, locals in Coast Rica told me that they can’t rely anymore on the rain season: forests are dying from a delicate balance that was disturbed by natural forces that are also at play in the balloon.
And by the way, the message below was posted on the site where I tried to do further research on sea ice: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Maybe I should give them a call to tell them more about my Climate Balloon Theory!
Please feel free to repond: apverheggen@gmail.com