Humans are the only organisms capable of making large-scale differences to the environmental soundness of the Earth. To combat climate change, people should change their behavior and spending habits, the National Geographic Channel said yesterday in Taipei.
The event unveiled a Running the Numbers exhibition that featured giant photographs by US photographer Chris Jordan, whose work focuses on colorful and multifarious types of consumer waste.
“Mass consumption of consumer products by humans brings an enormous amount of pollution to the Earth,” the Seattle-based Jordan said.
PHOTO: CNA
Saying that he had always been interested in chromatology [the study of colors], the lawyer-turned-photographer told reporters that he wished to use strong colors as a vehicle to communicate environmental protection ideas to the public.
“It is hard for people to comprehend large numbers,” he said, adding that people tend to pay attention to individual cases but ignore large problems that overwhelm them.
“For example, since many people see global warming as an enormous problem, they often [mistakenly think that] they are not able to help,” he said.
To help people put hard-to-grasp statistics into perspective, Jordan “translates the numbers into an experience they can feel with their hearts, instead of their heads,” he said.
In each piece of Jordan’s work, the number of a certain consumer product that would be used in a given time frame is illustrated — for instance, 15 million pieces of A4 paper [used every five minutes in the US], 160,000 aluminum cans [consumed every 30 seconds in the US], or 2 million PET bottles [used every five minutes in the US].
“It is shocking to physically visualize thousands of drink bottles, plastic bags and cellphones piled into mountains of garbage,” said Taiwanese singer-actress Ariel Lin (林依晨), who attended the event.
The actress said that she had agreed to attend despite having a busy schedule, “because environmental protection is an intangible asset [we can pass down to future generations].”
“I’ve heard of the risks of global warming ever since I was young, I just never expected to have to face its impact as early as in my 20s,” the 25-year-old said.
Asked how she was helping to save the earth, Lin said that she always used her own eating utensils and took mass transportation whenever possible.
“Since I eat out three meals a day, that is a lot of chopsticks,” she said.
Lin’s comments mirrored exactly the kind of message that Jordan was trying to get across.
“Everyone holds a little piece of the solution to this giant problem [global warming], which is our behavior — and that’s where we should start,” he said.
The exhibition will run from now until the 27th of this month in Liberty Square.
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