Thom Yorke added his voice to the growing chorus of artists supporting the first-ever planetary art show: 350 EARTH
350 Earth is an international climate campaign, and from November 20-28, the week before the UN Climate Meetings in Cancun, Mexico, artists are working with citizens in over a dozen locations to create massive, climate-themed public art installations that will be photographed by satellites traveling 17,000 m.p.h. nearly 400 miles above the surface of the planet.
Yorke explained on the Radiohead website, “The plan is to make images visible from the skies to remind those in Cancun that we’re running out of time. We can’t keep putting this off.”
“Art can convey in a different way than science the threat that climate change poses to our planet,” said 350.org founder and environmental author Bill McKibben. “The world’s best scientists have tried to wake-up politicians to the climate crisis, now we’re counting on artists to help.”
Adding to the project, Yorke is working with 350.org to gather thousands of people on the coastline in Brighton, UK on November 27 to form an enormous version of the image from the cover of his album The Eraser: the picture of King Canute, a Norse ruler who futilely tried to control the ocean.......................
In a 2006 interview, Yorke explained the symbolism of the story:
“In the paper one day, [Friends of the Earth activist] Jonathan Porrit was basically dismissing any commitment that the working government has toward addressing global warming, saying that their gestures were like King Canute trying to stop the tide. And that just went “kaching” in my head. It’s not political, but that’s what I feel is happening. We’re all King Canutes, holding our hands out, saying, “It’ll go away. I can make it stop.” No, you can’t.”
If you visit 350.org you can not only check out the "far-out" images displayed all over the planet, but you can also sign up to get involved//posted on what's going on. Sooooooo an idea of mine that I would have loved to have worked on if I hadn't missed the deadline was to illustrate an image of the earth through a collection of leaves. The beautiful array of red-yellow-orange- Autumn leaves would portray//symbolize a "hot planet," and underneath I would have liked to form "350" or "too hot" or something a little more clever with sticks or what not.....and here's the best part; I would gather up some cool cats to help me set up my land art..................ON THE GRAND CANYON! Pretty grand idea. I find it so refreshing to see an organization that uses creativity as a way to convey the urgency of such important issues such as climate change. I would definitely check this site out, and if at all possible check out some ways to get involved.