What can you do to celebrate Earth Day this year that shows your commitment to the well-being of our planet, contributes to scientific research and demonstrate an artistic sensibility to the environment that surrounds you? According to Dr. Bryan Pijanowski, Professor of Landscape Ecology at Purdue University, the answer is: Record the Earth. Through his website, Global Soundscapes, Dr. Pilanowski is calling on people from around the world to record one million soundscapes today. The recordings can be done using their app, Soundscape Recorder, and uploaded onto their server. Using the theory that acoustic signals are the prime marker of the health of our environment, these soundscapes will then be used to assess the dynamics and conditions of our ecosystems.
So Happy Earth Day everyone. Now get out there and record!
______________________________
Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of science, policy, art, and climate change. She is the Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle – an organization created to support the writing, development and production of eight plays that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight countries of the Arctic – and the founder of the blog and international network Artists & Climate Change. She is a co-organizer of Climate Change Theatre Action, a worldwide series of readings and performances of short climate change plays presented in support of the United Nations COP meetings.
