Sometimes things have to get worse before they change for the better. A fever is an example. To a certain point, fever rises to an intense degree to chase out the pathogens of the common flu. However, if the heat hits a certain point, it injures more than it helps. Climate change has already reached (passed) a life-threatening stage. It is plain that the beginnings of pollution and climate change trouble came with our “modern” industrial age. Yet, modern research and technology are also key to returning to a stable climate and clean air.
I’m disappointed that everyone has not watched Chasing Ice to better understand where we are headed with that. It is a brilliant intersection of documentary, science, climate change, adventure, and art/film. It is also a way to personalize climate science and help bring more support to this critical area of research.
Another way to bring more attention and funding to climate science is by using renewable energy to “uncover” cryptocurrency. Say what?
Julian Oliver, who used wind energy “to mine cryptocurrency to fund climate research,” explains further after the artistic picture.
“HARVEST is a work of critical engineering and computational climate art. It uses wind-energy to mine cryptocurrency, the earnings of which are used as a source of funding for climate-change research.
“Taking the form of a 2m wind turbine with environmental sensors, weatherproof computer, and 4G uplink, HARVEST ‘feeds’ from two primary symptoms of our changing climate: wind gusts and storms. It does this by transforming wind energy into the electricity required to meet the demanding task of mining cryptocurrency (here Zcash), a decentralized process where computers are financially rewarded for their work maintaining and verifying a public transaction ledger known as the blockchain. Rather than filling the digital wallet of the artist, all rewards earned by the HARVEST mining machine are paid out as donations to non-profit climate change research organizations such that they can better study this planetary-scale challenge.”
“HARVEST was commissioned by the Konstmuseet i Skövde an exhibition of which was designed and launched on the 14th of September, 2017, running for two months in the museum. The exhibition comprises a live feed directly from the miner, conveying data relevant to the mining process. This data was visualized by Christopher Pietsch and can be seen in the two projections in the exhibition. Chris has kindly provided a public version of his work on this project here.“
The project hopes to inspire many similar projects. “Acting as a fully functional prototype beyond a media-art context, it is envisaged hundreds of such HARVEST nodes could be deployed in the windiest parts of the world, together generating large sums of supplementary funding for climate-change NGOs in a time where climate science itself is under siege from the fossil-fuelled interests of governments and corporations.”
- This Research-Backed Message Will Help You Talk About Climate Change & Health With Anyone
- Wind Energy Facts — Wind Power & Wind Turbine Facts
- New Energy Dept. Research Opens The Door To A World Without Gasoline — Fossil Gas, That Is
- Van Gogh–Inspired Iridescent Starry Bicycle Path Begins Year Of Van Gogh Events
Images: Julian Oliver | HARVEST
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Electrifying Industrial Heat for Steel, Cement, & More
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
