Sustainability

AL GORE: Green Energy by 2018 (7/17 Speech)

Yesterday Al Gore Spoke in Washington DC to issue a generational challenge to repower America. He wants to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. Here’s the a simple example of why we have to do it, as the same issue is causing economic, national security, and environmental chaos.

We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we’re holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.
The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.

Check out we can solve it for more info on how to get the word out, and make lifestyle changes. Now the next step is to start thinking about how to make The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming actually happen.

Pete Ippel’s “The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming”
Let’s get some funding for green science!

Technorati Tags: art, artist, environment, california, carbon dioxide, contemporary, diamonds, exhibition, fantastic, global warming, green house gas, hypermodern, Icthus Gallery, Ippel, Mission, New Genres, Pete Ippel, photo, photography, San Francisco, solutions, sustainablilty, Video

There are three main basics in economies of the past, let’s say 70 years ago (these are estimates scrawled on the back of an envelope).

1. Commodity (3%)
2. Goods (17%)
3. Services (80%)

Now there is a fourth.

4. Experience

Here’s how it plays out with Starbucks (again estimated on the back of an envelope).

1. Commodity - bean (pennies)
2. Goods - coffee ($.05 - $.20)
3. Services - paying employees ($.50 - $1.00)
4. Experience - sitting and reading, listening to music, comfy chair ($2.00 - $5.00)

Something to ponder the next time you sit down to the Venti double non-fat-soy-latte. Also are people buying art because they want to talk to the artist? This is what Damien Hirst is banking on.

Check out the book Experience Economy, or wikipedia

News Archive - The Earth Institute at Columbia University
I am very excited about the air extraction device to help get the carbon dioxide out of the air.

Technorati Tags: sustainability, co2, sequestration, carbon emissions, green

I found this today, and was really impressed with National Geographic’s commitment to changing youth attitudes about the importance of recycling.

In my experience, having fun with recycling and sustainability issues, is key to making the message stick that if we all make small lifestyle changes, a great good will come from it.

I am working on a new song that will act at a theme for my new website greenandhyphy.com where Bay Area slang, world politics, and hyphy beats are combined for a positive message about recycling and sustainability and some critique of current lifestyles and consumer trends. Here are a couple of lines…

Living green is thug, that’s why I choose it,
They throw it out, I rinse and re-use it.

Play this in the club, let me see your hands
While I’m struttin’ in my Vans
I won’t leave a carbon footprint da da da da da
da da da da da

I’m thrilled to keep affecting change by having fun, being excited about new green tech and clean tech, *getting hyphy*, and giving examples of easy things to do such as switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, doing anything to reduce carbon emissions like skating, biking, walking taking MUNI through The City. In my job I work with a lot of youth, and I have to say it’s been really exciting watching the kids make positive choices and tell their friends about how they can do the same.

This is a quick once-around of “The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and Other Conundrums” at Icthus Gallery in San Francisco. Thanks to Mark for the video.
The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and Other Conundrums - Pete Ippel from Hypermodern - Pete Ippel on Vimeo.

The show is open until May 31st, 2008 so if you’re in the city, come by between 10am and 5pm weekdays. Or you can email me at pete @ hypermodern.net and schedule a special showing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and Other Conundrums” An art show by Pete Ippel
May 16-31, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, May 16, 6-9 p.m. with DJ music and indoor-jumping photo souvenirs for guests. EDITORS: You, your reporters and photographers are welcome to cover the event.

Icthus Gallery
1769 15th Street (between Valencia and Guerrero), San Francisco, CA
Gallery hours, weekdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; weekends, by appointment
Admission, Free

View Larger Map

For more information, contact, Pete Ippel, artist
Phone, (415) 425-8863
E-mail, pete at hypermodern.net
Web site, http://www.hypermodern.net/archives/fsgw/

“The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming”, 40 x 60 inches (101 x 152 cm), gouache, ink, pencil, and watercolor on paper

SAN FRANCISCO, Monday, April 28, 2008 - The Fantastic Solution to Global Warming and other Conundrums is an exhibition of new artwork by San Francisco based artist and athlete Pete Ippel. In this collection of drawings, photographic prints, and videos he explores themes ranging from nuclear waste processing to the pairing of art and sport.

In Ippel’s brightly rendered, fantastical 2-D world, a box of lightning, some incandescent light bulbs, and a gigantic, biological-organic turbine are coupled with wind, tide, hydroelectric, nuclear, volcanic, solar, and geothermal power sources to sequester carbon dioxide. Under intense heat and pressure, in a star-powered fusion-cooker, diamonds are produced, thus solving the dilemmas of green house gases, vacant mines, and human rights issues associated with diamond mining.

The exhibition also highlights artifacts, photographic prints, and video informed by Ippel’s work as an athlete and a coach. After completing a successful collegiate track and field career as a high jumper in New York, Ippel made the move to San Francisco to pursue a Masters of Fine Art in the New Genres Department of the San Francisco Art institute.

It was here in the Bay Area, inspired by local artists Tony Labat and Tom Marioni, where Ippel began to craft projects that married his passion for jumping to his artistic practice.

“When I saw that Tony had devoted a year of his life to boxing, and Tom was drinking beer with friends in the name of art while making movement based drawing and prints I felt empowered,” said Ippel. “And I’ve been fortunate to spend time with both of them here in San Francisco. I really respect their work,” Ippel added.

“The Jump Series” grows out of the tradition of New Genres where actions are performed for the camera. The body of work is based on the premise that to push of one’s self off any surface and into the air by using the muscles in one’s legs and feet is a glorious and enjoyable act; essentially human flight. The modes of lift-off on display include skateboarding, high jumping, jumping off of architecture, leaping into panoramic scenes, jumping over objects, and choreographed jumps with other individuals. Ippel utilizes a tripod and a remote control or the camera’s self-timer to execute this body of performative photographs.

TSP Athletics, also on display, is a competitive vertical jumps team, social club, and acts as a collaborative vehicle to generate images of athletes in flight. It blurs boundaries between art and sport while acting as a vehicle to temper the shock of moving away from traditional competitive athletics.

“When you have something obscure like the high jump that has been your top priority for so many years, it’s foreign when it’s gone,” says Ippel. “Because I went directly to SFAI from Cornell, it was quite a challenge to no longer have the support of my team, nor be able to celebrate my athletic gifts in competition. I went through a real period of grief.” Ippel satiated his needs by creating a one-person team and traveling alone to meets a few times a year. “I made a uniform, started a website, and I kept in touch with my jumping peers. When I was at the meets after being away for so long, I started to see the beauty of the action and the camaraderie and wanted to capture it, and still keep it active in my life.”

The project has developed as an answer to what collegiate athletes do upon graduation to keep in touch, keep jumping, and make art.

Since its inception in 2004, TSP Athletics has grown to include former NCAA qualifiers and university record holders. Ippel’s plan is to produce limited-edition prints with participation by distinguished jumpers who are invited to be athletes-in-residence for TSP. In the frame of social sculpture these artists/athletes will each, contribute to the TSP Archive to add to its expanding collection of images and memorabilia.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Pete Ippel was born in Oak Park, Illinois, USA and has been surrounded by the arts since birth. He moved to Morris, Illinois in 1989 and started to participate in athletics rather than dance. After high school, Pete attended Cornell University where he earned a BA in psychology and a BFA in photo / digital art making. He continued to follow his sporting dreams in the high jump, which culminated in a school record leap of 7 feet 1/2 inch in 2001. In May 2004 he attained an MFA degree in the New Genres department of the San Francisco Art Institute. Presently Pete is a practicing artist whose work is in numerous private collections. He’s also the residence manager for the San Francisco Ballet, a fitness professional, coaches basketball and track at University High School, and still high jumps from time to time.

Cornell Entrepreneur Network of Northern California in partnership Cornell Silicon Valley and The Cornell Law School presents: “Climate Change and Global Warming: The Evolving Legal Framework” featuring Kevin Haroff ‘77, MBA ‘81, JD ‘81, Partner, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP.

Climate change is now an acknowledged scientific fact, caused primarily by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with human activity over time. California is playing a lead role in attacking the problem with its Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Assembly Bill 32) - the first legislation in the country to set a cap on GHG emissions statewide. The Attorney General’s office also has filed several lawsuits raising climate change issues in both federal and state courts, most recently joining a multi-state effort to force regulation of GHG emissions from cars and trucks under the federal Clean Air Act.

Tuesday April 29th, 2008
6:00 PM Reception
7:00 PM Presentation
Cost: $20 per person (includes Hors d’oeuvre Reception). This event is expected to sell-out and requires pre-registration.
Location:Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP, 390 Lytton Ave, Palo Alto.

Pete_Ipp.jpg

Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Sustainable recycled plastic skating rink at University High School San Francisco. You can use regular ice skates too!

Pete Ippel utilizes a box of lightening, a gigantic biological-organic turbine, wind, tide, hydroelectric, nuclear, volcanic, solar, and geothermic power to sequester carbon dioxide and produce diamonds, thus solving the dilemma with the green house gas, carbon dioxide, vacant coal mines, and the problems with blood diamonds in Africa.

Materials: gouache, ink, pencil, watercolor
Dimensions: 40 x 60 inches (101 x 152 cm)

No carbon emissions when skating, but what do you do with the deck when it’s thrashed…?

Now then can be chipped and made into compost if you purchase Comet Skateboards.

Pete_Ipp.jpg

Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Almost finished with The Fantastic Solution To Global Warming.

Thanks to Wired for posting this review of the Smart car.

Wow, look at the diference in the parking ability of that BMW (mini) vs. Mercedes (smart). What really is amazing in SF if you have a Smart,

you can park the long way. (Awesome)…though one could always ride the bike, Muni, walk, or use car-sharing.

Pete_Ipp.jpg

Originally uploaded by hypermodern

More on the Fantastic solution to global warming.

Pete_Ipp.jpg

Originally uploaded by hypermodern

Moving along with the Fantastic Solution to Global Warming…

As seen in Barneys New York catalog…

On the 12th day of Christmas, my pro-green true-love gave to me

12 Tons of tofu
11 Solar panels
10 New-age gurus
9 Organic carob bars
8 Tickets to Burning Man
7 Sustainable ostrich Farms
6 Compost toilets
5 Rolls of recycled gift-wrap
4 Fair-trade futons
3 Free range, sustainably farmed, organic hens
2 Vegan chefs
and a Prius in a pear tree

According to Forbes.com video Intel is making the “Classmate PC” and will also be collaborating with MIT for the 100 dollar computer. (Interesting to note as of present AMD is the chip inside the XO computer)
Here is a video from Siggraph 2007 on the XO Lappy. They’re working on a foot pedal like on a sewing machine to power it…or maybe even solar cells…(the whole thing is set to cost 100 usd, though right now, it’s being manufactured for 140.

I think a lot of activists neglect to think of “net” impact…When all the cards are played…what are you left with…perhaps an idea of risk management is more realistic, the route of least harm…

I was forwarded Food That Travels Well from the New York Times.  James E. McWilliams really nails it with the green hub system…well done.