Peter Kalmus is a busy environmental activist and author but he still found the time for a short interview with MyTree.TV. Follow @ClimateHuman on Twitter to read about his latest ideas.
Why did you choose Van Gogh’s Mulberry tree as your Twitter profile picture?
It so clearly depicts the tree as a being. It’s like Van Gogh painted the soul of a tree. His other paintings of trees also capture this magic.
Is there a way art can help to find solutions for the climate crisis ?
It can raise awareness of the emergency. Our only way out of this emergency is for a critical mass of the public to realize that it is in fact an emergency. I’d say art is crucial to waking people up, because emotional connection is necessary. Art inspired by scientific facts and reality is greatly needed, but artists need to be willing to prioritize truth-telling above entertainment. I think this is why so many popular movies, for example, sublimate and dance around the edges of the climate emergency – they are not prioritizing the truth. There’s a whole genre of movies where there’s some kind of Earth apocalypse which is clearly standing in for climate breakdown, but it’s depicted as something else, like global crop failure (Interstellar) or even simply unspecified (like Under the Arctic Sky). These films, and so many like them, didn’t have the courage to just say “let’s call it what it is, climate breakdown” because they were more interested in creating a safe (and probably more safely lucrative) fantasy entertainment. They wanted to capitalize on the public’s climate concern, while still allowing their audiences to feel like “well, that’s not Earth, thank god.”
Did you ever hug a tree and how was it?
Hell yeah! I’m literally a tree hugger. I don’t know, it’s kind of rough and barky. My favorite trees to hug are probably Ponderosa and Jeffrey pines in mountain forests in the western US because their bark smells wonderful, like butterscotch.
Amazon?
On your webpage is a link to order your book on Amazon and at the same time you want to “tax billionaires completely out of existence“. Isn’t this a contradiction? How should this work? How can the rich be taxed on a global level?
There’s also a link to order straight form the publisher. But I actually do think this touches on something really profound – the relationship of the individual to systems the individual is embedded within. I’d encourage everyone to buy my book from the publisher, or from a local bookstore, instead of Amazon. But doing this won’t stop Amazon, even a little – for that we need systems to change, and one of those key systems is the tax system (both corporate and individual). There’s no way you or I can end the plague of billionairism by ourselves, but governments could do it easily through painless changes to tax structures. Again, though, there’s a conundrum because the rich make sure they control these systems, so they won’t do it without pressure. It will take enough people to wake up and demand it – the modern-day equivalent of pitchforks.
Peter about his book “Being the Change”
You are the founder of https://noflyclimatesci.org/ … When was your last flight?
2012.
Are you able to measure the impact of this and your earth hero app project?
All I’m doing, really, is trying to shift culture, revoke the social license of fossil fuel and these destructive human systems that are wreaking havoc on Earth systems, and wake people up. That’s the common denominator of everything I do. Unfortunately it’s hard to measure. But I do get people teling me that what I’m doing is inspiring them and turning them into activists, on a daily basis. This is how it happens.
I try to do what I can to wake people up as effectively as I can, that is all.
Earth Hero is available for download now, but it’s also always a work in progress, and we could use your help! We are especially interested in Swift and Java developers and UI designers. If you’d like to pitch in, please contact Peter.
Earth’s children:
You’ve dedicated your book to your children and the rest of Earth’s children. How do you see their future and the future of your grandchildren if we continue with the emissions of CO2 at this moment? 2021.
Unfortunately, if we continue on the path we are currently on, I think many crucial human systems and ecosystems will collapse, and it will be like dominoes except intrinsically unpredictable. Coral reefs and tropical and boreal forests, and many other ecosystems, are already on the slippery slide to irreversible collapse. We are staring down the barrel of a future where the tropics are uninhabitable due to extreme humid heat. Where will those billion people go? What about our water, food, insurance, economic, political, infrastructure, energy, and international systems? How much abuse can they take? Do we really want to find out?
Thank you, Peter for this short but very interesting interview.
BTW: It’s strongly recommended to follow Peter on Twitter:
Climate Ad Project
In August 2020, Peter gathered a team of writers and producers dedicated to creating simple, impactful climate ads for the general public. Stay tuned.
