Core77

[Website is up: http://nineplanetswanted.org. Make sure you check out "Newsprint"]

Manuel Toscano will deliver his opening remarks in the United Nations Lobby tonight amongst an installation designed by ZAGO and commissioned by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) entitled The Nine Planets Wanted!

The initiative launches the campaign One Planet One Chance, "allowing visitors to physically experience abstract data related to global warming and take measure of the inverse relationship between responsibility for climate change and vulnerability to its impact."

Using key facts and figures from the 2007/2008 UNDP Human Development Report, the installation consists of 12 monumental beanbags (made from car interior remnants, natch), representing a comparative view of carbon dioxide volumes emitted around the world. (The largest of these beanbags is 9 feet tall!)

Here's a bit from Manuel's remarks:

To this date not enough has been done to put the spot light on countries' individual responsibilities and how they are affecting other nations. This has been a political failure, but also a failure of the talented and visionary people that shape and transform how we see ourselves, how we understand the challenges that face us.

The urgency of moving towards international collaboration on Climate Change based on a just and equal burden for all nations deserves more than being factually presented and communicated. The installation we are inaugurating here today is an attempt to do exactly this. We have taken the UNDP Climate Change report, and interpreted it visually with the hope that its content and message can have the lasting effect that it was intended for.

We have done so with the belief that the way we design the tools we need for reaching our goals is a crucial part of attaining them. We hope that this effort - made possible by the work of countless scientists, experts, consultants and the United Nations Development Report team and supported by the generosity and commitment of our sponsors - will be a useful tool in the advocacy efforts surrounding this issue, the efforts that will unfold in this building in the weeks to come.

The installation is up in the United Nations Lobby, September 9 - October 5
More info at: www.zagollc.com