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| Jeffrey L.
Zucker,
LEED-AP AIA |
| Matthew B.
Ackerman, LEED-AP AIA |
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Slo-Mo Volcano
I recently attended Paolo
Soleri’s 90th Birthday celebration on the Summer Solistice at
Arcosanti. Other than seeing many old friends and making a few new
ones, the highlight of the occasion was the performance by Flam Chen, a
Pyrotechnic Theater Troupe, based out of Tucson, Arizona. Their
acrobatic dancing with fire was truly jaw
dropping, as they climbed across the ceiling, dangled from ropes and
cavorted about on stilts, all the while with drums pounding and flames
spewing from every angle. It was quite the spectacle.
During one of the more placid moments of the festivities, we were
treated to a slide show of Paolo’s life. Although I have known
him for over 35 years, I was amazed to find out that we had something
unexpected in common; we had both enjoyed the writings of Edgar
Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan series of books. One of the
things that intrigued Paolo about Tarzan was his philosophical
question: “Am I a man, or am I an ape?” In other words,
what is it that makes us distinctly human?
 One human trait is the ability to anticipate the
future. Sure, squirrels gather nuts for the winter, and birds
migrate north or south according to the season, but humans can look
much further ahead in time and make some fairly accurate predictions.
How much seed stock do we need to save for next year’s crop? When will
there be another Solar Eclipse? Who will win the next Superbowl? (well,
ok, maybe not, but you get the idea). Humans are also capable of
looking thousands of years into the past through record keeping,
deduction, and reasoning, and then refer to that knowledge for their
projections about the future.
This year, my summer reading includes Al Gore’s book,
“Earth in
the Balance,” in which he refers to certain historical events
that have effected the course of human existence. One such event
was the explosion of the Helka 3 volcano in Iceland, sometime between
1150 and 1136 B.C. Through analysis of historical records, and
the use of deduction and reasoning, it can be shown that the massive
volume of ash that was spewed into the atmosphere caused a significant
change in climate. Although people around the world were not
aware of the event, over 90% of the population of Scotland and northern
Europe disappeared, and agriculture as far away as China failed as a
direct result of this cataclysm.
We are now experiencing what is, essentially, a slow motion
volcano. The data clearly indicates a yearly increase in
greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere and cause the now
well-known global warming effect. However, our ability to
recognize and react to the danger of this dilemma appears to be sorely
lacking. Even the results of the recent G8 Summit fall far short
of sufficient action. Mr. Gore expresses concern that “our willingness
to ignore the consequences of our actions has combined with our belief
that we are separate from nature to produce a genuine crisis in the way
that we relate to the world.” Indeed, Mr. Gore goes on to state
that “in virtually every facet of our civilization we are beginning to
act as if our future is now so much in doubt, that it makes more sense
to focus exclusively on our current needs and short term problems.” To
me, this seems like a dangerous proposition.
In a sense, we are all
dancing with fire.
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