Climate change can affect temperature and humidity. And those changes can
damage art.
(Photo source: Aude at Wikimedia Commons)
Preservationists are worried climate
change could destroy valuable art
and cultural artifacts. Kyle Norris
reports thay are looking at ways to
protect these valuables:
Transcript
Preservationists are worried climate
change could destroy valuable art
and cultural artifacts. Kyle Norris
reports thay are looking at ways to
protect these valuables:
Climate change can affect temperature and humidity. And those changes can
damage art. Debbie Norris is the chair of the art conservation department
at the University of Delaware.
“Fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity can cause art
materials to crack and craze and deteriorate over time.”
Changes in the weather can also cause biological growth on artifacts. So,
for example, mold can grow on old photos or damage historic documents.
Some buildings that house art are very old and made of stone or wood.
Those building materials are deteriorating faster than they have in the
past. And many of those buildings are not equipped with heating and
cooling equipment advanced enough to control the climate inside the
buildings. That puts the collections they house at risk.
New York fashion designer Issac Mizrahi during a fitting session. Mizrahi used salmon leather to create an ensemble that includes a dress, jacket and shoes. (Photo by Mackenzie Stroh, courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum)
New York fashion designer Issac Mizrahi used salmon leather to create a dress, jacket and shoes. (Photo by Mackenzie Stroh, courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum)
Fishermen catch salmon in southwest Alaska. (Photo by Ami Vitale, courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum)
You might not have heard of the design firm Pentagram, but more than likely you’ve seen
its work. Pentagram designed the shopping bags for Saks Fifth Avenue, the logo for
Citibank, the layout of the New York Times Magazine. In short, its designers make
things look pretty. Recently, Pentagram got a call from the nonprofit Nature
Conservancy. As Hammad Ahmed reports, it wasn’t the usual request for a nice new logo
or packaging:
Transcript
You might not have heard of the design firm Pentagram, but more than likely you’ve seen
its work. Pentagram designed the shopping bags for Saks Fifth Avenue, the logo for
Citibank, the layout of the New York Times Magazine. In short, its designers make
things look pretty. Recently, Pentagram got a call from the nonprofit Nature
Conservancy. As Hammad Ahmed reports, it wasn’t the usual request for a nice new logo
or packaging:
The Nature Conservancy wanted Pentagram to issue a challenge to big name designers.
And the challenge was this: design environmentally friendly stuff. In other words, you
have to use renewable, abundant, and natural materials… instead of plastic.
Pentagram stepped up the challenge, recruited some designers, and, now, I’m here to see
what they came up with.
Curator Abbott Miller and I are standing at the Smithsonian Design museum in
Manhattan.
“The exhibition actually goes, um, this way.”
The exhibition is called “Design for a Living World.” And honestly, it looks like a
Pottery Barn. Bowls, chairs, and rugs. When you look closely though, you see all this
stuff is made from really interesting materials. For example, salmon leather.
Miller: “Salmon leather is stripped away from salmon in the process of canning and
literally was considered waste, but is actually an incredible material.”
Ahmed: “So this is just like salmon scales?”
Miller: “It’s the skin of salmon that’s been preserved.”
Working with the preserved salmon skin fell upon big-name fashion designer Isaac
Mizrahi, who’s more used to designing with silk and satin.
“If you’re weighing like sort of you know ecology and glamour, I think they weigh the
same to me, sorry to say that.”
Ecology or glamour, huh? Well, Mizrahi took this salmon leather and he turned it into a
dazzling pair of high heels you’d expect to see on the red carpet.
“For some people, that kind of product, represents a negative.”
Gary Bamossy is a marketing professor at Georgetown’s Business School.
“These very expensive green items that are really just sort of ‘fashionista’ kinds of
acquisitions, they see that as frivolous and maybe even as a waste of money.”
So, not exactly a ‘green ethic.’
And this makes me wonder which way of being green is better. Buying more shoes made
from salmon leather? Or not buying more shoes at all?
Abbott Miller admits it’s a valid question.
“That whole question of should we buy less, I think the answer is probably yes. You
know everyone knows that we’re an over-consuming culture.”
So if the real problem is over-consumption, what’s the point of green design?
When I ask Gary Bambossy, the marketing professor, he comes back with another
question.
“Green design as it relates to museum and as fashion? Or green design as part of a
business model process?”
And that question makes me realize green design isn’t just a new look for the same
products. It’s a new way of making those products, and educating the consumer.
Abbott Miller says we really ought to know more about what we buy, what is used to
make it.
“We may come to a point of such hyperawareness of the materials that we use that that’s
part of the story of why you buy something.”
Miller and Bambossy agree that buyers increasingly want to know more. And that could
lead to products being more sustainable.
But, the thing is, all this awareness isn’t free. So, you’re left with one last question: are
you willing to pay more for knowing more about the things you buy?
The nest of a Swainsons warbler. (Photo by Judith McMillan)
The 'Nesting' exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (Photo courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History)
The nest of a Vermillion flycatcher. (Photo by Judith McMillan)
Nests in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. (Photo by Gretchen Cuda)
The nest of a Painted bunting. (Photo by Judith McMillan)
A parasite visits - this nest holds the egg of a cowbird. Cowbirds surreptitiously lay eggs in other birds' nests. The birds that made this nest discovered the egg, and mounded the nest around it so it would not be incubated. (Photo by Gretchen Cuda)
Some of the world’s most intricate
architecture is not always constructed by
humans. Sometimes the most skilled architectural
wonders are designed by nature. Gretchen Cuda reports on an exhibit that celebrates
birds’ nests:
Transcript
Some of the world’s most intricate
architecture is not always constructed by
humans. Sometimes the most skilled architectural
wonders are designed by nature. Gretchen Cuda reports on an exhibit that celebrates
birds’ nests:
Judith McMillan didn’t find her inspiration in tree branches. She found it in the
basement of the museum where she works. She was rummaging through drawers
there when she came across a hundred-year-old collection of bird nests.
“This Museum must have 10 cabinets full of bird’s nests.”
She was fascinated and immediately knew she had a new subject for her art.
McMillan is a photographer who has been volunteering at the Cleveland Museum of
Natural history for 20 years. In her latest exhibit, titled “Nesting”, she captures some
of natures most inspiring, and often overlooked architecture – the nests of birds.
(sound of exhibit crowd)
“I was looking for nests that were different from each other so that you could see that
these birds were little architects. And there were so many different kinds of materials
used – and then the eggs could be so different. Some with little tiny speckles, some
with different colors some with little calligraphic streaks around them, so it was that
variety that I wanted to capture.”
All the photographs are in black and white – because she really wanted people to
concentrate on the architecture without being seduced by the color. She’s fascinated
by the way different birds chose very specific materials to work with – everything
from marsh reeds, grape vine, or little knotty twigs – like this one.
“This is a vermillion flycatcher – it’s almost like it’s made of pick up sticks in the way
their pushed together.”
And to emphasize the diversity of structures birds can create she shows me an
Orioles nest that’s five inches deep and formerly hung like a basket from a tree.
“I actually had to shine a flashlight down in it when I was taking the photograph in
order to get the eggs to show up.”
Most of the nests and eggs were collected around the turn of the 20th century by
amateur naturalists who never thought twice about disturbing the natural wildlife.
But the practice eventually fell out of fashion as people became more
environmentally conscious and large nest and egg collections were often turned over
to museums – explains Andy Jones the museum’s ornithologist.
“People whose grandfathers were dealing with eggs as a hobby, well their
grandfathers are passing away and so they contact their local university or natural
history museum, and say, ‘hey do you want these?’”
Those specimens were originally collected just because they were pretty. These
days, they’re still beautiful, but they also serve a scientific purpose. Scientists can
look at things such as the thickness of the shells, or the type and number of birds
found in a specific location and tell a lot about the birds. They can see where birds
used to live and how far their territories reached. They can even tell if a bird that’s
extinct now once lived in an area.
Judith McMillan hopes her photographs will not only show how beautiful the birds’
handiwork was, but will also inspire people to do something about saving the birds
that are still here.
“I didn’t understand until I started using a camera myself how you can isolate
something and make people look at it differently–And I hope through my
photographs I’m getting people to take a fresh look at things. It’s hard to have an
appreciation of nature unless you really look at it and start to really care about it.”
Recent surveys have found that many songbirds are disappearing. If people don’t
start caring, those photographs and drawers full of nests might become the only
reminders of many more species that go extinct.
The 'Secrets of Soil' exhibit at the Smithsonian (Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution, John Steiner and Joseph Talman)
The 'Secrets of Soil' exhibit at the Smithsonian (Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution, John Steiner and Joseph Talman)
The 'Secrets of Soil' exhibit at the Smithsonian (Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution, John Steiner and Joseph Talman)
Soil gets treated like dirt sometimes.
But soil is being displayed as a valuable
resource at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Soil gets treated like dirt sometimes.
But soil is being displayed as a valuable
resource at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
Chuck Quirmbach reports:
The Secrets of Soil exhibition includes samples from every US state and territory. It highlights
threats to soil.
The Soil Science Society of America is a main sponsor. Ellen Bergfeld is the CEO of the
Society.
She says major floods this year show erosion is still a big problem. Bergfeld also says some
farmers are plowing under land that was once put aside for conservation. Higher crop prices
have lowered enrollment in a government program called Conservation Reserve.
“And a lot of the contracts are coming up over the next few years so we’re going to see just a
tremendous number of acres coming out. And that does not bode well for the use of those soils.”
The soil exhibit will be at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History for about two
years, then travel around the US.
Asian carp are one of the invasive species featured in the exhibits in your local museums. (Photo courtesy of USFWS)
The zebra mussel is another invasive species that is hurting the Great Lakes' natural food chain. (Photo courtesy of USGS)
Big, public aquariums spend a lot of money to make fish look like they’re at home in the wild. But lately some aquariums are showing fish that are out of place. The GLRC’s Shawn Allee looks at one aquarium’s effort to give them the spotlight, too:
Transcript
Big, public aquariums spend a lot of money to make fish look like
they’re at home in the wild, but lately some aquariums are showing fish
that are out of place. The GLRC’s Shawn Allee looks at one aquarium’s
effort to give them the spotlight, too:
The federal government’s spending millions to keep Asian Carp out of
the Great Lakes. Biologists worry Asian Carp could devastate the lakes’
ecosystem. Recently, though, several carp were brought within sight of
the Great Lakes, and biologists are happy about it.
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium is on the shore of Lake Michigan. It’s
holding an exhibit of Asian Carp and other alien invasive species.
Curator Kurt Hettinger captured the aquarium’s carp during a trip on an
Illinois river.
“They’re literally jumping, sometimes over the bow of the boat,
sometimes smacking into the side of the boat. I just looked behind me
and was amazed to see all these fish jumping in the wake of the boat, and
to this day, I’m still stunned by this.”
And Hettinger’s more than just stunned. He’s worried.
Asian Carp are an invasive species, basically … pests that crowd out
native fish, and that river where he caught them hooks up to Lake
Michigan.
Again, Asian carp haven’t made it to the Great Lakes, but more than one
hundred and sixty other invasive species have arrived and are breeding
quickly.
One example’s the zebra mussel. At first, scientists worried about how
much money it could cost us. Zebra mussels multiply so fast they can
block pipes that carry cooling water to power plants. But now, we know
the zebra mussel’s disrupting the lakes’ natural food chain.
In other words, invasive species are a huge economic and ecological
nuisance. That’s why the Shedd Aquarium started the exhibit.
“The public I think has seen enough stories about the damages and the
spread and the harmfulness, but those stories are not very often coupled
with solutions.”
That’s ecologist David Lodge. He says the exhibit tries to show how
people spread these species around. Lodge points to one exhibit tank. It
looks like a typical backyard water garden. It’s decked out with a small
fishpond, water lilies, even a little fountain shaped like an angel. It looks
pretty innocent, but Lodge says plants and fish you buy for your own
water garden could be invasive species.
“All those plants and animals that are put outside, then have an
opportunity to spread. Now, it doesn’t happen very often, but with the
number of water gardens, it happens enough so that they are a serious
threat to the spread of species.”
Birds or even a quick flood could move seeds or minnows from your
garden to a nearby lake or river.
The Shedd Aquarium’s not alone in spotlighting invasive species.
Several aquariums and science museums are also getting on board. For example one in
Florida shows how invasive species have infested the Everglades.
Shedd curator George Parsons went far and wide for inspiration.
“I was in Japan last year when we were planning this, and I just
happened to stumble across one of their aquariums and they had an
invasive species exhibit, except that they were talking about large mouth
bass and blue gill. You know, something that is our natives. So, it was
kind of ironic to see that out there. It was kind of neat.”
Like us, the Japanese take invasive species seriously. Back in 1999 the
humble Midwestern Blue Gill created a national uproar. Turns out, they
had taken over ponds throughout the Emperor’s palace, and how did the
bluegill get to Japan?
Probably as a gift from a former Chicago mayor. Apparently, the mayor
thought blue gill might make nice sport fishing in Japan. It was an
innocent mistake, but it’s just the kind of mishap biologists want all of us
to avoid from now on.
A baby whooping crane walks toward the camera. (Photo courtesy of the USGS)
Wildlife experts hope an experimental flock of whooping
cranes will lay more eggs this spring. The first egg produced during the experiment was recently found damaged. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Wildlife experts hope an experimental flock of whooping cranes
will lay more eggs this spring. The first egg produced during the
experiment was recently found damaged. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Scientists working on the project to develop 25 nesting pairs of
migrating whooping cranes in the eastern U.S. hope this is the year the
young cranes start to produce offspring.
But Michael Putnam of the
International Crane Foundation says one obstacle to the hatching of
crane eggs may be inexperienced parents.
“Once they do produce a fertile egg, then the birds have to exhibit the
right behaviors to tend the nest, incubate… and we’ve found some of
our birds- The females might be very good incubators at the
beginning, but it may take the male a year or two to catch on that’s
supposed to take a turn sittin’ on the egg.”
Putnam says other difficulties may include predators eating the eggs.
if the birds are successful, it’ll be the first whooping crane egg to
hatch in this part of North America in more than a century.
A $4-million dollar Insectarium is under construction at the St. Louis Zoo. It will be among the large such facilities in the nation. (Photo courtesy of St. Louis Zoo)
A geodesic dome will be home to butterflies, moths, and other flying insects. Visitors will be able to walk among them. (Photo courtesy of St. Louis Zoo)
Going to the zoo means seeing lions and tigers and bears. But one group
of animals is rarely represented. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports on a new exhibit to house some of the planet’s
most populous animals insects:
Each spring, thousands of tropical butterflies make their way to the
Great Lakes region. But they don’t migrate here naturally — they’re
imported as part of the largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibit in
the country. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson Reports:
Climate change can affect temperature and humidity. And those changes can damage art. (Photo source: Aude at Wikimedia Commons)
