Acrylic on Canvas, 18″ x 24″
Who doesn’t respond to the visual image of lofty snow-capped peaks, purple mountain majesty above the….whoops….consumer-driven industrial wasteland pumping a continuous stream of black soot into an otherwise expansive blue sky? The earth’s resources are being used up, raped by demands, falling into decay and mother nature responds simply. Warmed glacial ice moves: the movement pushes rocks and debris to the surface, covering the ice and reducing albedo. This surface “dirt” of rocks and debris is called moraine. Albedo is a reflectivity coefficient that describes the rate at which the “whiteness” of snow reflects shortwave radiation from the sun back into space, keeping the earth cool. Colors other than white absorb a percentage of radiation; black has no reflectivity and absorbs the shortwave radiation which in turn causes the earth to warm. There is something absurd about the futility of a lone old crone attempting to clean up a mess without arresting the root cause, that dirty plume of toxic waste and carbon driven by consumer demand.
Dana Doran 