Climate Visuals, “The End of Man” by Joanna Zylinska, FX Composite’s Kit-Build EV Helicopter!

CLIMATE VISUALS

Last April, we profiled the british based not-for-profit COIN, or Climate Outreach Information Network. It was founded in 2004 by George Marshall and Richard Sexton to focus exclusively on public engagement with climate change. Recently, COIN initiated a project called Climate Visuals. It’s a website and image library – a unique and trusted source of evidence and images for over 350 climate change and environmental groups, journalists, educators and businesses.  According to its website, “All too often, the climate change imagery the world sees is ineffective at driving change – it may be aesthetically pleasing and illustrative but not salient or emotionally impactful.” The mission of Climate Visuals is to change the conversation.

The Climate Visuals in the library are evidence-based and are there to prove that people-centered narratives and positive solutions as imagery will better resonate with the identity and values of the viewer – and not just environmentalists. IOW, touching the heartstrings of the mainstream is the key to effective climate change messaging. And that’s precisely why Climate Visuals matters to us. Climate Visuals and TED Countdown have released 100 photographs that showcase climate solutions alongside the global impact of climate change. The images were selected from more than 5,500 unique submissions from professional and amateur, gender-balanced photographers – spanning more than 150 countries. 

The images are freely available to key groups communicating on climate – namely the editorial media, educators, campaigners and non-for-profit groups – via the Climate Visuals library. And if you’re not one of those, you can always sign up for the newsletter. After all, the images are gorgeous and stunning and so wonderfully showcase our world as to be out of this world. Just click on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at theclimate.org/episodes.

DEEPER DIVE: Climate Visuals, COIN, CV Newsletter Signup

FX COMPOSITE’S ALL ELECTRIC KIT-BUILD HELICOPTER!

Just because it’s the end of fossil fuel doesn’t mean it has to be the end of experimental aviation. At least Dwight Junkin, co-founder of Composite FX, XE Series of kit-build helicopters thinks so. He’s working on a prototype Mosquito XE EV kit-build helicopter. Kit-build or homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from “scratch”, from plans, or from assembly kits. And that’s why this helicopter design matters to us. Remember, the very first planes were homebuilt. That same spirit of innovation and experimentation are necessary to drive alternative energy change in aviation.  

The FX Composite is a single-seat helicopter, based on the internal combustion engine, XE Series. Instead of fuel tanks, the Mosquito sports four massive batteries. Two of each are housed outboard of the cabin, on either side. The batteries give it a range of 25 minutes flying time. Sure, 25 minutes flight time isn’t much. As one YouTuber said, “Ideal for flying from one side of your garden to the other!” But it’s early days yet. At least Junkin is trying. And what do we always say? You have to try. You have to try. Check out the YouTube video by clicking on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at theclimate.org/episodes, or search, “Mosquito Helicopter going full electric 2023” in YouTube. 

DEEPER DIVE: Composite FX,  YouTube, Wikipedia,  

“THE END OF MAN”, BY JOANNA ZYLINSKA

Where the Anthropocene has become linked to an apocalyptic narrative, and where this narrative carries a widespread escapist belief that salvation will come from a supernatural elsewhere, Joanna Zylinska has a different take. Zylinska is the author of the book The End of Man, and its accompanying photo-film short, Exit Man. The End of Man: A Feminist Apocalypse offers an ironic take on various contemporary eco-political crises, from the climate catastrophe and the threats to the human species posed by artificial intelligence through to the widespread rise in populism. In response, the author outlines an ethical vision of a “feminist counter-apocalypse,” which challenges many of the proposed solutions to those crises, in their masculinist and technicist guises. 

The accompanying photo-film Exit Man showcases a “local museum of the Anthropocene” of the author’s making, with a view to envisaging a different future for humanity—and a different mode of scholarly engagement. Exit Man, which ultimately asks: If unbridled progress is no longer an option, what kinds of coexistences and collaborations do we create in its aftermath? Joanna Zylinska  is a United Kingdom writer, researcher and artist. She is Professor of Media Philosophy + Critical Digital Practice at King’s College London. Prior to Joining King’s in September 2021 she was Professor of New Media and Communications, and from 2017–2020, Co-Head of the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2017 she proposed a “feminist counter-apocalypse” as an alternative to the dangers of the “Exit of Man”, Artificial Intelligence and Populism. 

Why do Exit Man and the End of Man matter to us? Because they’re ironic, and funny and hopeful. IOW, they’re solarpunk.

DEEPER DIVE: JoannaZylinska.net, “Exit Man” Film Short, “End of Man:…”