EchoVibe

Artifact (Noun): an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.

As Principal and Founder of a professional exhibition lighting design company with over 25 years experience, I have directed and overseen the design, fabrication and installation of world-class exhibitions featuring state-of-the-art world globes, engineered LED and fiber optic lighting systems for preserving priceless cultural and natural artifacts, climatized display case systems for protecting museums' permanent collections and fabricated custom interpretive graphic displays for informing and enlightening museum-goers throughout North America and Canada. As such, my career as a museum design professional has led me to the deeply held belief that humankind's alteration of the natural world has, in essence, transformed our planet into an object forever shaped by human hands. In short, the Earth is (now) an artifact. While this concept may be the subject of roiling debate, it is indisputable that the Earth is the rarest, most valuable object in the known universe. Thus, our world, representing creation's ultimate one-off, must be protected, for and from humanity at all costs.

Background

Through acquisition, investment and rigorous ongoing materials research and development, my company has developed the tools and production methodologies required for creating, engineering, manufacturing and deploying highly detailed, interactive topographical Global Earth Models (GEM) depicting the world's continents and topographical ocean floor. Measuring 75" in diameter, the GEM was originally based on the groundbreaking map projections of Fortune magazine's cartographer, Richard Edes Harrison, as featured in Look at the World, The Fortune Atlas for World Strategy and meticulously sculpted utilizing a highly exaggerated scale and completed for the International Geophysical Year (July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958). From the standpoint of promoting and universalizing global education, the GEM greatly overcomes all the disadvantages of using flat maps for crucial global instruction and strategic, climate change understanding.

Mission

As an experienced museum exhibition designer with a passion for geography, a father of (two) grown children, and a (growing) existential dread of the threat posed by climate change, I have made it my professional and personal mission to lead a critical dialogue amongst prominent business leaders, politicians, urban planning professionals, and educators to establish a consortium tasked with determining how to develop and distribute GEMs to inform, educate and empower urban and rural citizens alike to the challenges facing our world and the climate actions essential for saving our planet.

With increasingly deleterious impacts of climate change overwhelming our urban centers, and rural communities, we must demand our business leaders, policymakers and town planners at every level of society regard immediate climate action as both a critical fiscal challenge and strategic economic opportunity. Furthermore, as we endeavor to cope with the increasing threats and impacts of climate change on our environment and the well-being of other species as well as ourselves, we must face numerous social justice questions about its just implementation. While our urban centers are appropriate sites for addressing climate change, the transition from mere policy rhetoric of "sustainability" to climate action presents a highly polarized landscape of inequality and injustice, and represents inevitable political, economic, cultural and social justice impacts of climate urbanism that must be holistically modeled, analyzed, and adjudicated for all human settlements, worldwide.

With ever-increasing and intensifying climate change-induced weather events devastating communities throughout the world, urban and rural populations must unite in demanding climate action, supported by education and advocacy for the planet's generations to come.

Action

What is necessary, as a wake-up call for each and every one of us, regardless of career path, geographical location or religious, political or cultural affiliation is the undertaking and acceptance of a universal, global climate action plan for businesses, educational institutions and organizations vis-a-vis a heretofore unprecedented global climate action educational program that shifts societal policy from mundane sustainability to climate change reversal as follows:

1) promotes climate change education, advocacy and climate action guidance in grades 1-12 vis-a-vis a "world-class" global geography curriculum and

2) establishes a scalable, climate action and advocacy program for urban and rural communities to best prepare and protect physical infrastructures, local economies and social communities.

Clearly stated, our world and its human inhabitants need to establish the imperatives of climate action, education and the modeling of its looming outcomes through the GEM and associated educational programs, business ventures and global communities' outreach for all humankind and the Earth's biodiversity.

So what can you do?

First: learn the science. Climate change is no hoax. it's here and it is the greatest challenge to humankind. Period.

Second: get involved. Determine with your employer, your family, your house of worship and/or your association what you can do to contribute to reducing the use of fossil fuels, petroleum-based products and the emission of carbon in the atmosphere.

Third: support wildlife. Human beings are solely responsible for climate change and the resulting degradation of the natural world. From parrots to polar bears, we need to protect the wonders of the Earth's continents and oceans' wondrous biodiversity.

Finally, be creative. There is no action that is too small or insignificant. It takes a village to begin the process of changing and, ultimately, saving the world. All it takes is thinking out of the box and taking the first steps.

Conclusion

While my professional accomplishments include the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, The White House, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Building Museum, The World Bank, The Brinton and the Field Museum's Grainger Hall of Gems, The Brinton Museum and The World Bank, to name a notable few, my career path has led me to my mission to enlighten and empower the people of Earth to "Cease to be ruled by dogmas and authorities; (and) look at the world!" from all angles and grasp, at a glance, the majesty and fragility of the most precious artifact in all creation: our shared, planetary home.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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