WEATHER STATIONS

10 THINGS I HAVE
LEARNED DURING
MY FIGHT AGAINST
GLOBAL WARMING
Jaś Kapela, Warsaw
It’s impossible to list everything I have learned and understood, everything the Weather
Stations project has given me, but I will try to make a list of the ten most important
things:
1. I was reminded about the importance of the issue of global warming and also why
most people couldn’t care less about it. Or, if they could, they still don’t care enough.
But despite everything, it is not completely alien to them, it affects them.
2. I have learned to take my water bottle with me everywhere I go, but I have also
learned to drink all the water from it before getting on the plane. You can refill it
pretty much straightaway with tap water in the bathroom.
3. Tap water is tasty and healthy, but people still prefer to buy bottled water, which
costs 2000 times more and leaves unbelievable amounts of plastic on the planet.
There is a nice film about it.
4. There is so much plastic in the world that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was
formed. (See also the film Plastic Paradise.) Albatrosses eat plastic, as can be seen in
photos made by Chris Jordan from Midway, and as a result they die. As do fish. The
populations of numerous species of fish have decreased within the last forty years by
90 per cent. Eating fish that have eaten plastic can cause various diseases in humans,
including cancer.
5. Industrial farms seen from a satellite are more beautiful than Salvador Dali’s
paintings. And more terrifying. No wonder conceptual artist Mishka Henner exhibits
them in galleries. You can see some on his website.
74 WEATHER STATIONS: WRITING CLIMATE CHANGE