26 May 2011
It’s proving to be a busy year! Aberdeen, Liverpool and Bath Universities all exhibited Hard Rain and hosted the talk. Next to Strasbourg with Isabel Hilton to speak to an international student conference hosted by BCA Study Abroad with James Skelly, University of Ulster in the driving seat. Isabel is founder editor of China Dialogue; it was fascinating to hear about China ’s environmental challenge in her presentation.
The Hard Rain Project was recently introduced to China by two friends of long standing, Nina and Hjalte, who became the first people to drive a full-size electric car around the world. We were proud they included the Hard Rain logo on the car. The expedition left Copenhagen on June 25, 2010, reaching Beijing and Shanghai after a month-long trek across Siberia and Mongolia. 30,000 kilometres and 10 months later they were back in Denmark working on a book and TV programme about their journey and about the capabilities of electric transport.
Students at the University of Utrecht organized a day of environmental talks filmed for the Tedx.com website. Hard Rain was the concluding talk boiled down to 18 minutes. I got to know Ann Pettifor – she wrote The Coming First World Debt Crisis, predicting the financial crash, but her talk explained the way a sustainable world can be financed. She has very kindly agreed to condense this for What’ll You Do Now? It will make an important contribution to the project.
Hard Rain was also exhibited in Kenya. The DVD opened a week-long meeting of mayors from towns across the country organized by Sida. Bob Dylan is not so well known by this audience but the DVD was requested over and over during the conference so it worked its magic far from Greenwich Village.
Then to the College of Southern Idaho with a few days in New York on the way. I’d been booked to present Hard Rain last year but had to cancel when the Iceland volcano grounded all flights – reminding us, for a few days at least, how finely balanced the modern world is. Potatoes are what Idaho is known for but it’s the mountains I remembered when I got home – as well as the warm welcome of Kimberly Prestwich and Tiffany Seeley-Case who organized the presentation, and the many students I met while I was there.
These trips punctuated work on the ‘difficult’ second exhibition, What’ll You Do Now?, which opened at Kew Gardens on Saturday 14 May and will be on display until the last weekend of September. It’s framed by a beautiful avenue of holm oaks at Syon Vista, which stretches from behind the Palm House down to the Thames.
What'll You Do Now? responds to requests by thousands of visitors and curators for an exhibition that illustrates solutions to the problems highlighted in Hard Rain. Each section is presented by an expert in their field. Franny Armstrong, Julie Hill, Harriet Lamb and Safia Minney wrote for the opening section, Getting Personal.
Lloyd Timberlake, who has worked with me from the start of the project, produced the section Aligning human systems and natural systems and advised on the exhibition as it took shape. This section sets out the challenge for governments and business leaders and includes contributions by Chris Goodall, David Attenborough and Fred Pearce. Jonathon Porritt, Jules Pretty, Stephen Hopper and Simon King present examples of sustainable progress in the UK. Stewart Brand very kindly allowed me to use text from his groundbreaking book Whole Earth Discipline in The great migration.
This is an opportunity to thank photographers for their extraordinary contribution: Chris Steele-Perkins, David Woodfall, Ron Giling, John Cancalosi, Michael Nolan, Nigel Dickinson, Adrian Arbib, Paul Naylor, Dorothea Lange, Yves Lefèvre and Murray Cooper. Their pictures bring the debate alive.
It was a wonderful experience working with so many leading thinkers, actors and photographers in the environment movement. The People’s Postcode Lottery and Rainforest Concern made it all possible, and we are very grateful to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and especially Ann Lawlor, Festivals Manager, who spearheaded the project through the multiple layers of admin that lie hidden behind the trees and flowers at Kew.
For those who can’t get to Kew, What’ll You Do Now? will be on this website shortly.
This exhibition threw up an odd discrepancy. We had to take out insurance in case someone died because of Hard Rain! It turns out that every visitor is worth £5 million! Something to remember when you look at the picture opposite of the body being eaten by a dog behind the Taj Mahal. This man's family couldn’t afford wood for the funeral pyre. It brings home the sharp divide that still exists in the world.
What’ll You Do Now? signals a change in my thinking. When Hard Rain was first shown it was to protest at the failure by political leaders to deal with long-term global issues. As I’ve given the talk around the world many in the audience express anger towards their government. But when I ask how many have written to their Prime Minister or President or MP, hardly any hands go up. I became aware of a failure of grassroots leadership – of all of us – to put pressure on governments to deal with the long term, complex threats highlighted in Hard Rain.
Making human progress sustainable will require tough leadership at the top, which will in turn require tough leadership at the grassroots to stiffen the courage of political and business leaders. We have many of the tools needed to reinvent the modern world so it’s compatible with nature so we have a choice: invest in a sustainable world or watch the hard, hurting rain sweep across the planet eroding hard-won gains and diminishing nature’s diversity.
What’ll You Do Now? is aimed at creating a solid wall of public opinion to bolster business and political leaders to act in favour of the future. I hope you’ll get the chance to visit Kew and see the exhibition. Let us know your thoughts and do suggest ways we might improve it as it travels on to new venues.
We are now working on a Swedish edition of WYDN? with Dag Jonzon at the Swedish development agency, Sida and Kaj Embren at Respect, and are in discussions to make a Scottish version with Alan Bennell and Alan Caldwell, Hard Rain friends of long standing.These are the first exhibitions from around Europe that UNEP will launch in a combined display.
Five years ago the first edition of Hard Rain opened at Eden. By a startling coincidence we had picked Dylan’s birthday to put it up. This week I caught part of one of the many programmes on Radio 4 celebrating his 70th anniversary, Bob Dylan and Me. Three generations of writers, poets and musicians were asked to reflect on his work, the programme woven through with songs and interviews.
Dylan said about A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, “It doesn’t really matter where a song comes from, it just matters where it takes you.” Hard Rain has taken me on a journey around the world, from the past to a future that is ours to change.
Mark Edwards
See Kaj’s latest blog at www.kajembren.com
Learn more about Ann Pettifor ’s work on www.advocacyinternational.co.uk
Look for news and discussion about China ’s environmental programme at www.chinadialogue.net
Meet Nina and Hjalte and relive the first round the world tour in an electric car on www.moto-mundo.com
Sign up to Rainforest Concern’s Forest Credits
Find out more about The Wildlife Trusts’ Living Seas campaign, funded by People's Postcode Lottery
Listen again to Bob Dylan and Me on the BBC iPlayer
Visit the new exhibition at www.kew.org
And see some pictures of the new display here
