Energy Efficiency & Climate Change Law

Edward Burtynsky is an internationally-renowned photographer whose remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams – are included in the collections of over fifty major museums around the world, including Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Mr. Burtynsky was the subject of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature length documentary film, Manufactured Landscapes.  

In an interview with EfficiencyLaw.com, Mr. Burtynsky discusses his work, the oil spill in the Gulf Coast, China and the role that art can play in galvanizing the public’s consciousness.

When I first saw your exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC last year and then when I watched Manufactured Landscapes, I was moved by the environmental degradation you capture in your work. Of course, this is only from viewing a photograph or a film. But, as you stand there on site before these scenes, what do you think as you look through your lens?

My photographs capture the collective impact that individuals have on the landscape as the world expands. The whole body of this work over the last 30 years is a careful and meditative lament for the loss of nature as pristine landscapes have been turned over by the human hand.

As I look out through the lens, I feel as if we’re all in a train without brakes, running out of control down a mountainside, except the passengers are not calling “emergency!” fast enough or loud enough.

The plight of fishermen in the Gulf Coast after the recent oil spill is not too different from that of the workers in China that we see in Manufactured Landscapes who get paid – by the brick – to knock down their own cities in preparation for deliberate flooding to make way for the Three Gorges Dam [as the largest dam in the world, it is often called "the Second Great Wall of China" with a length of 2,309 meters, and a total installed capacity of 84.7 billion kWh per year produced by 32 generators]. From what you have seen during the time you have spent there, do the more than 1.1 million residents who have been displaced by the construction of that dam resent the fact that they must move, and that everything they have known will soon be drowned for their country’s economic gain?

The residents who have been displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam are angrybecause their families resided there for hundreds of years yet, once relocated, they are often left without the means to make money. Similarly, with offshore drilling of petroleum in the Gulf Coast, we are playing with a really dangerous substance in a very volatile environment that is susceptible to severe weather patterns, such as Hurricane Katrina. Since the damage to the environment from the BP oil spill will likely be several times more severe than the Exxon Valdez disaster, we should take a closer look at whether more offshore drilling is a good idea.

For this to change, it takes political will, but art can also play an important role through its ability to galvanize the public’s consciousness. For example, Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth raised awareness about the climate issue. Suddenly, the media started talking about climate change on a frequent basis. I am hoping that this disaster will have a similar effect in that the response will be a more rational and careful approach to meeting the demands of our energy needs.

Photographers like Lewis Hine helped change child labor laws in the United States and Carleton Watkins’ pictures inspired the preservation of Yellowstone National Park. As a photographer who captures landscapes in distress, what do you hope is the reaction to your work today and what do you seek to accomplish when audiences view your work years from now?

I hope that what people take away from my work is a new awareness about the various ways in which we have made huge incursions on the natural environment. However, these impacts are largely out of sight and out of mind; and we have been living in a sophisticated state of denial in that there is a total disconnect between how we partake in the causes and effects of environmental degradation. For example, there is a lack of conscious awareness about the back-story of what happens elsewhere when we turn on our lights at night.

The economic engine is the best and fastest way to quickly turn this around. Consumers should be encouraged to buy products made by whatever company is the best in its class. This will then encourage other companies to meet these standards, which will push the best in class to go even further to keep its customers. For the business community, this will become just another method of working, except in a way that is healthier for everyone.