Fenceline

Fenceline is a 3 minute video with sound by EL Putnam The piece explores the separation between nature and greed from the largest fossil fuel industry in North America. Filmed in Weymouth, MA on the North Parcel, the residents have protested the building of a toxic fracked gas compressor station in a densely populated area. Unprecedented.

Breathe In Breath Out

Margaret Bellafiore - Breathe In Breathe Out from MobiusArtistsGroup on Vimeo.

I made this video in response to my concern over the injustice of our state (MA Department of Environmental Protection) and federal (EPA) agencies' failure to enforce the Clean Air Act . Our health is at risk due to these "captured" agencies granting permits to pollute to fossil fuel industry.

"Global" on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston , MA

October 6, 2018
I am posting here some documentation of the piece, "Global," I did on the Rose Kennedy Greenway as part of Mobius/Belfast exchange. I drew animals on the path that are very vulnerable to the effects of increased temperature due to climate disruption.
The irony is that I did a similar piece in 2007 at Mobius. The Union of Concerned Scientists sent two of their staff to the reception. They handed out their study: Confronting Climate Change in the US Northeast. Since 2007, the temperature of the planet has increased! So, nobody listened?

I confront again with images of penguins, salmon, butterflies, moose, caribou, and the symbol of Boston itself, the Atlantic cod. Not overfishing, no, but increased temperature of the Gulf of Maine is killing off the young cod. IT IS TOO HOT for the larval fish to find food that has not been COOKED and killed by heat.  The Atlantic cod is on the way out. Yep.

How will we explain to children of the next generation the fish weathervane on the top of the golden dome State House in Boston? GONE FOR GOOD.

photo credit: R. Cooke

Believe-it-when-you-see-it video

The Weather Channel recently posted this video from last March 2, 2018 "bombogenesis" storm featuring what happened in Scituate, MA a town near me:

https://vimeo.com/281624227

The consequences of climate disruption have arrived. The effects of global warming is on my doorstep. I have been sitting on a bench at Webb Park in north Weymouth drawing the sea and sky every summer for over 30 years. This summer the bench is gone and with it the land it sat on. This point of land was eroded very quickly during the March 2 storm by wind and wave action from Hingham Bay. Erosion was always present before but NOW it is different. The rate of erosion has accelerated. It is hard for me to accept.

EXTREME Weather in New England!

Today the meteorologists are predicting another nor'easter coming on Wednesday around lunch time. Snow levels may be as much as 12 inches. But it is the sound of the howling wind that disturbs me most. This new storm comes after 2 other nor'easters and two BOMBCYCLONES of January 4, 2018 and March 2, 2018. These storms with unfamiliar terminology are different than the previously thought of was the very worst : a "nor'easter." The bombogenesis is actually a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, at least 24 millibars in a 24 hour period. I have friends who lost power for 4.5 days. No electricity. No heat. No cooking. No internet. I have neighbors who had 2.5 feet of water in their basements. Some lost their cars. My street flooded when huge crashing waves coming over the sea wall during the high tide cycles. The water came up as close as 3 houses away from me. This did not happen even during the Blizzard of '78."

The next town over, had 10 feet of water from storm surges with over 100 evacuations. No one had ever seen water that high before.

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20180303/flooding-uproots-hundreds-in-quincy

My Question: will the climate deniers connect the dots that this is connected to Climate Disruption?

EPA rolls back regulations on toxic effluents

The EPA will now allow toxic effluents into our waters. These can affect the IQ s of children! Do we want the next generation to be dummer?

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-trump-regulatory-rollback-epa

Panel Discussion on Climate now on Youtube

I am glad to be part of this panel on Climate Change and the importance of local involvement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQGStQIPgE

For inspiration, watch Miramar White-Hammond at 39:39'

Keep It In The Ground

Last night I participated in A Forum on Gas Pipelines sponsored by Mothers Out Front (http://www.mothersoutfront.org) at Winthrop Cable Access Television
(http://www.wcat-tv.org).

Two of the four presenters have been arrested several times protesting the building of pipelines (Nancy Wilson and Rev. Mariama White-Hammond for lying down in the trenches at the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline). Is this the only action left for those of us protesting the expansion of fracked methane?

In Weymouth, on January 25, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted a certificate for the construction of a toxic, volatile, fracked methane gas compressor station to be built in the Fore River Basin despite the protests from the people who live there and all their legislators. Except for one: Governor Charlie Baker.

The Fore River Basin, the site of the proposed compressor station, is already an INCINERATION ZONE with seven polluting industries located dangerously close by. Explosions do happen. Especially by the Spectra/Enbridge Corporation.

The health consequences of polluting the air for the 950 families in a half mile radius was not taken into account by FERC or even our Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection when granting the permits. The Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (www.nocompressor.com) have hired a lawyer and filed for a rehearing.

At this point, since the FERC Commission has only 2 members instead of the required 5. This lack of a legal quorum  prevents them from taking action in granting us a rehearing. Instead, an illegal "tolling order" was their response. This is essentially a hold on the process for now...

Is civil disobedience the only path left?

altered photo by Margaret Bellafiore

A perfect image to symbolize the stay of one year that Coastal Zone Management has ordered to Spectra Energy on their proposed gas compressor in the Fore River Basin!!!!

Every Wednesday from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM, I have been  holding signs with other protesters at the Fore River Bridge in Weymouth that read SPECTRA NO, THEIR  PROFITS, OUR CANCERS, FRACK FERC and the like. I noticed the sign that informs drivers of bridge openings and photographed it and altered the photo. It is the perfect image to symbolize the stay of one year that has been ordered by Coastal Zone Management to Spectra Energy!

A Message from the Natural World

This video was done at Zeleny Les Artist Residency in the Catskills, a beautiful place to contemplate the fragility of our environment. A retreat from the on going protest of gas infrastructure expansion in the town where I live, regionally and globally.

https://vimeo.com/170783180

 Watch new video:
A MESSAGE FROM THE NATURAL WORLD:
https://vimeo.com/170783180

Performance at Mobius: TESTING THE EPA ( part of DON'T LOOK AWAY! exhibit )

TESTING THE EPA STUDY
Performance by Bellafiore, Eccles and Lau

https://vimeo.com/149147117

Karen Higgins (Co-President of National Nurses Unitied) speech at Climate Rally in Boston December 12, 2015

We are here today to take a stand against inaction.  Today is about justice; social justice, justice on the job, and just climate action to protect all of our futures.  Too many times, we’ve let inaction win out.  We have allowed the slow and steady degradation of unions as a result of inaction.  And despite the recent talks in Paris, our unwillingness to take meaningful action on climate change means that everyone on Earth continues to suffer its dire consequences. . But today we take a stand. Today we say no to apathy. We say no to inaction. How do we do this? We do it by calling for leadership. We need leaders to step up at the federal, state, and local level.  We need leadership to come from right here Massachusetts has shown leadership on issues like gay rights, health care and worker rights We need this kind of leadership again, now more than ever. There will be no climate justice, social justice or job justice without it. Without strong leadership we cannot ensure the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren.  Climate change, unchecked, will devastate our future. Its impact is far-reaching, its health implications  are enormous.  As nurses we see this every day.  We see the  rates of childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses are on the rise We know that air and water contamination has caused higher instances of cancer. We have seen thousands of people lose their lives to harsher and harsher natural disasters.  All of us being here today demonstrates that we are committed to taking the necessary action to make the changes we need. We are committed to a $15 an hour minimum wage, to passing a national, singlepayer healthcare law, and to creating a truly clean energy economy that is good for job creation and our planet. Now is the time for us to lead.  We must make these changes for ourselves and for future generations. Our actions can influence millions. Together we can leave our world in better shape than how we found it. That would be justice.            
 

Jay Critchley as Provocateur

An Evening with artist Jay Critchley
Doors open at 6 PM with Artist talk at 7 PM  followed by discussion.

event for Don't look away! exhibit@mobius

Jay is a Provincetown-based conceptual and multi-media artist and activist whose work has traversed the globe, showing across the US and in Argentina, Japan, England, Spain, France, Holland, Germany and Columbia. He founded the controversial patriotic Old Glory Condom Corporation and was recently featured on LOGO TV and BBC/UK. His recent NYC show was reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker and the Village Voice. His first museum survey was held at the Provincetown Art Association/Museum, and will travel to Florida Atlantic University in 2016. The 2015 Provincetown International Film Festival featured his videos, including the HBO award-winning “Toilet Treatments”. 

He has taught at the Museum School at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and has had artist residencies at: Harvard University; AS220, Rhode Island; Harvestworks, NYC; Williams College, MA; Real Art Ways, Hartford; Milepost 5, Portland, OR, Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Andalucia, Spain, and CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France. 

He founded the Provincetown Community Compact, which runs artist residencies, and the Swim for Life AIDS/women’s health benefit, which has raised $4M and is scheduled for September 12, 2015. 

www.jaycritchley.com

Don't look away! exhibit

JAY CRITCHLEY AT MOBIUS!

Dialoguers

TEN FOOT SEA LEVEL RISE??!!!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-point-of-no-return-climate-change-nightmares-are-already-here-20150805

EXTINCTION IS A REALITY

Neanderthal woman reconstructed by National Geographic scientists using DNA info from bones.

PRESS RELEASE FOR UPCOMING ART EXHIBITION

 An exhibition of art will be presented at Mobius, 55 Norfolk Street, Central Square, Cambridge entitled  DON’T LOOK AWAY! (www.mobius.org).The exhibit will run from September 12 through September 20 with gallery hours from 12-5 PM on weekends and by appointment. There will be an opening reception on September 12 from 6-9 PM.

A special event on Saturday, September 19 will be held from 6- 9PM with renowned public artist and provocateur Jay Critchley. He will present and discuss environmental art from his recent retrospective at the Provincetown Museum of Art.

The DON’T LOOK AWAY! exhibit is the outgrowth of a process between artists and environmentalists examining their own system of thought. Over several months, they have practiced an experimental form of dialogue that attempted to address questions arising from the overwhelm of climate disruption. Artists Margaret Bellafiore, Lydia Eccles, Milan Kohout, Claire Lau and Judy Werlin, with support from writers Steve Wineman and John Pitkin, have responded with developing a variety of work including writing, sculpture, painting, video and performance. They have struggled with issues of hope and despair, social activism, fracking, and the larger underlying dynamics of what makes a healthy society. Much of the work will be interactive as the artists are interested in having viewers participate by adding to the work.

A closing reception will be held on Sunday, September 20 from 12-5 PM. A public dialogue will be held. Activists who are protesting the expansion of the Spectra gas pipeline in Weymouth, West Roxbury and Dedham will participate in this collective reflection.

A blog at http://margaretmobius.blogspot.com posts an ongoing record of their struggle.