‘Polar Soundscape’ gives chills to its audiences

San Francisco composer Cheryl Leonard was recording sounds of the Antarctic in the austral summer of 2008 when she stuck her hydrophone into a wall of melting glacial ice and heard something sublime. “It was the most amazing sound, like a gamelan trapped in the ice,” recalls Leonard, whose...

Book review: ‘David Brower’ by Tom Turner

A review of David Brower: The Making of the Environmental Movement, by Tom Turner; published by the University of California Press (5 out of 5) At the corner of Allston Way and Oxford Street in downtown Berkeley, directly across from the campus of the University of California, sits the...

From Walrus Hunts to Melting Continents: The Shifting Art of Polar and Alpine Regions

The earth’s polar regions are the site of some of the greatest moral, political, and economic conflicts of our time. Though the scale of human activity in these areas is not enormous, the impact of scandalously shortsighted growth is realized most destructively in these remote places. Images of these...

‘Vanishing Ice’ chronicles the virtue and frailty of our frozen frontiers

After wowing us with the ecologically charged aerial landscapes of Edward Burtynsky, the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California is back with another evocative exhibit that challenges people to think critically about the state of the planet. In “Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art 1775-2012,” viewers are...

‘Vanishing Ice’ Makes Beautiful Bid For Action on Climate Change

Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art, 1775-2002, a new exhibition at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, explores the way artists since the late 18th century have depicted the frozen parts of our planet. It’s a show that forces people to stop seeing the polar ice caps...

Berkeley: Panel discusses hidden consequences of e-commerce

BERKELEY — It’s a yin yang cyber world. As consumers, we want to have our cake and know its source, but we don’t want anyone to watch us eat it. While a considerable portion of the U.S. population exercised their credit cards on Cyber Monday and settled in to...

The Unnatural Nature of Edward Burtynsky’s Industrial Landscapes

Growing up in an industrial town in southern Ontario, where his father worked at a local General Motors plant, photographer Edward Burtynsky witnessed a side of manufacturing and consumer culture that many don’t experience. His appreciation and understanding of industrial scenery, cultivated at a young age, has led to...

Accordion time traveling with Rob Reich in Berkeley

Some of the musicians featured at the recently launched Bands at Brower series approached the performance like any other gig, presenting their usual material. But for Rob Reich the David Brower Center’s ecological mission is a feature not a bug, and he’s designed an immersive multimedia event that explores...

Berkeley: Environmentalists warn of state refinery projects amid oil glut

BERKELEY — A coalition of environmentalists warned against the ravages of the “oil economy” Tuesday, noting that Americans, reversing a years-long trend, have begun to drive more again now that gasoline is relatively cheap, putting more pollutants and greenhouse gases in the air, with ominous implications for public health...