As if cycling along Chicago's lakefront in the summertime wasn't inspiring enough, the city worked closely with CoolGlobes.com during the past two years to orchestrate one of the most beautiful public art exhibits in the world today, and one with a vitally important message: It's called "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet," and it may well set a new trend for public art exhibits worldwide.
Rapidly melting snowcaps near the poles of the earth, coupled with near unanimous opinion on the part of the science community, conveys the story in pictures and in data: atmospheric concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide, most of which can be directly attributed to the burning of fossil fuels in cars, jets and manufacturing plants, is trapping heat under the earth's protective ozone layer and preventing natural cooling of the planet.
The "Cool Globes" exhibit features the creations of more than 120 artists, primarily from the Chicago area, but also from around the world, who designed their 5-foot orbs with conservation tips and reminders. The idea is to encourage everyone to do their part to conserve resources and combat global warming.
Corporate sponsors poured into "Cool Globes" by the dozens, and several are uploading videos to the Internet to share the global warming message with the world. Timothy Communications was a late comer, and isn't involved as a marketer for the exhibit, but couldn't resist the urge to get on board and do our bit. We synchronized dozens of the colorful globes to music and uploaded one-minute (featured on this page) and three-minute video interpretations to the Internet.
The one minute version was presented as a "video postcard" to give viewers two reasons to look in: either to tour the Cool Globes exhibit, or to get a fresh glance of Chicago's lake front. We believe video postcards will be standard communications components of PR campaigns for tourism destinations from this point forward. We plan to produce some of them.
Millions of tourists visit Chicago each year, usually during the summer, and "Cool Globes" gives them another reason to come. But this particular art exhibit is certain to leave a lasting impression...one that we hope everyone will take back home. If our generation doesn't take action now to reverse global warming, we'll probably still be here to witness the planet's point of no return. By all measures, and at the urging of top scientists, we're advised that it's not very far off.
