Illustration: Yin Yang of Earth

"Yin Yang- Land" by India-based Dalip Singh of McCann Worldgroup

This illustration made by Greenpeace, India in collaboration with the advertising giant McCann Worldgroup portrays the state of our planet because of human activities.

"Yin Yang is a result of the same kind of belief and thought process. Everyday natural disasters and environmental hazards triggered the observation that the state of environment is imbalanced. Hence the idea – “Bring back the balance” was born. To visually depict it, I used the popular Chinese symbol “Yin Yang”. The symbol describes the state of balance between two opposites with a little bit in each. I wanted to explore this irony that exists between the symbol and the present state of environment.

It was quite a time consuming campaign. Before starting off, I invested a lot of time in doing research regarding the factors, causes and reasons behind different kinds of environmental pollutions. It was followed by a number of sittings with the illustrators in my team to finalize the style and scale of detail of the artworks. The rough sketches were done for more than a month by me and 2 illustrators. The original illustrations were hand drawn on wall sized sheets. I tried for as much detail and reality as possible. The illustrations were then painted with watercolors, photographed and digitalized. The last leg of the campaign involved the laborious task of retouching. It was pretty challenging to keep the synergy of earth colors (green and blue) intact while bringing forth the black and white of Yin Yang in the artwork, at the same time. It took the team more than 6 months to draw & paint and 3 months to retouch the whole project keeping in mind every single object in it. Now, here is the final result in front of you and it seems now the effort was worth all the time."

Short Film: Pumzi

"Pumzi" by Dodocutepoison

This short film is set in a dystopian future, thirty-five years after World War III has torn the world apart, with devastating ecological consequences.  East African survivors remain locked away in contained communities.  The story follows Asha, a museum curator who has come into possession of a germinating seed, as she struggles against the governing council to bring the plant to Earth’s ruined surface.

Installation: Our Changing Seas

"Our Changing Seas III" by San Francisco-based Courtney Mattison

On exhibit at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College through June 15, 2014.
Photographed by Arthur Evans

These glazed stoneware and porcelain sculptures are intended to raise awareness about the endangered ecosystem and inspire more people to fight for conservation. The sprawling installation is entirely hand-built and is meant to show the devastating transition coral reefs endure when faced with climate change, a process called bleaching.  An interest in marine biology and environmental science has shaped her work, providing the inspiration and motivation to create handmade porcelain sculptures in a three-part series.

"At its heart, this piece celebrates my favorite aesthetic aspects of a healthy coral reef surrounded by the sterile white skeletons of bleached corals swirling like the rotating winds of a cyclone. There is still time for corals to recover even from the point of bleaching if we act quickly to decrease the threats we impose. Perhaps if my work can influence viewers to appreciate the fragile beauty of our endangered coral reef ecosystems, we will act more wholeheartedly to help them recover and even thrive."

An interest in marine biology and environmental science has greatly shaped her work, providing much of the inspiration and motivation to create handmade porcelain sculptures liker her three-part series
Read more at http://all-thats-interesting.tumblr.com/post/83922586449/courtney-mattisons-intricate-porcelain-coral-artwork#aZ8gdQGfozKHbs18.99

Short Film: Oxygen

"OXYGEN" directed by MuratKilic

"The world becomes a desert and the air can not be inhaled because of pollution. The film is about struggles of our hero who survived under favour of oxygen bottles and his attempts of growing plants in his own laboratory to produce oxygen."

Installation: Luminous Earth Grid

"Luminous Earth Grid" by Stuart Williams

This looks like a special effect from Oblivion... like the surface of the Earth is being scanned from orbit.  It's an array of 1,680 energy-efficient fluorescent lamps arranged across an area roughly the size of eight football fields, located just fifty miles north of San Francisco.  Williams says, "I see the project as a poetic statement on the potential harmony between technology and nature."

Over the past five years, Williams has raised nearly half a million dollars to bring this massive project to fruition.  It has been critically acclaimed, drawing tens of thousands of visitors.

Sculpture: Environmental Sculptures

Environmental Sculptures by Philippa Jones and photographer Martin Hill

Collaborators Philippa Jones and Martin Hill shape environmental elements into visual circles in remote locations around the globe.  What makes them so unique is that many of these sculptures incorporate elements of the environment into themselves, such as the arc that doesn't appear as a complete circle until the water is still enough for a reflection.

"The use of the circle refers to nature’s cyclical system which is now being used as a model for industrial ecology. Sustainability will be achieved by redesigning products and industrial processes as closed loops—materials that can’t safely be returned to nature will be continually turned into new products. Of course this is only one part of the redesign process. We need to use renewable energy, eliminate all poisonous chemicals, use fair trade and create social equity."

Installation: Sheep Station

"Sheep Station" by Michael Shvo and Paul Kasmin Gallery

An old Getty gas station in the Chelsea area of New York City has been transformed into a pastoral scene featuring sheep sculptures amid a surreal fence-bound grassy lot.  The sheep are stone and bronze sheep sculptures by the late François-Xavier Lalanne.

The space will eventually be turned into luxury residences, but until then, you can take a walk over to this urban fusion meadow located at 10th Avenue and 24th Street.

  

Statues: Giant Rainbow Snails

"Snailovation" by international art collective Cracking Art Group

These twenty-four giant, brightly-colored snails were paraded through the streets of Australia for the city's annual "Art & About" festival, September 20th - October 20th. The sculptures were created from recycled materials as a salute to conservation.

Sculpture: Massive Polar Bear Puppet

Massive Polar Bear Puppet

Photographed by Christopher Kelly

This double decker bus-sized polar bear puppet was created to walk through the streets of central London for the Greenpeace International day of action, an event organized to raise awareness of conservation issues surrounding the arctic on September 15th, 2013.  The puppet, nick-named "Aurora," weighs three tons, and it requires fifteen puppeteers to operate its mechanics.

Posters: 50 Ideas To Make Better Cities

“50 Ideas for the New City” from Urban Omnibus

Prints available for donations from Urban Omnibus.  US$25 - $100
Via: FastCo.

"Urban Omnibus is an online project of the Architectural League to create a new kind of conversation about design and New York City. We commission, gather and deliver the insights of journalists, architects, planners, designers, artists, activists, scholars and citizens. The Omnibus features multi-media content to showcase design innovation, critical analysis and local expertise across a broad range of topics and locales, creating bridges between various communities of interest. "

Short Film: Extinction

"BBC Science Club - Extinction" directed by Asa Lucander

This isn't so much a short film as it is an instructional video, but I like the animation and I'm a sucker for science trivia. This animation from the BBC explains the history of extinction with some great anecdotes along the way.

Crafts: Nuclear Landscapes

Nuclear Landscapes by Belgian artist Elodie Antoine, 2007.

Black lace thread and pins.

Elodie Antoine uses flexible materials like fabric, felt, thread, wallpaper, and wool carpet to create art with a strong conservation message.  Here, she uses a bobbin lace to depict nuclear power stations and electricity pylons in fine lines that evoke a texture like smoke or oil dissipating in water.

Installation: Mobile Garden

As part of the 2011 Art on Track festival, Joe Baldwin and Noisivelvet transformed a run-of-the-mill Chicago Transit Authority railway car into a verdant garden.  Read more about it at UrbanGhosts.

“With native plants covering the seats, windows and floors of the subway car, the mobile garden brought a welcome splash of colour to the urban transit system. The rail transport oddity ran for five hours around Chicago’s downtown loop. Meanwhile, Joe Baldwin, a UIC Art and Design graduate, continued to seek funding for his open-air public transit garden.”

Installation: Melting Men

"Melting Men" by Nele Azevedo, 2009

Azevedo carved 1,000 figures out of ice and situated them on the steps of the concert hall in Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt square. They began melting within half an hour, which drives home the warning of the project that the melting ice caps will most likely cause sea-levels to rise more than 3.3 feet by 2100.

Sculpture: Ocean Armor

"Ocean Armor" by model maker Greg Aronowitz and designer Paul Rice
Commissioned by Surfrider Foundation and Saatchi & Saatchi LA
On exhibit at Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific.

Coated in the stylized armor are Ocellaris Clownfish, the Common Bottlenose Dolphin, the Alaskan Sea Otter and the Red-Crowned Crane. Design influences pull from medieval European armor to 12th century Japanese samurai gear, representing "the global and timeless relationship with the ocean and its inhabitants."

“Marine life has several natural defenses such as speed, camouflage and schooling behavior. However, these defenses are powerless against man-made threats. To convey our need to protect these animals, this collection of life-size armor was born. Transcending cultural and regional boundaries, these artifacts are meant to inspire all to preserve the ocean and the myriad of creatures that call it home."

Installation: The Big Fishes

"The Big Fishes"

Photographed by Victor R. Caivano

This fish sculpture composed of discarded plastic bottles was installed in the sand at Botafogo Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 19, 2012 for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), which runs through June 22.

Short Film: The Returning Tree

The Returning Tree by YuriSerizawa

Installation: Vapor Slide

Vapor Slide by Korean artist Soo Sunny Park

This installation was exhibited in South Strafford, Vermont in 2007.  It was constructed of  found/recycled materials, including brazed chain link fence, plastic cups, paper clips, river rocks, cotton strings, iron oxide, latex paint, and artificial light.  It's rather expansive dimensions are 9’10” x 23’ x 42’.

Short Film: Light

Light is a beautiful, haunting short film that began as a project to bring awareness to energy waste and ended as a poetic meditation on the human tendency for exploitation of “that which we hold dear”