Wander With Wild Things

Studies suggest that the human mind cannot really comprehend amounts above 1,000. So when we hear about hundreds of thousands or millions, it is difficult for us to grasp the scope of what we are hearing and thus, for many, difficult to relate to and be concerned about the related issues.

Artist Chris Jordan apparently took this as an assignment and created a series of beautiful pieces to help people visualize the scale of threats facing our worlds oceans. A couple of my favourites:



This 11-foot-wide digital collage of photos shows 2.4 million pieces of plastic--the number of pounds of plastic trash that enters the oceans every hour.



A closeup of the trash. This work is part of a series called Running the Numbers II, based on his book, Running the Numbers, which I now totally want to check out!



The most poignant of the group, this contains 270,000 shark teeth, the amount of sharks who are killed by finning for soup daily.



A closeup of some of the teeth used. It makes me weep to think of these animals being finned and tossed in a ghoulish display of greed based on a completely incorrect and archaic "tradition." If you are not familiar with the practice, you can learn more here.