I’ve become a contributing artist with Earth/Percent ( https://www.earthpercent.org/ )
Nature and its incredible variety, ferocity, calmness and beauty are primary sources of inspiration for my art and music — and over the years, as I’ve learned more and more about the outdoors, the more I’ve also learned that all of our acts of creativity can also be destructive – transforming one range of natural resources into another range of natural resources (our art, our music, our lives).
For example, wood from a tree is used to make paper — the drawing on paper requires the tree’s life (or cotton, etc.) This means that there is a distinct environmental cost to producing a simple drawing. The tree no longer exists as a tree, a source of life, shelter, food and fuel for itself and the rest of the forest. By extension, most artworks have environmental costs. A piece of graphite is mined out of the ground, meaning large swaths of land are mined. Digital art requires electricity – which may be made out of sun, wind, coal, nuclear, and so on. All of these have costs related to the health and wellbeing of the planet. For every act of creativity, there is an act of destructivity.
What can artists do to decrease the destructivity while increasing or facilitating their creativity? We can usually find ways to work in more sustainable ways, such as by selecting recycled, reused, and/or renewable materials and methods. We can power our homes with geothermal or solar that have lower overall impacts than other modes of producing electricity. But these are all individual choices — to make large-scale environmental changes possible, in relationship to the effects of pollution, weather, climate change and similar big ecological issues, we need much better public policy. And so one more response is to counterbalance art’s destructivity with support for nature, education, science, and art / environmental causes. As part of this difficult private/public balancing act of making art and music today, I’m delighted to announce becoming a contributing artist with Earth/Percent.
As a contributing artist with Earth/Percent ( https://www.earthpercent.org/ ) I donate five percent of my net income from my art and music projects to environmental and science-oriented needs, to help offset the environmental costs of making music and art. Co-founded by Adam Callan, Hiroki Shirasuka, and Brian Eno, and advised by world-leading experts in science, academia and policy, Earth/Percent funds grants for effective organizations address climate and biodiversity emergencies. The goal of Earth/Percent is to create a healthy, equitable and livable planet for generations to come.
That’s a goal that I share too! I’m delighted to work together in support of their mission.
Gregory Scheckler 