The Colorado River is the prime artery of the west, starting in Colorado and moving through Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Mexico and into the Gulf. The 20th century saw the creation of fifteen dams along the Colorado River, most notably Hoover Dam that created Lake Mead and Glenn Canyon Dam that created Lake Powell. The impacts of these dams have devastated the Colorado River Delta near the Gulf of Mexico. During both the filling of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, little to no water reached the Gulf for almost a decade each. Today, only about 5 percent of the original water flows through the delta. Many species, plant and animals have become endangered or extinct in the area.
In this digital artwork, the fifteen dams are shown along the course of the Colorado River. The line of the river overlays onto a digital image of the Colorado river. The dark strip in the middle represents the 5 percent water flow of the delta.
List of Extinct and Endangered Species:
- the desert pupfish, also listed as an endangered species in the U.S., the largest remaining population anywhere is in La Ciénega de Santa Clara
- the Yuma rail, also listed as endangered in the U.S.
- the bobcat
- the vaquita porpoise, the world's smallest marine cetacean, listed as a species of special concern by the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. There are thought to be less than 250 vaquita left in the world.
- the totoaba, now virtually extinct, a steel-blue fish that grows up to 2 m (7 ft) and 136 kg (300 pounds), and once supported a commercial fishery that closed in 1975 (Postel et al., n.d.).
- the Colorado delta clam, once an extremely abundant species and important in the trophic dynamics of the ecosystem.
Raise the River vs. Move the Ocean
Tue Greenfort, Exceeding 2°C, 2007/2014
The climate inside the Sharjah Art Museum is controlled by an air-conditioning system. By raising the temperature by 2°C in the entire museum for the duration of the Biennial “Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, less energy will be consumed. Using an approximation of the amount of money thereby saved on electricity, a rainforest area in Ecuador has been purchased through the environmental organisation Nepenthes.
For the exhibition “7 000 000 000,” at the EACC, the temperature of the exhibition space has been lowered by 2°C for the duration of the exhibition. The money saved on heating costs has been used to purchase an area of Ecuadorian rainforest through the NGO Accionatura.
