Project 3: Motion Infographic/Explainer
3 BIG IDEAS
- Global Warming and the Climate Clock
2. Preserve the USPS
3. Space Junk is Hindering Human Progression
Research:
A. Climate Clock
The Climate Clock shows two numbers. The first, in red, is a timer, counting down how long it will take, at current rates of emissions, to burn through our “carbon budget” — the amount of CO2 that can still be released into the atmosphere while limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This is our deadline, the time we have left to take decisive action to keep warming under the 1.5°C threshold. The second number, in green, is tracking the growing % of the world’s energy currently supplied from renewable sources. This is our lifeline. Simply put, we need to get our lifeline to 100% before our deadline reaches 0.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that earth’s climate warms at a linear rate. For example, potential climatic tipping points have been identified in Earth’s physical climate system that would cause large and possibly irreversible transitions in the state of the climate.² These uncertainties are why the IPCC report states there is a 67% chance that the carbon budget will limit warming to 1.5°C.
On Saturday at 3:20 p.m., messages including “The Earth has a deadline” began to appear on the display. Then numbers — 7:103:15:40:07 — showed up, representing the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds until that deadline.
Their goal of creating a large-scale clock was influenced in part by the Doomsday Clock, maintained online by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and by the National Debt Clock near Bryant Park in Manhattan. Mr. Golan and Mr. Boyd decided that the Climate Clock would have the most impact if it were displayed in a conspicuous public space and presented like a statue or an artwork.
“The Climate Clock will remind the world every day just how perilously close we are to the brink,” Stephen Ross, chairman of Related Companies, the developer that owns One Union Square South, said in a statement. He added, “This initiative will encourage everybody to join us in fighting for the future of our planet.”
The report, issued in 2018, said global warming was likely to reach 1.5°C over preindustrial levels between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at the current rate. That level of warming is projected to increase damage to many ecosystems and cause an estimated $54 trillion in damage, the report said.
The website also tracks the growing percentage of the world’s energy supplied from renewable sources. And it provides directions on how to build small, low-cost clocks like the one given to Ms. Thunberg.
Additional contributions from glaciers and ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise are uncertain but may equal or exceed several meters over the next millennium or longer.
Following cessation of emissions, removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide decreases radiative forcing, but is largely compensated by slower loss of heat to the ocean, so that atmospheric temperatures do not drop significantly for at least 1,000 years. Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase from current levels near 385 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to a peak of 450–600 ppmv over the coming century are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the “dust bowl” era and inexorable sea level rise.
B. Preserve the USPS
But Trump remains dead set against saving the USPS. When Congress tried to add a $13 billion direct grant for the Postal Service to its stimulus package, a Trump administration official stated: “We told them very clearly that the president was not going to sign the bill if [money for the Postal Service] was in it.”
The Postal Service is being hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Businesses have drastically cut back on how much mail they’re sending — and experts say that without support from the government, the agency could soon run out of money.
Losing the USPS — especially during a public health crisis — would be devastating to millions of Americans. Many rely on it to keep in touch with loved ones… to stay up-to-date on the latest news… and to receive their medications without the risk or inconvenience of going to the pharmacy.
At its current rate of financial loss, the U.S. Postal Service is slated to run out of money in 2024. The Trump Administration’s budget proposal warned that — absent any changes — the USPS might soon need a taxpayer funded bailout.
Why? There are several hundred federal agencies, but only one is mandated to pre-fund its employees future healthcare benefits: the Postal Service.
The USPS Fairness Act would eliminate the pre-funding requirement. Advocates claim that it could single-handedly put the Postal Service out of the red and into the black.
The bill was introduced in the House on April 29 as bill number H.R. 2382, by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR4).
Supporters argue the bill makes financial sense, puts the Postal Service on an even footing with literally every other federal agency, and helps ensure the solvency of one the programs that most directly affects ordinary Americans.
GovTrack Insider was unable to locate any explicit statements of opposition, but the main sources of opposition are the Postal Service’s private sector competitors who would rather keep their opposition behind the scenes.
2006’s pre-funding requirement put the U.S. Postal Service at a staggering competitive disadvantage with the likes of FedEx and UPS. And the Postal Service is banned from lobbying Congress — unlike their private sector competitors.
“It’s also significant that lots of companies benefit from a burden that makes the USPS less competitive,” _Bloomberg _opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz wrote. “These same companies might also would benefit from full USPS privatization, a goal that has been pushed by several conservative think tanks for years.”
“Paying retiree obligations isn’t the issue here; rather, being singled out as the only company with a congressional requirement to fully fund those obligations is,” Ritholtz continued. “It puts the USPS at a huge competitive disadvantage.”
But as mentioned above, industry’s lobbying to mandate the status quo would likely be strong. FedEx spent $10.1 million on lobbying last year, while UPS spent $9.3 million.
C. Space Junk Hindering Human Progression:
The U.S. segments of the ISS are protected against
orbital debris about 1.4 cm and smaller
– “Currently,” the number of objects between 1.5 cm and 10 cm,
with orbits crossing that of the ISS, is approximately 1200
• ~800 of them are between 1.5 cm and 3 cm
– To reduce 50% of the ISS-crossing orbital debris in this size
range (1.5 cm to 3 cm) will require, for example, a debris
collector/remover with an area-time product of ~1000 km2 year
• Where is the most critical region for ADR?
What are the mission objectives?
What objects should be removed first?
– The debris environment is very dynamic. Breakups of large
intacts generate small debris, small debris decay over time,…
• What are the benefits to the environment?
How to do it?
Picture a band of debris, circling the earth. “[It’s] everything from upper-stage rocket bodies, completely intact dead satellites, shards of stuff…flecks of paint, bolts, nuts,” says Moriba Jah, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
The U.S. adopted Orbital Debris Mitigation Standards in 2001, but there has not been a concerted effort to fund clean-up operations. This worries those concerned about the sustainable use of space.
Space junk has the daily potential to alter satellites’ operations and movement. This translates into real-world costs, as satellite operators field alerts about potential collisions.
Satellites in low Earth orbit, such as those used for imaging and weather data collection, are especially vulnerable.
“That could mean our climate models are less accurate, or we don’t have a good way to track emitters. That could have negative impacts down the road,” Weeden says.
Space junk is also problematic for astronauts. The International Space Station is equipped with a tracker to monitor for collision risk. In the past, crews have performed avoidance maneuvers and hid in the Soyuz capsules when the risk for collision was too great.
That scenario provided the staging drama for the 2013 Alfonso Cuarón film, Gravity. The opening scene depicts earth’s orbit rapidly filling with debris after a missile strike. That depiction does not capture reality. Space junk is a problem that unravels slowly.
Global Warming and the Climate Clock (BIG IDEA):
- Topic: Global Warming represented through visuals of the Climate Clock.
- Position: Informing the viewer about the Newly installed “time bomb” in Manhattan and persuading why decreasing local emissions would be beneficial.
- Audience: 15–35 year olds (intended for all ages technically)
- Transformation: Tone changes from serious and scary to happy and hopeful?
First Draft of Narrative Script:
(Time Ticking and Narrator Speaking to a beat to represent time passing)
(Showing the doomsday clock)
Who says time is relative?
Time relative to ourselves moves very fast, as defined by our society, our busy daily lives. But when we are so worried about maintaining a schedule we forget that the world revolves on the relativity of time.
In time square on the date September 19, 2020 a led display was unveiled in union square in Manhattan whose message shocked the populous, “The World Has a Deadline”
Since then the clock has been ticking away. When the clock reaches zero that mean humanity has reached the unreversed effects of global warming, where there’s no going back.
There’s two sides to this clock the first in red shows the amount of time the human race has before we burn through the carbon budget. Our goal is to keep it below the 1.5 C threshold to avoid permanent damage.
The next, in green, represents the Earth’s life line and shows (in percentage) the world’s energy provided by renewable resources. Best case scenario we’d be at 100% before the clock runs out.
It is estimated that between 2030 and 2052 we could reach the point of permanent damage to the ecosystem, an estimated 54 Trillion dollar problem.
Rough Storyboard:
Three Style Frames:
Audio Clip:
2 Second Test Animation:
10 Second Animation:
How I want the animation to feel:
Focus on timing, rhythmic motion, inspired by UPA animation style, Modern simplistic design with lost and found line weight. Serious message juxtaposed with some light hearted images.
Updated Script:
