By Copyrighting His Property As An Artwork, He Has Prevented Oil Companies From Drilling On It.

By copyrighting his property as an artwork, he has prevented oil companies from drilling on it.

Peter Von Tiesenhausen has developed artworks all over his property in northern Alberta. There’s a boat woven from sticks that is gradually being reclaimed by the land; there is a fence that he adds to each year of his life, and there are many “watching” trees, with eyes scored into their bark.

Oil interests pester him continually about drilling on his land. His repeated rebuffing of their advances lead them to move toward arbitration. They made it very clear that he only owned the top 6 inches of soil, and they had rights to anything underneath. He then, off the top of his head, threatened them that he would sue damages if they disturbed his 6 inches, for the entire property is an artwork. Any disturbance would compromise the work, and he would sue.

Immediately after that meeting, he called a lawyer (who is also an art collector) and asked if his intuitive threat would actually hold legally. The lawyer visited, saw the scope of the work on the property, and wrote a document protecting the artwork.

The oil companies have kept their distance ever since.

This is but one example of Peter’s ability to negotiate quickly on his feet, and to find solutions that defy expectations.

Humans delayed the onset of the Sahara desert by 500 years

Humans did not accelerate the decline of the ‘Green Sahara’ and may have managed to hold back the onset of the Sahara desert by around 500 years, according to new research led by UCL.

The study by a team of geographers and archaeologists from UCL and King’s College London, published in Nature Communications, suggests that early pastoralists in North Africa combined detailed knowledge of the environment with newly domesticated species to deal with the long-term drying trend.

It is thought that early pastoralists in North Africa developed intricate ways to efficiently manage sparse vegetation and relatively dry and low fertility soils.

Dr. Chris Brierley (UCL Geography), lead author, said: “The possibility that humans could have had a stabilizing influence on the environment has significant implications. We contest the common narrative that past human-environment interactions must always be one of over-exploitation and degradation. Read more.

1K notes View Post

copperfingertips

6 years ago

Nature

282 notes View Post

copperfingertips

6 years ago

Today I Divided Up The Hardy Kiwis I Had Layered In The Fall.

Today I divided up the hardy kiwis I had layered in the fall.

I made four new 1 gallon kiwi plants.

175 notes View Post

copperfingertips

6 years ago

The plastic backlash: what's behind our sudden rage – and will it make a difference? – podcast

Decades after it became part of the fabric of our lives, a worldwide revolt against plastic is under way

A history of plastic and the lobbying that surrounded it.

102 notes View Post

copperfingertips

6 years ago

After Planting a Tree Every Day for 40 Years, Man Has Created Blossoming Forest on Barren Wasteland

411 notes View Post

copperfingertips

6 years ago

fucked up how cooking and baking from scratch is viewed as a luxury…..like baking a loaf of bread or whatever is seen as something that only people with money/time can do. I’m not sure why capitalism decided to sell us the idea that we can’t make our own damn food bc it’s a special expensive thing that’s exclusive to wealthy retirees but it’s stupid as hell and it makes me angry