The Saddest, Scariest Sound Ever—Global Warming (VIDEO)
Are you an avid environmentalist actively searching for an alternative to data tables and scientific reports through which to get your daily dose of global warming news and updates? If so, then listen up—seriously, you need to hear this one.
University of Minnesota undergrad Daniel Crawford has crafted an innovative way of interpreting graphs and data into a one-man concerto—his composition allows its listeners to feel the planet's toasty metamorphosis.
According to Ensia, the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment magazine, Crawford used surface-temperature data from NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies to create a data sonification that transforms climate records into musical notes.
In Crawford's resulting "Song of Our Warming Planet," each ascending halftone represents about 0.03°C of planetary warming. Each note represents a year from 1880 to 2012, and the notes are portrayed over a range of three octaves. The coldest year, 1909, is embodied by the lowest possible note on the cello, open C.
The culmination of the cellist's conversions is a two-minute song that begins in the cello's lowest range, progresses through to the 1940s in the mid-register and peaks in the highest recorded temperatures of the 1990s to now.
If scientists' predictions are correct—that global temperatures will rise by 1.8°C by the end of the century—the resultant musical notes, according to Crawford's calculations, will be beyond the range of human hearing.
In laymen's terms? Only dogs can hear the notes of our screeching fate.
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