An Italian pianist performed an original piece on a man-made iceberg as he drifted by a glacier in Norway Monday as part of Greenpeace’s call for an “Arctic Sanctuary.”
Pianist Ludovico Einaudi wrote a piece for an event called “Elegy for the Arctic” and preformed it on an artificial iceberg in front of the conveniently calving Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Norway. The iceberg stage was made using hundreds of triangular wood pieces, creating a two-ton floating platform for the composer to play on as he slowly drifted by the crumbling glacier.
The mini-concert was a kick-off of sorts for the weeklong OSPAR Commission, where 15 world governments will gather to discuss how to better “protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.”
“Being here has been a great experience. I could see the purity and fragility of this area with my own eyes and interpret a song I wrote to be played upon the best stage in the world,” Einaudi said in a news release from Greenpeace Monday. “It is important that we understand the importance of the Arctic, stop the process of destruction and protect it.”
PLEASE: This week the Arctic future is being decided. HELP @LudovicoEinaud #SaveTheArctic https://t.co/0YgqaZQD9C pic.twitter.com/3F9E28SrDr
— Captain Mike (@MikeFincken) June 20, 2016
Einaudi is known for his work on the movie “Black Swan” and the British television series “Doctor Zhivago.”
The Wahlenbergbreen glacier was chosen because Greenpeace is seeking to create an “Arctic Sanctuary.” Greenpeace noted in an article posted to its website Sunday: “This unique place is extraordinarily vulnerable, but of all the world’s oceans, it is the least protected. Less than 1.5% of this area has any form of protected area status. In the high seas, the global commons, there is none.”
The Arctic Sanctuary seeks to protect nearly 1.1 million square miles — roughly the same size as Argentina — of the 5.4 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean. Greenpeace would ultimately like to see this area protected from fishing, military activity, and extraction of the seabed by industry.
Greenpeace claims the retreating Arctic ice might entice industry to move in and reap the benefits from an untapped source, since the area has been covered in ice and has therefore been off-limits. “International Arctic waters, increasingly accessible due to receding sea ice, are firmly in the sights of oil, fishing and transport multinationals.” Greenpeace wrote in its press release Monday.
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