Precipice

Moving images & Music: Kent Tate 4k Humans create narratives about themselves then make great effort to conform reality to that narrative. This wasn’t a threat to planetary survival 10,000 years ago when we were scattered in small bands worshiping local deities and relying on nearby gathered foodstuffs with only stone tools. It’s quite another thing when we are packed into mega-cities with nuclear weapons and ambiguous connectivity with relationships imbued in instruments that far exceed an individual’s capacity to fully comprehend or to reliably navigate our various systems. The earth spins around the sun at 30 km/sec. The habitable atmosphere on this planet extends 6 km into space and is composed of distinct layers. The troposphere extends upward from the earth to a height of about 8 km at the poles, to about 11.3 km in mid-latitudes, and to about 16.1 km at the equator. The air in the troposphere is in constant motion, with both horizontal and vertical air currents. As we exert ever increasing control we inevitably invite ever increasing chaos. The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system. From global warming to the biosphere and deforestation, from pollutants and plastic to nitrogen cycles and freshwater: Six of nine planetary boundaries are being crossed, while simultaneously pressure in all boundary processes is increasing. Filmed on location by Kent Tate on the traditional territory of the Samish and Swinomishon people in Anacortes, Washington – USA & the traditional territory of the Nlaka’pamux people in Lytton, BC – Canada Directors Note: Lytton, BC burned down in a single afternoon on June 30, 2021, one day after Canada’s hottest ever temperature of 50 °C (121 °F) was recorded in the village. As of December, 2024 the oil refineries in Anacortes, Washington remain the primary supplier of oil and gasoline to Vancouver and the lower mainland of BC.