Headline Wall: Update and Comments on (its) Sustainability

For future updates I’ll need to experiment a little with documentation methods, as this patchwork thing is not ideal. Click on each image to see a larger version, in which you should be able to read some of the larger entries on the Wall. There was no climate-related news on the front page of The Age today. I’m not completely sure, but I think this is a first since this little project began, and possibly a first since I arrived in Australia.

But fear not! There was an entire page devoted to the topic a few pages in. Obviously, Copenhagen is big news these days, so none of this is surprising. One of my particular favorites was the recent front page image of various world leaders playing poker in a smoke-filled room, which perhaps you can see by clicking on the top image and looking near the top-right corner (I just did a quick search for an online version of the image, but no luck).

Some have raised issues related to the sustainability of the Headline Wall. Like any complex policy issue, I think this can be looked at from a variety of perspectives. For example, can the Wall accommodate the current and projected rates of newspaper collation over the period of intended residency? After checking the latest forecasts of the world’s most advanced General Circulation Models, coupled with a range of plausible scenarios of economic development, technological advance, and population growth, I am cautiously optimistic. However, uncertainties remain.

Alternatively, does the aesthetic cost of the Project outweigh the benefits? This would require further research into the question of benefits, and what those could possibly be. Other avenues of research include an investigation into the links between newspaper covered walls and sanity.

image credit

Finally, there is the question of the Wall’s impact on domestic sustainability, and whether certain parties are unduly burdened by its presence, especially after having just moved across the Pacific Ocean so that certain other parties who actually have an office can do their nerdy climate policy research. I imagine that further conferences, roundtables, and workshops on this issue will be required.