In the words of the artist: “The general museum-going public is still looking for art that is beautiful, that they can hang on the wall. But I feel painting could be more than that. It should raise questions, raise the hairs on the back of your neck. It can be used to explore issues that are more troubling than reassuring. If one would just stop and ask ‘Why would anyone do something like this?’ It would be satisfying. Finding a moment of contemplation is one of the great challenges of our time. We become so bound up in what we’re doing that we cease to see the world objectively, and I think that’s one of the great values that art can have, that nature can have, that moments alone can have.”

What happens to our trash? America accounts for over one-third of the world’s waste. Most of that trash ends up in landfills. In the United States, one ton of waste per person ends up in landfills each year. Trash also goes to incinerators where it is often burned to produce energy, but this process produces toxic ash and gaseous emissions. Although ocean dumping is now banned in the United States, tons of our garbage finds its way to the oceans: litter is carried away by rainfall through sewers and streams, landfill waste is carried by the wind, and ships routinely dump waste at sea. Much of the waste entering oceans is plastic, which breaks down very slowly in water and is easily carried by wind and ocean currents.

In “Cuttings,” we see freshly-cut branches piled into a twisted heap. It is a powerful reminder that trees are actively being cleared, that forests are still disappearing. Chester Arnold grew up on the edge of a forest, and developed a reverence for nature at an early age. “I love the forest. I love the trees, and whenever one is felled, I feel a pang of remorse. Something wonderful–environmentally and spiritually–has been taken away.” The Earth has been losing forest cover at an alarming rate; about half the forests that covered the earth are already gone. In recent years, some countries have reversed the deforestation trend, but forest cover is still being lost at an alarming rate. Learn more about deforestation and its pivotal role in climate change in this video from National Geographic.

A common misconception is that tires are made of natural rubber. In fact, over 200 ingredients can go into a tire. These include: natural rubber, synthetic rubber, carbon black and silica, metals, and numerous chemical agents. Consequently, tires are not biodegradable and should be recycled or repurposed to prevent environmental damage. In the United States, 128 million scrap tires remain in stockpiles, which is extremely dangerous. A tire’s physical structure, durability, and heat-retaining characteristics make these stockpiles a potential threat to human health and the environment. The curved shape of a tire allows rainwater to collect and creates an ideal habitat for rodents and mosquitoes. Prone to heat retention, tires in stockpiles also can ignite, creating tire fires that can burn for months, generating unhealthy smoke and toxic oils that pollute nearby waterways. There are some tire stockpiles so large that they can be seen from space, such as the ones in Calhoun County, South Carolina and Kuwait City’s Sulaibiya area.

In the words of the artist: “The perspective provides a distance that helps me or anyone to see it from a view that is less common. You begin to see the pattern of things, the shape of things. And if you can do that, maybe you have a little more insight and appreciation. If you can appreciate your paradise before you destroy it, then maybe you have a chance of saving it for yourself and future generations.”

This painting depicts the transformation of a mountain into a series of terraces through a process known as contour strip mining. In contour strip mining, bulldozers, power shovels or stripping wheels are used to remove large chunks of earth in terraced strips in order to extract coal (or minerals) from one or more seams on a hill or mountain. In the image, we see a green pool of wastewater, which is a slurry of toxic material from the exposed mountainside. The wastewater may be acidic from sulfur, as newly-exposed rock reacts with air and rain to form sulfuric acid. The wastewater often contains heavy metals such as lead, mercury, nickel, tin, cadmium, antimony, and arsenic, which can be carried by rainwater and are toxic in high concentrations. These pools slowly allow the contaminated water to seep into the groundwater below, harming aquatic wildlife downstream and impacting local water quality. Many plants and trees are removed to allow mining, and delicate ecosystems are often disrupted due to changes in the landscape and exposure to toxic chemicals. The changes in the landscape also permit the toxic material to become airborne in the form of dust, leading to increased air pollution. This and other types of surface mining began in the mid-sixteenth century and are still practiced throughout the world. Surface mines are the source of about 65% of the coal that is mined in the United States. So is coal used? About 40% of the world’s electricity is generated by burning coal. Learn more about coal in this post from Encyclopedia Brittanica and by taking a virtual field trip to a Pennsylvania coal mine.

Recycling helps divert waste from our landfills, and is a critical step towards a sustainable future. Learn how to recycle the right way with this Recycling Explorer tool. Recycling is far from a complete solution to our growing trash problem, however. Recycling requires energy, water and other resources, and is not as sustainable as reducing the amount of trash we generate. Are you a guru at minimizing your trash or are you still getting up the curve? Take this quiz to find out.

Chester Arnold’s work explores the impact of the human consumption on the environment, providing us with an aerial view of tainted landscapes. If you are inspired by his work, you can take action in your own life. Select one or more pledges listed below and spread the word. You can also learn more by visiting our Pledge Center. Let’s #EndOvershoot and save our #OneEarth.