Red Alarm In Copenhagen

By Jens Galschiot,Copenhagen
Thousands of red LED lamps will mark a 7-meters water rising during the COP15 climate summit. The art happening Sevenmeters.net is a visualisation by Jens Galschiot, about how Copenhagen will look like, when all the ice of Greenland has melted away.
Galschiot and his volunteers, armed with long ladders, will this Saturday and Sunday hang up the LED lamps. They will start by the three big 'refugees' on Vejlands Allé / Ørestads Boulevard by the Bella Center. The 2,000 LED lamps are specially made in the artist’s workshop of bicycle lamps, which are soldered and glued together with extra batteries, so the will be able to blink constantly during the meeting.
The artist, who is well-known for his poignant - yet audience-friendly, art manife¬sta¬tions, got the permission to put up all of the blinking lights in a 7 meter line above daily water, around the lakes and in the whole channel area in the center of Copenhagen, and along the roads to the Bella Center. Galschiot hopes that the red blinking LED-lights will be some sort of an international grassroots’ symbol of the climate catastrophe.
With the happening Galschiot will visualise, that when the water rises and drought expands, there will be many places where people no longer will be able to stay. For example the isle of Amager, where the Climate Summit is held, will be 5 meters under water, if Greenland’s ice melts. If the ice of Antarctica also melts, the water will rise another 75 meters, so the peaks of the mountains will be in great demand, and there are not plenty of them in Denmark.
”With this manifestation I will highlight the climate crisis, and the fact, that it is not only a problem for the polar bears and the nature. The global warming may be a catastrophe for humanity. UN says that over 200 million refugees will be a reality in the next 40 years.
The refugees will trigger a giant demographic crisis, with risks of closing the national borders and beginning an ‘all against all fight, to protect our territory against the refugees, which our own CO2 leak has created. A frightening scenario that will put our humanistic and democratic civilisation under intense pressure, so that war and rise of totalitarian systems might be the consequence. This is the legacy that we will leave to our children!” Galschiot says.
At the venue of the climate summit there will also be red blinking LED lamps. Small badges will be given to the delegates, so they can use them as a silent indicator about how seriously they take the climate crisis.