A giant clock looks down on Prague. They are counting down the time to climate doom
From Tuesday, new clocks look down on Prague. However, they do not show the time by which the people of Prague could adjust their working hours or dinner for the family. On the contrary, next to the summer metronome, they are counting down the time to disasters. Climate disasters. The eight-meter-high and thirty-five-meter-wide dials inform when the Earth will warm up so much that it will have an irreversible impact on the entire planet. And it’s not that far.
The Czech group Freedom Festival is behind the new installation in Prague, which wants a massive clock, where the next years and days are shown on the left and hours, minutes and seconds on the right, to appeal to the need to do business to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In about seven years, according to scientists, the planet should warm by 1.5 °C compared to the era before the industrial revolution. This can be a big problem for the planet.
“We have already reported on photography to solve the climate crisis before,” Jan Gregar, spokesman for the Festival of Freedom, tells CzechCrunch. “17. In November, at our events across the country, we have already started to distribute a petition in which we demand that the MPs, among other things, address the climate lawsuit,” complements. After all, November 17 was not chosen by chance – according to the initiators, the climate threat is also a threat to freedom and democracy.
Consumption like at home by the stove
The Freedom Festival was inspired by New York for the creation of the so-called Hour of Doom, from where came up. The organizers then teamed up with the New York team and implemented the idea in the realities of Prague. They chose a place that is not only symbolic, but also exposed – and because the area next to the Leten metronome is located on a hill, it is also easily visible from a distance.
“Placing the clock next to the flying pendulum makes sense for a number of reasons. It is the place where the Stalin monument towered over Prague in the past, which is symbolic because it requires the idea that one must always think about the fact that we must constantly guard and take care of our freedom. And that’s exactly what the clock says. Another reason is the strategic location of the place,” Gregar explains.
However, the Freedom Festival was not alone in all this. First, he had to request a permit from the capital city and the Prague 7 district and also ensure who would build the clock. Therefore, they approached the Prague design studio Multiverse, which deals with light installations. This is what he designed for them in the form of giant digital signs and, according to the organizers, ideally met their artistic requirements.
“From the beginning, the brief was to make the clock visually impressive and at the same time not waste electrical energy. That’s why Multiverse used special fluorescent lamps that can change the color of the light – and which are economical. No other weather clock has looked like this before.” Gregar states and adds that the entire construction budget is in the order of hundreds of thousands of crowns.
It was the watch’s maximum energy efficiency that was key in ensuring that the creators did not contradict each other and significantly contribute to the threat to the planets. Thanks to the special fluorescent lamps that Multiverse used, their consumption can be compared to one switched-on domestic stove.
However, the consumption will change depending on how many digit segments are currently lit. As time moves on, it may happen that more elements are lit at one time than before. And conversely. However, according to the calculations of the Freedom Festival team, they should consume approximately three thousand crowns of electricity in two weeks.
People are aware of climate fluctuations
The goal of this installation is clear – to provoke debate and promote the topic of climate change in public space. And as the creators confirm for CzechCrunch, it’s already going well. “We see not only media interest, but also reactions in hundreds of discussions. Some are positive, some negative, that’s to be expected. However, the positives still significantly prevail. Be that as it may, it’s not just about whether something is positive or not.” says Gregor.
Scientists agree that climate change – and environmental organizations are trying to motivate people not just to look at it, but on the contrary to consider the threat, which every year even the highest representatives of the countries on the climatic peak, they realized and tried to change their approach. And it’s not just individuals, but also large companies that have a key stake in development.
“In a September survey by the STEM/MARK agency and the 2050 Institute, showedthat the vast majority of the domestic population does not deny climate change, on the contrary. I think that the climate fluctuations, which no longer avoid even the Czech Republic, have opened the eyes of many people. Let us recall, for example, the tornado in Moravia, increasingly frequent periods of drought and the like. I believe that a constructive debate based on scientific consensus is the right way to go,” Gregor mentions.
The clock itself will then be in operation until December 12, after which it will be dismantled and the place will be restored to its original form. The glowing segments will go to their creators, i.e. the study of the Multiverse. After all, the temporary nature of this installation is also symbolic in its own way – it points to the fact that nothing is eternal. Nor the stability of the environment on planet earth.