Tuesday, January 26, 2010

One Square Inch

I would like to bring to your awareness, if you do not already know of it, a particularly interesting website. The website is this, http://www.onesquareinch.org/. The basic idea is that, "if a loud noise, such as the passing of an aircraft, can impact many square miles, then a natural place, if maintained in a 100% noise-free condition, will also impact many square miles around it. It is predicted that protecting a single square inch of land from noise pollution will benefit large areas of the park."
This idea was Gordon Hempton's. So he decided to find one square inch of the earth that is not polluted by human made sounds. The Olympic National park was chosen for one square inch because "it has a diverse natural soundscape combined with substantial periods of natural quiet." Also it doesn't have any roads like other national parks like yellow stone, grand canyon, or Hawaii Volcanos. Also,
"Because there are few noise intrusions in the backcountry wilderness, noise sources are easier to identify at Olympic than at other parks. The variety of natural soundscapes presented by different habitat types such as alpine glaciers, rain forests, lakes and streams, and wilderness beach provide meaningful examples of soundscape beauty."
They also record the natural sounds that can be heard from there and have recordings of things like snow melting and dawn which are truly beautiful that you can download and listen to.
They also have a book called One Square Inch of Silence (no, really)
I would most certainly check out the website!

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