Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/731331
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2016 42 The EU's overconsumption of land negatively affects the environment mainly through expanding agriculture into ar- eas of nature or previously unfarmed land. This pressurises global ecosystems, drives forest conversions into plantations, less- ens forests' carbon storage capacity, and causes land degradation and biodiversity loss. By combining regional Land Foot- print data with environmental impact data to form an "impact matrix", we can see the impacts in different regions alongside the quantity of land the EU uses in that region, e.g. the level of deforestation in Sub-Sa- haran Africa and the EU Land Footprint in that region. Of particular note are the high impacts from land use change / land management in Tropical Asia, Tropical South America and Sub-Saharan Africa – the same re- gions which account for 60% of overseas cropland used by the EU and areas with large forests, rich in biodiversity. The EU's use of land also affects climate change and raises questions of climate justice. When taking into account land- related carbon and methane emissions overseas as a result of EU consumption, emissions are one-third higher than land-related emissions from within the EU alone. These emissions are strongly linked to deforestation embodied both in im- ported agricultural and forestry products. It is clear that the effects of Europe's dis- proportionate consumption are felt nearly universally outside the continent itself. This Week Among the myriad birds currently passing across our Islands on their frantic race south for winter is the common redstart. Now most perching birds in our part of the world are rather muted in colour but this customer is an exception. The common redstart is one of three species of redstart that occur in our countryside and all three sport the same black-white-rust colour scheme. Thankfully for us birdwatchers, each species applies the colours in different layout but they all have the rust-red tail. This accounts for the name redstart, as start is an old English word for tail; unfortunately it's the 'common' bit that seems to be losing significance. While seen regularly during spring and autumn migration every year, we see fewer of this species than we did, say, 30 years ago. Considering the world wars we constantly wage on insects, it is not surprising that many insectivorous birds are slowly losing out. GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 428: SHOWER WITH YOUR PARTNER: Sneak in a shower with your loved one to start the day with some zest that doesn't come in a bar. Not only have you made a wise choice for the environment, but you may notice some other added...um...benefits. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text Victor Falzon Photo Aron Tanti 525. COMMON REDSTART EU's Land Footprint – Environmental impacts Embodied into the current A continuous traffic of images of people on the move pass in and out of our newsfeeds. We skim over them just like we skim over sports, celebrity news and jokey memes. Images of children's bod- ies washed ashore are relegated to the same status as the wardrobe malfunction of some star on the red carpet. Migration is yet anoth- er story which we are consuming. And solidarity? Oh yes, on rare occasions there is that one picture which makes us go, "Ouch, that could have been me or my son, my husband or my daughter". So we 'Like' and 'Share' the post and feel that we have done whatever we could. Our conscience is appeased. And that story or image is left to float away with the million others that have already floated past our attention. Now we watch and wait for the next image that deserves to be shared. Waiting and watching: a spectator's life. Bodyless is an artistic project by Kopin that is seeking to retell African migration narrative. The first phase of the project saw the publication of Never Arrive by Farah Abdullahi Abdi; a chroni- cle of what it is like to cross half of the African continent "ille- gally" as a minor. At the heart of the book are the details and the personal narratives that rarely, if ever, feature in mainstream me- dia reports. As an asylum seeker, Farah looks at and reflects on the world around him as he passes from one challenge to another until he is rescued at sea and finds a home in Malta. We have heard this before, and most likely in very reductive terms. Retelling stories is not the same as repeating them. It means look- ing at all those narratives to try to figure out what has been miss- ing from them. What have the media reports been leaving out? What has the po- litical discourse wiped out? What details? What voices? What peo- ple? What are the narratives that we have been de- prived of? A collective ex- hibition of works by Maltese artists is trying to address these problems and questions. The exhibition is being held at the Malta Maritime Museum in Birgu from October 1 to 16. The visual artists include Teresa Sciberras, Maxine Attard, Aaron Bezzina and Matthew Attard who are presenting works ranging from sculptures to installations along- side a Virtual Reality game devel- oped specifically for this project by Sandro Spina in collaboration with the exhibition's coordinator, Glen Calleja. "Some of the artists are using clothing items found on local beaches after the winter storms. These items were, potentially, previously worn by migrants at- tempting to cross the Mediter- ranean and which were lost dur- ing the trip," Calleja commented. "Since we do not know what has happened to their original owners these clothes represent all those stories which do not have as neat an ending as the media generally gives us. Migration is messy. They evoke absence, an unfinished sto- ry, a living memory." Kopin (VO/0200) is a Maltese NGO that works for children's and human rights in the fields of international development coop- eration, refugee support and edu- cation. The project Bodyless is sup- ported by the Arts Council Mal- ta- Malta Arts Fund, UNHCR Malta, IOM Malta, the Embassyof the the United States of America in Malta, the Terre des Hommes International Federation and the Destination Unknown Campaign. For more information, log on to: www.kopin.org facebook.com/projectbodyless An upcoming exhibition at the Malta Maritime Museum will seek to wrest the phenomenon of migration away from reductive clichés 'Things Fall Apart, Documents of Home' by Teresa Sciberras 'Bodyless' will also incorporate a virtual reality game Labirinti, devised by Sandro Spina and Glen Calleja