IT WAS A WONDERFUL GREEN DAY IN ST PETERBURG - PART 1

The CO2 Green Drive Project has had a great 2016, with productions in both New York and St Petersburg. The two Cultural Capitols of the East and West. The St Petersburg production was done in collaboration with The Danish Cultural Institute, The St Petersburg Polytechnic University, The Leontief Centre and Nordic Days. It was called GREEN DAY, as can be seen in the above banner.

The above video gives a good description of what happened during the GREEN DAY festival. 

The above collage of images are from the various events that took place during the day, described in more detail below.

It was hard to not think of the band Green Day. The song "When I Come Around" goes well with the story of The CO2 Green Drive Project taking its time to finally be produced in St Petersburg, with many years underway. And now that it finally happened, it could not have been a better time for it to do so. 

If on Times Square in New York, there is no way around the Hermitage Square in St Petersburg

The Bike Parade Performance started on Hermitage Square, with a CO2 Bike Installation Sculpture. 

All the participants in the parade, laid out their bikes on the square in the shape of CO2.

The CO2 Installations Sculpture was then filmed from a Drone, as seen in above video still.

It was a pleasure to see all the ways the GREEN DRIVE design was used, including on all the staff as can be seen in above photo of some of the lovely volunteers. 

See the above video from Russian TV about the Bike Parade through the streets of St Petersburg.

The Bike Parade went from the centre city of St Petersburg, out to the location of Peter The Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University. The location of the start for the CO2 Green Drive GPS Tagging Performance with Electric and Hybrid Cars.



More about Peter The Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University in above video.

It was good to see that Nissan was involved again, as they also were in both New York and Hong Kong. The Silver Nissan Leaf, was a nice cosmic tip of the hat to Billy Name. Kronk!

It was however the first time a Fisker Karma had participated, even if the designer Henrik Fisker is Danish. The design is brilliant and we look forward to see what will be the next move from the Fisker Family.

Nice to also see a electric Mitsubishi, who was one of the first electric car players on the market. There is a story that says that they bought their technology from a Danish inventor named Thure Barsø Carnfeldt, who was the man behind the first Danish electric car "Hope Whisper" in 1982.

The CO2 GPS TAG Route was created by the local producers, and gave the participants a lovely tour around St Petersburg. 

After the CO2 Tagging Performance, the vehicles lined up in the shape of CO2 on the main square of the Polytechnic University.



Once the CO2 formation was in place, the installation was documented by a Drone, as can be seen above.

The man who have been behind and supported The CO2 Green Drive Project, from the first time he heard about the idea in 2008, is then General Secretary of The Danish Cultural Institute, now Director of the St Petersburg office - Finn Andersen. In above image he is on stage giving his message of Climate Awareness and Thanks to St Petersburg and the participating partners, holding a Danish flag.

Lined up behind Mr Andersen on stage, was the different partners - the Nordic ones with their flags in hand. 

The President of Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University Mikhail Petrovich Fedorov holding a speech on main stage

The Green Day Flash Mob Dance

Brilliant violin music on stage by local artist!

The Mascots attending the Festival, was some kind of Birds with Academic hats that entertained and did their part to create good and positive energy.

They were of course also perfect to take selfies with!

The Exhibition of Environmentally Friendly Vehicles was held in the park on the University grounds, that was in the middle of surrendering to autumn, green going into orange and red. Having the Fisker Karma in the exhibition, certainly confirmed that these Green Cars can also be a design object and rather hot, if you ask me.

In the exhibition was also the Russian 3 wheeled electric BRAVO - EGO 13

However, the Electric Car that was the greatest pleasure to see, was the EL LADA. And no, it is not a Spanish car, it is the Electric version of the Russian classic car brand LADA. 

It would be wonderful to see the original classic version converted to Electric!

It was good to see that there was some intense interest among the visitors and many students at the University. 

As part of the activities was the Official opening of Russia's first Solar powered Electric Car Charging Station. There are are currently a handful of Electric Charging Stations in St Petersburg, but plans are being made to increase this number in 2017.

Mr. Andersen was part of the opening ceremony, together with the The President of Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University Mikhail Petrovich Fedorov, when the Green Ribbon was cut.

The first Electric Car to try out the Power of the Sun into it's battery was of course the Silver Leaf.

The Solar Powered Charging Station was built in collaboration with the University and various local partners and placed close to the Campus.

As part of the festival, there were various local NGO's and organisations that had an opportunity to showcase and talk about their activities. More and more people worldwide have opened up to the fact that eating a non-meat dairy is a brilliant way of taking care of their body and mind. Well, the most important intent in talking about these issues in connection to the climate, is the fact that production of meat has a huge negative impact on the climate. Much bigger than all CO2 emitted by combustion engine cars.

More and more children have become aware of the fact that the meat they eat comes from a dead animal. This is creating a new generation of vegetarian and vegans. Their empathy towards animals will be part of reducing the future generations CO2 emissions.

There was screenings of various short films in the park, where the above scene is from the short film made by Jonathan Kronborg Grevsen in connection to the WAVE project. 

In above still from the short film about the whole Green Day Festival, Yrs Truly is seen holding my hand in the air, right next to an image of Croatian Electric Master Nikola Tesla as part of my presentation. Nikola Tesla has been a huge inspiration to the me, ever since I got the book  "Tesla - Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney, by my good Croatian friend and artist Anton Perich in 2005. Tesla has always been of inspiration to him, and his work is Very electric! 

The very fact that Tesla over a hundred years ago, had found the solution to free energy for the population of the world, is mind blowing. Then the big question is, why have this not been implemented? 

In the above photo, taken in Hong Kong during a presentation at the Design Society Denmark booth, there were several sharp observations on why Tesla has been taken out of the history books as a hero and replaced with Henry Ford.

Tesla has always been a national hero in his home region. His face and inventions was on the former Jugoslavia's 5000000 Dinara bill.

And on Serbia's current 100 Dinara bill.

In a New York newspaper on January 7th, 74 years ago.

He was featured in the Time-Line installation as part of the "Autotopia" art exhibition at EXIT ART, along with the Tesla Roadster that came out in 2006 from Tesla Motors, and the Movie Poster for the now classic Documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" by Chris Paine. 

An Orange Tesla Roadster was also exhibited in the main gallery of EXIT ART, as an art object.

And now that we are going down the Tesla memory lane, the above image is of the first time we exhibited the Tesla Roadster at the Roskilde Festival in 2009. To the right of it, is Jan Magnusson's Bio-ethanol Le Mans car, and to the left Christian Marcus's classic white Danish Electric Ellert.

To go back to Green Day in St Petersburg again, there was a whole tent dedicated to Tesla Inspired experiences. In above a Electro Magnetic Glass Ball, that could be interacted with by the visitors.

Electric Magnetism is a curious concept and the fact that our human energy can interact with visible electric magnetism is rather magic.

The final performance of the Green Day, was by some Tesla Ninja Jedi Warriors. 

It was with great pleasure to see and experience the St Petersburg production of Green Day - CO2 Green Drive, and Thanks to everyone that helped make it happen!

Read about Part 2 of the activities in the fall of 2016 HERE!

Read more about the experience, written by Astrid Rifbjerg from the Danish Cultural Institute in St Petersburg on their site HERE

DA BIKE IN DAKAR - CO2 GREEN DRIVE GOES TO AFRICA

In Dakar the choice of bicycles as main means of transport was both relevant and strategically sound. While electric, hybrid and biofuel vehicles are now penetrating markets in the developed world these vehicles are not yet common reality in Senegal and, yet, the challenges of climate change as a result of high carbon emissions and mobility are no secret. For these reasons Earth Day provided a unique occasion to engage local officials, businesses, NGO’s and the general public and raise awareness of alternative vehicles likely to address climate change challenges as well as those of mobility. In this respect CO2 Green Drive in Dakar managed to secure a number of partnerships including local NGO’s, institutions and cultural entities focusing on sustainability. 

The CO2 Green Drive in central Dakar included 130 bicyclists and 25 young people from the Dakar VTT/Rollers Association participating on rollerblades and mountain bikes. As seen above, the convoy was headed by a MC escort.

Making one of the turns in the "CO2" route in the streets of Dakar.

And the rollerbladers from VTT/Rollers Association

In Dakar the Danish Cultural Institute was represented by the above Secretary General, Finn Andersen, and the Director of Strategy for CO2 Green Drive, Aziz Fall, who is also a native of Senegal. The celebration of Earth Day in Dakar on April 22^nd began at the esplanade of the City Hall where LEAD Francophone Africa, Enda Tiers Monde, representatives from the Mayor’s Office as well as a number of other local organizations were present.

Above Mariama Guldagger from Danish NGO Cykler til Senegal was also present, singing a song and giving her blessings to the vision of sustainable transportation in Dakar.

To go back in time a couple of months before Earth Day and the above event in Dakar, a container was packed with Bikes in Denmark as part of Cykler til Senegal's mission of bringing bikes to Senegal.

The day began with an about 60 km bicycle ride between Copenhagen and Skibby by Aziz and Michael from CO2 Green Drive and Kristoffer and partner from Free Bikes. The bikes they rode on was put into the container and donated to Cykler to Senegal and their cause.

A similar bike ride was also done between Casamance and Dakar in connection to the Earth Day events. The ride featured a convoy of ten courageous members of the farmers association AAJAC/COLUFIFA that completed the approximately 350 km long route from Casamance to Dakar in five days. The oldest member was 64 year old Issa Diallo with the youngest member being the above 17 year old Aminata Diao who was also the only female member of the convoy. 

“I feel ten years younger” , Issa Diallo remarked upon arrival in Dakar. “I wanted to show that sport is a healthy and important part of life – also for women. Women can do as much as men in this respect”, Aminata added in an interview to Mika from Danish NGO Cykler til Senegal that funded the bike ride and helped organize it.

Aziz and Finn was on TV, radio and various other local media outlets, along with taking meetings with an array of people to talk about the plans for future collaborations and exchanges between Denmark and Senegal. The above image is of Aziz and recently elected Minister of Culture in Senegal, the legendary musician Youssou N'Dour.