here’s a pic of what Midjourney AI thinks an icehole is. I have another version of an icehole.
ok, no updates yet, but I definitely plan to add more to this post; stay tuned!
so what is the icehole of the year award?
Here’s the idea. Pick a person each year that has done the most to accelerate climate change, global heating, and thus the loss of ice on our planet. That person is the world’s biggest icehole. This is always going to be a tough call, because there are lots of people working hard to destroy the future of Earth and make life worse for future generations. But I gotta pick someone, so read on.
wait, what's an icehole again?
Hmm, rather than tell you outright, maybe there’s a better way. How about you go around telling whoever you run into: “You’re an icehole!” I think you’ll probably find out pretty quickly what it means in this context π€£
why now?
I was supposed to unveil this post at a very appropriate time, on Earth Day. However, tbh, Earth Day kind of snuck up on me. I’d planned this idea for a bit, but I got busy with my biggest project of the year so far and oops, Earth Day showed up right after and surprised me!
However, I did START on this post on Earth Day. It wasn’t quite 11:59 PM, but it was close. But that still counts, so I’m dating this post for Earth Day, dammit! Unfortunately, after writing a few sentences, I got tired and fell asleep π΄ So this post actually got unveiled on the day after. I guess all I can say is that I’ll do better next year…
hey icehole, so who's the big winner (loser)?
Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil is the ice sculpting secrets 2024 Icehole of the Year! Why, you ask? There’s quite a list actually, but the biggest reason is that he helms the largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world. And this is a company that has clearly been aware of the damage it does, for decades.
As the main driver of carbon emissions/climate change, it was clear that I had to choose someone from oil and gas as the inaugural Icehole of the Year. I could have chosen someone from Saudi Aramco (the actual biggest oil and gas company), but I feel like western-based companies like ExxonMobil and BP spend more time BSing their customers, trying to convince them, either that climate change isn’t real, or that they’re making meaningful changes in the way they do business to help wean us from our oil dependence and be good stewards of the planet.
I mean, instead of “British Petroleum,” BP used to pretend that BP meant “Beyond Petroleum.” But then they created the largest oil spill in history π¬ In that regard though, Exxon was the og. As a way to get people to think of ANYTHING other than Exxon Valdez, ExxonMobil would sometimes highlight its token efforts to preserve Asia’s tigers, since they’ve sometimes prominently featured a tiger in their branding.
Ironically, Mobil’s old logo was a Pegasus. If things keep going the way they are, ExxonMobil might have 2 imaginary animals in their logo history. Wait, no, sorry. That can’t happen, since we now live in a world with many Joe Exotics. For quite a while now, the number of captive tigers has been far higher than the number of tigers in the wild. So ExxonMobil’s paltry tiger preservation efforts didn’t yield much in the way of results. But their shareholders are happy, so it all works out, right? π€¬
wtf does an ice artist know about climate change?
Ok, I might spend a lot my time in a freezer making pretty ice cubes and stuff, but I actually know a bit more about climate change and sciency things than you’d think.
My educational background, before I got into ice sculpting, is in science: biology and chemistry. My first real job after graduation was in a clinical microbiology lab where one of my primary roles was to do research in a clinical environment. For a long time, I really thought I’d pursue a PhD in microbiology or end up in med school. Weirdly, my first 2 initials are DR, so I kind of had in my mind that it was my destiny to be some sort of doctor. Oops π¬
Obviously, thinking I coulda been a doctor doesn’t have a whole lot to do with knowing anything about climate change. But my science background has helped me understand what’s going on with our planet and select my sources for new information. Besides that, I’ve also had my own personal climate change experiences.
Back in 2005, like I do now, I lived in New Orleans. That year, we faced an unprecedented year for hurricanes (since beaten, unfortunately) and New Orleans was nearly destroyed by a devastating combination of bad/corrupt engineering and a wickedly powerful storm, Katrina. These sorts of storms aren’t impossible in a “normal” world, but they’re much less likely. Seeing multiple storms like Katrina since then only reinforces the idea that we’re living in a changing world that we’re creating.
Around the same time, in 2004, I was competing at the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks, at the end of February and the beginning of March, when the championships are held, can be brutally cold. Sometimes it gets to -30ΛF or so. I personally have been there when it’s -29. Fairbanks is known to get quite a bit colder in January, but that’s almost too cold for ice sculpting, so they wait until it warms up to mostly just below 0 π€£π₯Ά
Anyway, we were nearing the end of the competition and temperatures were soaring. The competition organizers were scrambling, trying to find dry ice in the winter in Alaska. If that’s not the definition of crazy, I don’t know what is! In the end, I believe it made it up to 49ΛF, WAY above freezing! Incidentally, the winning team had a winning method of dealing with the heat: wrap up their sculpture with foam and insulation until just before judging. (See #5 in the link.)
I honestly never thought that I’d see winter temperatures like that, so close to the Arctic Circle. However, the Arctic and far northern regions are feeling the effects of climate change MORE than lower latitudes. So it stands to reason that days with temperatures like that become more likely as climate change progresses. That Fairbanks experience, along with Katrina, was a bit of a wake up call for me regarding the reality of climate change.
is it hypocritical for an ice sculptor to call out climate change villains?
Yes, I contribute to climate change. The vast majority of people, especially in industrialized nations, make significant contributions to climate change in their daily activities. And ice sculptors make much of their income from high profile and usually high carbon events. So I’m guilty of being a bit of an icehole myself. I’m no Darren Woods, but I’m not innocent.
However, I don’t think it has to be that way and I’m working to minimize the damage that I do, since that’s what I can control. I recycle as much as possible, I don’t eat meat (yes, meat production is bad for climate change too) and my next vehicle, if it’s not fully electric, will at least be a hybrid. Beyond that, I’m looking for renewable options for my power needs, which are substantial, since it’s HOT π₯΅ in Louisiana, and I need to freeze π₯Ά Unfortunately, that’s tricky here. After all, we just recently voted in a climate change denier governor :/
Despite these issues, I believe that ice art (mine and others) can be a powerful symbol in the battle to protect our planet’s and our society’s future. Ice art is ephemeral and can easily illustrate how delicate our existence is. Plus, my medium is 100% recycled and 100% recyclable. It’s pretty much guaranteed to be recycled, actually!
The first step to fixing a problem is of course to acknowledge the problem. Many, if not most of us, have done that already. And many (probably not most, so far) have taken the next step: making concrete moves to fix the problem. I’m certainly not the best of these, but I’m doing what I can and supporting those that are leading the way. That means that I’m voting for leaders who are the most likely to make at least SOME progress towards a net zero future. And definitely NOT voting for those just promising business as usual.
The faster we can make this happen, the better off we’ll be in the latter half of this century and the better the world will be for future generations. The best way to make sure that we’re totally screwed though, is to do nothing π¬ Doing nothing, or doing worse than nothing, is what major iceholes do. So don’t be an icehole!
links and other random stuff
In the future, I’ll likely put the Icehole of the Year award to a vote. In fact, if you know of a really big icehole, you could nominate him or her in the comments below! I’ll consider realistic and reasonable options for the list next year. If I get some lame ideas, then I’ll either ignore them or come up with my own list. Again, don’t be an icehole π€£ Or maybe do, and you can be on the list π€
You could π€·ββοΈ (maybe, I don’t know) also find photos and info from this entry on the ice sculpting secrets Instagram account or the facebook page. ice sculpting secrets is also on TikTok, although videos there aren’t really tied to posts as much. You can comment on IG and fb as well as below. And if it won’t LET you comment below, then definitely comment on fb and/or IG. Thanks!
