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Phew... The Calder Valley suddenly got hotter
PALM trees, jungle plants and exotic animals roaming West Yorkshire? It's the stuff of fantastical dreams.
But one Calderdale artist has imagined them as reality in a series of images illustrating what global warming could do to the region.
Photographer and painter Jason Elliott transformed the Calder Valley into a tropical paradise for a new exhibition at the Alternative Technology Centre in Hebden Bridge.
From a monsoon brewing over the local Co-op to monkeys perching on garden walls, the 43-year-old artist hopes the images will make people think about the consequences of energy use
"I have been involved in environmental projects for quite a while and the message is quite rightly serious," he said
"I wanted to draw attention to the fact that climate change is happening, but to get the message across in a more light-hearted way than we are used to.
"It's an extremely serious issue, particularly in areas like ours that can be prone to flooding.
"But it's good to engage people in a way that doesn't make them feel they are being preached to. If you do that, quite a number of people will tune it out."
After working in the United States and Spain for many years, Mr Elliott was inspired to blend his photographs of warm climates with images of the Yorkshire town where he now lives.
"One person did send me a letter saying the pictures undermine the seriousness of climate change and I do understand where he is coming from, but generally they have gone down extremely well. People say they are very thought-provoking.
"I got the idea after playing around with a Henri Rousseau painting of a tiger in the jungle. Everybody said 'Wow, how amazing', so I started using some of my own photographs I have taken around the world over the years."
The Hebden Bridge artist, whose day job is hosting a website advertising ethical jobs, said:
"Personally speaking, I would be quite happy with the idea of a tropical Yorkshire.
"I just would not want this to happen at the expense of developing countries being flooded because they can least afford to deal with the results of climate change. I would not want the King Penguins or any other animal to become extinct"
After visiting Mr Elliott's exhibition, Calder Valley MP Christine McCafferty has backed the Alternative Technology Centre's presentation of the changing climate in a new way.
"The images certainly do make our town look exotic and I think it is an excellent way to engage, inform and raise people's awareness of the issues without preaching to them," she said.
The Alternative Technology Centre, a not-for-profit organisation on the banks of the Rochdale Canal, is a place for volunteers to work with the local community on sustainable living. Centre co-ordinator Polly Webber said she was bowled over by the images when approached by Mr Elliott and staff agreed to host the exhibition.
"Jason's images come sideways at green issues," she said. "What's good about them is that they are not all doom and gloom, but they get people thinking."
The images are on show at the Alternative Technology Centre, in Hebden Bridge, until January.We've been here before
Jason Elliott's images may hark back to Yorkshire's distant past. The region's limestone areas are the legacy of an exotic era when much of the region was covered by a shallow tropical sea.
About 330 million years ago brightly coloured fish darted about in the tropical waters in scenes similar to the Caribbean today.
Coral reef islands were scattered around while large woodlice-like creatures, trilobites, crawled along the bottom.
As animals died and left behind their shells, layer upon layer of limestone was built up. Aided by earth movement, the rocks were uplifted to form the core of the Pennines. Rivers and glaciers wore away the soft limestone.
Today the old coral reefs stand proud as rounded hills between Clitheroe and Malham. The shallow water layers became pure light grey limestone, like that at Gordale Scar.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -8 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South
