karmanaut / viridian / ecohazard warning sigil

Viridian Greenhouse Disaster Symbol Contest -
Ecohazard Warning Sigil

Competition Entry for the Viridian Movement

Out of sheer Viridian laziness, I have simply adapted a portion of my own earlier design (under advisement from the Australian Rabbits curia sect) for a warning sign for internal-combustion devices, which I previously stole from the Nort Insignia from the Rogue Trooper comics. Reduce, Re-use, Recycle; create the Viridian Leisure Society.

Here, the sigil by itself. As you can see, it's a lightning bolt striking from a black cloud, across the earth. The implication is global weather violence. The design's primary application is a stencil. Even when used in other applications, the stencil artefacts remain, as a reminder of its primary purpose (see the Viridian Note by Pope-Emperor Sterling).

Above, the sigil as a military uniform patch. The Viridian future has room for many shades of green, including military green. No longer fighting wars between states, the Viridian Model Army fights for our planetary survival.

This shape also emerged from the experiment. I like it.

i don't think I should win this contest, i think that this design (which is where i stole the ECOHAZARD tag from) or this design should. Although there are some other good entries too. However, I do think that I should win the award for best Viridian Military Sigil.

Oh, and in answer to G Sarab - yes, copyright is un-viridian. However, it exists, we ignore it at our peril. Your comment :

First I tried denial. The Manifesto says "make it free to others who have a similar will to live that freedom." Everyone knows corporations don't care about that kind of freedom, so why should I hand them the value of my creativity?

When you release something as Free Software, you distribute it with a license restriction. That restriction has only one end - to prevent others from making the content non-free. Let me demonstrate. I hereby declare that this web page is distributed under the Open Content License.

G. Sarab again:

Besides, my copyright statement obviously implied NON-commercial use is permitted. I should just add an express statement that non-commercial use is encouraged.

There is nothing in Open Source or in the Viridian Movement that opposes commercial activity. Only proprietary, non-free activity. If someone takes my open content, puts it in a book, and publishes it for money, fine. It does me no harm - information is not like a traditional commodity, where scarcity=value. For information, proliferation=value. And because of the viral nature of Open Source, the publisher must accept that I may demand a free electronic copy of the text of that book. And further, that i may take my copy of their book, modify it (or not), make a thousand copies, and sell them myself. That's what they agreed to, when they used my Open content. Freedom cuts both ways; in the end, It Works.

Copyright was a good idea; but Intellectual Property is Theft.

The effects of the Greenhouse are subtle and manifold. You may, for instance, find yourself drowning or losing your roof. Your streets are full of gushing smoke from distant forests. Dams break. Glaciers vanish. Wildlife mysteriously disappears. Your ghetto has a multi-day electrical blackout as summer heat spikes fill the emergency rooms. You might even go broke from rising insurance rates.

There's no easy and immediate way for a passer-by to connect these many disasters to their coherent source: the Greenhouse Effect. Imagine that you were puking and losing your hair. A handy Nuclear Radiation symbol would make causation quite clear. An outbreak of cultured anthrax downwind from a BioHazard symbol would be no big mystery, either. But a Greenhouse Disaster lacks a simple, striking logo.

Since the health authorities are a little remiss in this matter, it's up to eager amateurs to make the invisible visible. This situation requires some very simple stencil, a wordless survival warning like a hobo's sign, that can be quickly chalked or sprayed onto a typical wrecked bridge or drowned beachhouse. This symbol should convey the useful message that this mishap is, in fact, no mishap. It is part-and-parcel of an ongoing Greenhouse crisis.

This simple, multinational symbol should be especially suited for use in the Third World, where literacy rates are low, communication is spotty, infrastructure is limited and disasters are especially spectacular.