Walk Softly – Arcadia Earth Toronto

by Geoffrey Carpentier

From time to time I stumble onto an opportunity which is so incredible, I want to share it with others. Usually this focuses on some moment in time where I watched something in nature doing something incredible. This time, the origin was different and arose as my wife and I wanted to take our grand kids on a special outing to Toronto, to do something both fun and hopefully educational. When my wife told me we were going on this Arcadia adventure, my first thought was, “I don’t want to go to an arcade, it holds no interest for me and, besides, I really didn’t want to encourage this type of activity for my grand kids.” Well, was I wrong!

This is not an arcade at all but an immersive, educational, climate-focused experience. Their website (www.arcadiaearth.ca) describes their mantra as “Arcadia Earth is a multi-sensory journey which combines creative art installations and exciting technology to inspire visitors to take action towards a more sustainable future. This immersive experience showcases the beauty of our planet and the impact of human actions on the environment.” Hmm, is this just another doomsday platform, where all the worst we can imagine is exaggerated to become truth, at least in the eyes of the creators, or is this a realistic exploration of the status of the condition of the Earth and where we stand in our fight to save it? Thankfully, in my humble opinion, it is the latter. That doesn’t mean it isn’t filled with statistics and pictures, it is, and it needs that to drive home its message. The premise is simple: provide the observer with hard facts which realistically represent the status of the Earth; pose questions or options, to allow them to draw conclusions; and then finish with suggestions, to encourage them to adopt these actions, to make the world a little better.

To achieve this, the mechanism of information delivery is electronic and virtual, through an app they created which one must download on your phone. This app allows you to scan various embedded symbols in the exhibits, to reveal fascinating and sometimes disheartening facts about our environment and our impacts. If one takes the time to read these snippets, one can learn a great deal in a short time! Add to this the entertainment value, as we explore the exhibits. In one case, as we learned about the sea, virtual octopi seem to miraculously be drifting by our faces, thanks to the technology. So that leads to education disguised as entertainment which may be a winning formula for our distracted society.

The exhibit features eight portals, to explain the lessons they want us to consider. The first one, One Drop, focuses on rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification and coral bleaching, and the impacts of humans on these fragile ecosystems. In Your Hands is a rather compelling exhibit, focusing on micro-plastics, where they come from (e.g. single use plastics & takeout containers) and how they negatively impact everything on Earth, including us! Bee Thankful, of course, focuses on pollinators of all kinds, not just bees, and introduces the subject of food security. One part of this display was a ‘scented’ exhibit, where you could actually smell what an active farm might reveal, what fresh flowers offer, and even what healthy dirt smells like. An incredible sniff and savour experience!

Fishtainable is all about fishing, understandably, which included a feature where an American artist, Pamela Moulton, has created an exhibit out of castaway fishing gear, called ghost gear. The impacts of some harmful fishing techniques, such as bottom trawling, are highlighted.

E-waste Generator shows the shocking amount of e-waste we create, and describes how we got here. To demonstrate the magnitude of the issue, Canadian artist, Benjamin von Wong took hundreds of pieces of discarded keyboards, mice and computer towers and created an incredible and impactful display from our castaways. One key focus of this portal is to emphasize the right to repair, rather than discard unwanted electronics. This is a concept we must adopt, if we’re ever going to solve this problem.

Regeneration describes mistakes of the past and offers concepts for a healthier future, while From Within outlines the fundamentals of biodiversity, habitat impacts, and the outcomes for species at risk.

Finally, Every Action Has a Reaction leads us on a personal journey, where we can explore our own real carbon footprint and are offered a mechanism to learn how we can really make a difference, through their Every Action Matters portal.

I found, I never lost interest from start to finish, as the message was so cleverly presented and was not at all repetitive. I consider myself well-informed, as far as the condition of our Earth is concerned, but I learned a lot when I travelled along this climate-focused journey. I think you will too! One last thought – where does the name Arcadia come from? Arcadia refers to an idyllic, peaceful, pastoral paradise, a vision of unspoiled nature and a tranquil lifestyle. Makes perfect sense!

Geoff Carpentier is a published author, expedition guide and environmental consultant. Visit Geoff on-line on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.