Fortune Teller is a sound and interactive performance combining contemporary classical music, symbolism, and environmental activism. Food of War’s Harriet Poznansky will play the violin around Proposition’s Venue space, whilst handing out fortune cookies filled with facts regarding biodiversity and the climate crisis specifically in the United Kingdom. The dramatic melody, accompanied with the undeniable reality of climate urgency, will create an eerie effect. The messages inside the cookies will be the following:
• More than 40 million birds have disappeared from the UK's skies since 1970 according to The RSPB due to farming, building and industry.
• In the UK, the most shocking biodiversity declines are across agricultural sites.
• As the UK is made of islands, it is more difficult for species that have been driven to local extinction to repopulate the country.
• The UK only has 50.3% of biodiversity left intact which is one the worst figures globally.
• The pollinator index in the UK is down 30% compared to a baseline in 1980.
• 31% of people surveyed stated they were not aware of a threat to biodiversity in the UK.
• The red squirrel, natterjack toad, and turtle dove are all in peril in the UK countryside.
• The biggest driver of biodiversity loss in the UK is converting and managing wild land for agriculture.
• According to the Woodland Trust, one third of all woodland wildlife species are in decline.
• According to the Woodland Trust, one in 10 woodland wildlife species are at risk of extinction.
• 15% of the UK species are now threatened with extinction (revealed in the last G7 meeting).
