An acoustic ecologist is a listener who is aware that sound is information. It's information because it's created … - Gordon Hempton

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I think that the world is in the middle of a huge transition that we have to make to renewable energy. We have to transition away from fossil fuels very, very quickly.

Gordon Hempton

An acoustic ecologist is a listener who is aware that sound is information. It's information because it's created by events, events produce sound, and that sound has all kinds of data, if you will, that conveys what event occurred, what the materials were, whether it was sudden, slow, loud, in what direction. And because it is information, we can think of it as a message. The acoustic ecologist studies information systems that are both intentional and sometimes wild.

Acoustic, Kind, Produce, Study, Sudden, Thinking

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Quiet is the element of discerning what is essential.

Discerning, Element, Essential, Nature, Quiet

I would say that to listen is to become aware. To become truly informed. You will discover whatever you do.

Aware, Become, Discover, Informed, Listen, Say

I believe that our distant nomadic ancestors came forward and survived because they could hear distant, faint birdsong as an acoustic navigational beacon, if you will, and by moving toward the birdsong, they were able to find places with shelter, food, and water, and a prosperous growing region. Indeed, birdsong is the number one indicator of habitats prosperous to humans.

Believe, Birdsong, Hear, Moving, Water

Noise pollution is basically defined as the presence of simple information that makes it impossible to hear all the other more delicate - and often more important - information. Noise pollution creates, if you will, dumb environments. Our industrial areas, many of our downtown urban areas, are dumb acoustic environments. Very simple, very loud, often unhealthy.

Downtown, Dumb, Important, Loud, Simple

We're all born listeners. And as a result of our modern lives, and living in a world that has less meaning than the natural world that we evolved to hear, we learn to think of listening not as taking in all the information with equal value, which is the definition of true listening. In our modern world, we tend to think of listening as focusing our attention on what is important and filtering out everything else.

Filtering, Hear, Important, Listening, Thinking