Gordon Hempton is a self-professed “sound tracker.” What that means is he travels the world recording vanishing sounds. As it happens, one of the most endangered sounds in the world is silence. That is to say, natural silence. In the video above Hempton claims he may have found the quietest place in the United States in the Hoh Rainforest in Washington’s Olympic National Park. And, he says, it’s only one square inch.
To be clear, Hempton doesn’t mean silence in absolute terms. What he means is an area devoid of any unnatural sounds or ambient noise – think airplanes, air conditioners, cars, refrigerators, telephone wires. The man’s made it his mission to preserve the one square inch he discovered in 2005, but that tiny space is a metaphor for our natural spaces more generally.
“Silence is a part of our human nature, which can no longer be heard by most people,” reads the One Square Inch of Silence Foundation’s website, of which Hempton is the founder. “Close your eyes and listen for only a few seconds to the world you live in, and you will hear this lack of true quiet, of silence. Refrigerators, air conditioning systems, and airplanes are a few of the things that have become part of the ambient sound and prevent us from listening to the natural sounds of our environment. It is our birthright to listen, quietly and undisturbed, to the natural environment and take whatever meanings we may from it. By listening to natural silence, we feel connected to the land, to our evolutionary past, and to ourselves. One Square Inch of Silence is in danger, unprotected by policies of the National Park Service, or supported by adequate laws. Our hope is that by listening to natural silence, it will help people to become true listeners to their environment, and help us protect one of the most important and endangered resources on the planet, silence.”
You can listen to one minute of what this one inch of silence sounds like here.
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