The Soundscape of our Lives

The cityscape is full of sounds. Although the sounds I long to hear and point out to my children are the sounds of bird calls, in a single minute pause yesterday we heard: a train whistle, airplane, various birds (chickadees and crows) and the hum of cars passing on the highway a block and a half away. It reminded me of how far away the city is from quiet and the acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton's search for one square inch of silence. He found the quietest place in the United States to be in the Hoh Rainforest of the Olympic National Park where you can hear only a diverse natural soundscape combined with substantial periods of natural quiet. http://onesquareinch.org/

Hempton's organization now strives to maintain this quiet. As a member of an urban community I wonder what we can do to help quiet the city. My first thought is to move lightly by foot travel and bikes as often as possible and use people powered tools to maintain yards (not loud gas mowers like I still have). Can you think of others?

Over our wonderful larger parks I also wonder if there is a way to create no fly zones. Most recently I was walking in Seward Park when I noticed there is significant small aircraft that flies overhead. Is this necessary? If it has an effect on me, what is all this noise pollution on the wildlife that lives there?

Despite all the noise, it appears that we can stop and listen for the unique and individual sounds that surround us. A favorite activity that I have done with grade school students is to stop along a forest path and do a sound map, where students document the sounds that they hear around them. Students are often amazed at all the "noise" you can hear even in a semi-remote place.

We can also learn to appreciate the sounds in our communities by making recordings and let those tell our stories. I once taught a lesson where I had recorded sounds from a walk around our city's International District. I had students stop and listen and write a story of what they heard through the sound.

Sound is the background of our lives, but as a mother I want to pay attention to the impact it has on my children and community. Do the sounds we hear make us feel like people and animals are vibrant and healthy or are they stifling, distancing, and a nuisance? Can a smiling face waving at us from beside the sound make a difference? I think so.