“Carbon Punishment” is a piece on the dangers of carbon emissions on the ecosystem, specifically the ocean, and it’s made up of two parts: a mural, created by Butler, and accompanying heavy metal tracks by musicians Ale Campos and Eric Hernandez.
“Ocean Acidification is essentially the sea’s version of what we’re experiencing in our atmosphere,” Butler wrote in a press release. “As carbon emissions shift the temperature and pH of the oceans, there’s a domino effect that depletes the ecology of the sea. Underwater habitats are lost, and food webs starve-away.”
The Shine Mural Festival is being co-presented by Pangeaseed foundation’s ocean advocacy project Sea Walls. It was this group that challenged Butler to paint about Ocean Acidification.
“Normally my mural work skews friendly, but communicating grim topics requires something more gnarly,” Butler said.
The music for “Carbon Punishment” is supported by canned water company, Liquid Death, an environmentally-friendly business (Liquid Death recently tapped St. Pete punk band Wolf-Face to do a commercial).
“Much like our lyrical topics of ocean acidification and death, the songs aren’t pretty or polished —they’re unforgiving and drenched in anger-driven riffs,” Campos added.
The music can be found at carbonpunishment.bandcamp.com and the mural is located at the intersection of 1st Ave N and 11 St N, in St. Pete, just a block away from Green Bench Brewing Co. in the Edge District.
Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2020.