The fight for peace in a world filled with noise pollution
Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2025 4:52 am
In 1980, Gordon Hampton was driving to the University of Wisconsin-Madison from his hometown of Seattle. The 27-year-old graduate student felt very tired while driving. Deciding to take a nap, he got out of the car and lay down in a cornfield. A thunderstorm began, but Hampton stayed put.
“Then I caught everything: the currents of air, the movement of insects, the drops of rain, the echoes of thunder. My eyes were closed, but it seemed to me that I could see all the creatures that were always somewhere nearby, although I had not noticed them before. All sounds suddenly became equal to me, and I was stunned by this realization.” — Gordon Hampton.
After the student dropped out and gave up his degree in colombia number data phytopathology, the science of plant diseases. Now 67, Hampton is an acoustic ecologist who studies sound in residential spaces. He also founded Quiet Parks International (QPI), a California-based nonprofit organization that:
Checks sound levels in rural and urban spaces.
The least noisy places are given the status of “quiet park.” In this way, the organization draws the attention of society and the authorities to the problem of noise pollution and develops ecotourism.
And tells people about the importance of silence.
After leaving university, Hampton got a job as a delivery boy in Seattle and began collecting for a Neumann KU-81i microphone (which mimics the shape of the human head to better simulate hearing) and a Nagra IV-S reel-to-reel tape recorder. To raise the necessary amount, he had to deliver more than 10,000 orders.
In the late 1980s, the Lindbergh Foundation funded those working in technological and environmental innovation. In 1989, Hampton received a grant from it, quit his job as a courier, and devoted himself full-time to exploring the soundscapes of nature.
Three years later, he began traveling the world, recording the sounds of dawn on six continents. His work became the subject of the PBS documentary “Vanishing Dawn Chorus,” which earned him an Emmy Award for “outstanding individual achievement.”
Hampton was noticed by Microsoft — and from 1992 he collaborated with the company for
“Then I caught everything: the currents of air, the movement of insects, the drops of rain, the echoes of thunder. My eyes were closed, but it seemed to me that I could see all the creatures that were always somewhere nearby, although I had not noticed them before. All sounds suddenly became equal to me, and I was stunned by this realization.” — Gordon Hampton.
After the student dropped out and gave up his degree in colombia number data phytopathology, the science of plant diseases. Now 67, Hampton is an acoustic ecologist who studies sound in residential spaces. He also founded Quiet Parks International (QPI), a California-based nonprofit organization that:
Checks sound levels in rural and urban spaces.
The least noisy places are given the status of “quiet park.” In this way, the organization draws the attention of society and the authorities to the problem of noise pollution and develops ecotourism.
And tells people about the importance of silence.
After leaving university, Hampton got a job as a delivery boy in Seattle and began collecting for a Neumann KU-81i microphone (which mimics the shape of the human head to better simulate hearing) and a Nagra IV-S reel-to-reel tape recorder. To raise the necessary amount, he had to deliver more than 10,000 orders.
In the late 1980s, the Lindbergh Foundation funded those working in technological and environmental innovation. In 1989, Hampton received a grant from it, quit his job as a courier, and devoted himself full-time to exploring the soundscapes of nature.
Three years later, he began traveling the world, recording the sounds of dawn on six continents. His work became the subject of the PBS documentary “Vanishing Dawn Chorus,” which earned him an Emmy Award for “outstanding individual achievement.”
Hampton was noticed by Microsoft — and from 1992 he collaborated with the company for