In October 2012 I took part to Ars Poetica poetry festival in Bratislava. It was exceptionally warm, it felt like summer. It crossed my mind to start asking my new friends weather they notice effects of climate change in in their neigbourhood or in they life. The answers were so memorable that I started to play with the idea of a book that would consist solely of weather and climate memories from people coming from different parts of the world. 

The first version of this idea come out already after a couple of months. It became the last part (or second last, depending on how you count) of my one year project “12” – an attempt to “live with poetry” that is: to publish twelve books during one year. This book, Joulukuu (in English: December) was a collection of answers to the following question: 

How has the climate changed in the place where you live? Do you see the climate change in the place where you are from? 

After the year 2012 I´ve became convinced that I should continue collecting these memories, observations and stories; that Joulukuu should become a permanent, constantly updating work. The climate crisis is becoming more and more acute all the time. At the same time the world is becoming more and more “global” and international. Also my life and circle of friends has become much more international while my world has become more and more worldwide. The concept of ever growing Joulukuu is very simple: each time I make new foreign friends I ask them to write a short text answering the questions above. I publish the text in this website both in the language it was written and in a Finnish translation. When the edition of the old Joulukuuis sold out there will be new updated editions of the original book. The original book was printed on demand which makes it possible to update the edition repeatedly.  

I hope this “New December” will become an ever growing polyphonous monument of concern. At the same time it will depict the globalized and internationalised world though one person´s social network. It feels good to let this work become personal, it is a sort of undirect travel diary.