Miranda Richardson rings out the bells for International Day of Biodiversity in support of the MEMO project

22 May 2009

Miranda is tolling the MEMO (Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory) bell in the South Churchyard on Friday, 22^nd May at 1.45pm. A chain of bells will ring out from Portland to London ending with the Great Bell of Bow. Bells are also being rung in US, India and Brazil.

MEMO is a project to build a sublimely beautiful, ongoing memorial commemorating all the species to have perished in the Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction, on the Isle of Portland in Dorset. The bell will sit on top. It has the rarely bestowed official endorsement of the Royal Society.

At the moment no comprehensive record of the images and stories of historically extinct creatures exists in one place, in any medium. MEMO will redress the balance. It will be a circular stone enclosure carved on the inside with images of all plant and animal species known to have gone extinct in modern times.

The MEMO bell will be at St Paul’s Cathedral until 21^st June alongside an exhibition of carvings for MEMO. A new image - of the Great Auk which used to nest on Portland - will be carved on Mondays and Tuesdays at the Cathedral.