The Story is in the Ice

The bigger picture is the picture that we always told to consider.  Chasing Ice is a documentary by Jeff Orlowski which focuses on the photography of James Balog and the story which it tells.  Balog believes that is not numbers or figures that can convince people, it is visual evidence that will make people see and listen. Balog wanted to capture the affects of global warming and he believed that capturing ice and the melting of ice would be the best way to get an audience to believe in the impacts of global warming. There have been more rare events occurring and most scientists attribute these events to warming global temperatures. The photography gives us a glimpse of what we are having to face on planet Earth.

One of the locations where Balog decided to take pictures was Greenland.  In Greenland he witnessed the glaciers calving which is a normal process in which glaciers split.  However, one thing he pointed out was that the whole ice sheet of Greenland is thinning.  Within one hour of a location in which they decided to take photos they witnessed a an ice chunk the size of a few football fields collapse and rotate.  In total they installed about a dozen cameras throughout Greenland, about 5 in Iceland, 5 in Alaska, and 2 in Montana.  

Balog describes some of the dangerous conditions in which he had to go through.  For example, the water in the areas where he works is so cold that in it he can only function for about 5 minutes until his body starts taking a toll.  There are also technical failures such as problems with timers which setback real work from getting done.  While some cameras turned out to be unreliable others were able to take breathtaking photos.  One thing Balog noted was that many of these landscapes may not occur again.  One glacier, for example, has retreated nearly 11 miles and has thinned by about the height of the Empire State Building.  In the glaciers of Greenland was Cryoconite which is a combination of natural dust from central Asia, carbon, and algae.  This forms a black substance on glaciers.  Since it is black it absorbs more of the sunlight thus warming the surrounding area.  Eventually, these holes get bigger and melt more of the ice.  Melting such as this can increase sea levels by 1.5-3 feet of water.

Balog captured just how much of a difference there has been in glaciers in short periods of time.  Using time lapses we can see how deflation slowly takes place.  Rivers are formed and the rocks and ice tumble and the heat cause them to melt away.  Some glaciers are retreating so rapidly that the cameras had to be re- positioned because the glacier moved beyond the frame of the camera.  As Balog says glaciers are like a canary in a coal mine.  They are foretelling the deterioration of the environment.

It is true that some glaciers are getting bigger.  However in the movie they use the example of the Yukon Glaciers.  Within 50 years only 4 of the about 1400 glaciers got bigger, over 300 dissipated, and nearly all the rest got smaller.  Balog's team was able to capture the biggest calving event ever recorded on camera which lasted nearly 75 minutes.  

One of the main problems, according to Balog, is perception.  Not enough people recognize what is happening and he is attempting to spread the message using pictures.