When I respond as a photographer to our current climate change crisis I think about time. What seemed so far away only a few years ago is commanding a sense of urgency in what is now recognized as a global emergency. Climate change has been scientifically proven yet the profit-driven attitudes and actions of mankind, continuing to use more and more fossil fuels, persist without regard for the consequences.
My ongoing project “America’s Endangered Coasts” and 2016 book by the same name provides a critical investigation of the effects of sea level rise and tragically destructive hurricanes such as Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012) that is both factual and allegorical. I record the exact locations with GPS coordinates and elevations above sea level so that they can be revisited or even viewed on Google Earth and changes such as the continued effects of sea level rise or further development may be gauged with a high degree of accuracy. As time progresses the effects of sea level rise will cause perhaps the greatest human and financial cost of any of the many disastrous consequences of climate change. There may still be time to stabilize the global climate if and only if the current “business as usual” patterns of human activity are changed in the near future. It is my hope that my work will serve to raise awareness of the need for urgent action while underscoring the absurdity of our current state of denial when it comes to the dangers of the climate crisis.
