Changing Antarctica

We – the human race – are changing Antarctica. Climate change is hard to see and feel and even harder to capture in photographs. But climate change is measurable and established scientists all over the world agree not only that climate change is real but that our usual way of life is in danger if we do not make drastic changes. They tell us that over the past 50 years the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the most rapidly warming parts of our planet. This is causing Antarctica’s physical landscape to change as well as the conditions for all species living there. These photographs show what Antarctica looks like today. In Antarctica, what I saw was a beautifully stark, harsh environment. A drip by drip transformation of a moving environment filled with life. Antarctica is feeling the effects of climate change now. Glaciers are retreating, the Southern Ocean is warming, the ice sheet is melting and more icebergs are calving off the ice sheet. Life is affected. Krill, that live under the ice sheets is diminishing. Adélie penguins are challenged by fewer food resources and by changes to their nesting sites. Certain seal species are also seeing a decline in numbers due to changes in food resources. Even algae and plankton, at the bottom of the food chain, are decreasing due to warming of the Southern Ocean. You wouldn’t know it being there or looking at these photographs but data tells us that all of these changes are happening. Changing Antarctica is one chapter in my long-term project about climate change that is based on and informed by scientific facts. My hope is that these images will make you pause and consider what impact climate change is having around the globe and how life, human and otherwise, is being affected. Antarctica’s ice sheet contains 90% of the world’s fresh water. If it all were to melt it would raise sea levels around 60 meters. By then, there will be little doubt climate change is real.