James Balog's 'Chasing Ice'

. . . This is the memory of the landscape. That landscape is gone. 

It may never be seen again in the history of civilization. . . .

~ James Balog

Assigned by National Geographic to literally capture on film the effects of climate change on earth, environmental photographer James Balog, initially not a believer in climate change, became an "ice chaser". Following his 2005 trip to Iceland, his mind dramatically changed, Balog undertook an extraordinary multi-year project —"The Extreme Ice Survey" — to document with time-lapse cameras the alarmingly rapid melting of the Arctic's magnificent glaciers. (The EIS is ongoing.) The feature-length documentary that resulted, Chasing Ice, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2012. It is a stunning visual record of Balog's and his team's efforts to shoot destruction as it happened. It is evidence that we ignore to our peril.

Below is the official trailer for the film, which to date has won nearly two dozen film festival and cinematography awards, including the Environmental Media Association's 22nd Annual "Best Documentary Award".

Current screenings of the film around the United States and in Canada and the United Kingdom are listed here.

In this video from October 2012, Balog talks with Bill Moyers about his Arctic expedition:



James Balog Photography

Extreme Ice Survey Website

Information about Balog's book Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers (Rizzoli, 2012) is here.

Go here and here to see some of Balog's breathtaking stills.

Also see Balog's informative 20-minute TED Talk "Time-Lapse Proof of Extreme Ice Loss", first posted in 2009.

A list of resources on climate change is here. 

James Balog's Earth Vision Trust on FaceBook and Twitter

Chasing Ice on FaceBook and Twitter