The Last Iceberg, LIMA and Mr. Cool
I've just been sent a link (thanks Ann!) to a stunning set of photographs by Camille Seaman entitled "The Last Iceberg". They were taken at 78° North around Svalbard and Greenland in the Arctic, and at 78° South off the coast of Antarctica, as part of a larger series called "Melting Away".
In my (admittedly amateur) experience, it's surprisingly hard to take evocative photos of lumps of ice, but Camille has produced some utterly haunting works of art.
"Nick Cave once sang, 'All things move toward their end.' Icebergs give the impression of doing just that, in their individual way much as humans do; they have been created of unique conditions and shaped by their environments to live a brief life in a manner solely their own. Some go the distance traveling for many years slowly being eroded by time and the elements; others get snagged on the rocks and are whittled away by persistent currents. Still others dramatically collapse in fits of passion and fury.
The Last Iceberg chronicles just a handful of the many thousands of icebergs that are currently headed to their end. I approach the images of icebergs as portraits of individuals, much like family photos of my ancestors. I seek a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures."
Elsewhere, the BBC point to the most detailed map of Antarctica to date. LIMA (the Landsat Image Mosaic Of Antarctica) looks like an amazing resource, and better still, the image data is all in the public domain and freely available to anyone that wants it. It's a little slow right now, but I suspect that's due to geeks like me zooming in and out to our hearts' content…
Last up, I had the pleasure of having lunch today with the inimitable Kenton Cool (arguably Britain's top mountain guide, one of the world's top alpinists, and the only Briton to reach the summit of Everest five times). Sat in my local pub on a grey London afternoon with our pints of bitter, the polar icecaps and the high peaks of the Himalayas couldn't have seemed further away, but the conversation sparked some rather ambitious ideas. One of those moments, and one of those days that almost left me pinching myself, and that reminded me just how lucky I am to be doing this stuff for a living.
If you'd like your own dose of Kenton's magic, he's giving a talk at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday night (29 November, 7pm).
— Filed under Climate Change, Inspiration