James Balog’s team photographed a chunk of glacier ice — so large it could fit 3,000 U.S. Capitol buildings inside it — breaking off into the ocean. 

It was the largest break off of glacier ice into the ocean ever caught on film, and Balog showed the footage to Congress. But not even that could convince all politicians of climate change, as some use ideology to back their beliefs instead of knowledge, Balog said.

‘It is trench warfare at this point,’ he said.

Balog, an environmentalist and photographer, spoke Tuesday to a full audience in Hendricks Chapel about the negative consequences that arise from humans affecting climate change. Balog’s presentation, ‘When Mountains Move: Chronicle of a Changing Planet,’ was part of the Syracuse University Lectures Series.

Balog emphasized the difficulty he said he faces getting the attention of politicians and convincing them to pass legislation on climate change.

He said that although the human world is more interconnected than ever before and technology is more advanced, these advancements are not being used to protect the environment.

‘Humans are the dominant agents of change in the world today,’ Balog said. 

The world is becoming warmer, and changes in precipitation patterns are happening because energy consumption is rapidly increasing and producing excess amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, Balog said. He said more carbon dioxide is created than the atmosphere can absorb, causing unnatural variation in carbon dioxide levels. 

The negative effects of carbon dioxide, such as depleting glaciers and the rapid increase of wildfires, came to life through Balog’s photographs, projected throughout the lecture on a high-definition screen. Annual global temperature trends are increasing and prove climate change is not an abstraction, he said. 

‘This is not something that is happening in the future,’ Balog said. ‘It is happening now.’ 

In his study, Balog used 39 Nikon cameras to take photos throughout the day at 22 different glaciers around the world for the Extreme Ice Survey. Balog’s survey made breakthroughs in understanding climate change through the study of glacial melting.

Currently, 31 cameras are photographing Balog’s environmental area of study, mainly concentrated in Iceland and Greenland, he said. 

In one particular situation, a mountain in Bolivia was completely covered with ice, and three years later the glacier was completely gone, he said. Effects like this matter, Balog said, because the world receives water from glacial melts each year as glaciers re-form and re-melt. 

But with no more glacial formation, there is no more melting, meaning there is consequently less water available, he said. 

Balog said it is now official Pentagon policy to recognize climate change, which is an issue that needs to be handled for the long term, he said. 

‘There is no superman we should be waiting for,’ Balog said. ‘We need to reach a higher step of realization of the world.’

So far, Balog said he is the only person to deal with the policy and scientific issues of climate change using a form of art. He believes he is doing the best he can to show the world these devastating changes, he said. 

‘We actually have the economic means to fix this and the policy means to fix this, and we also have the technology,’ Balog said. 

Lin Han, a freshman communication and rhetorical studies major, said she was interested in understanding how different countries can cooperate to prevent climate change.

‘I think that this is an important issue for young people to be concerned about,’ Han said.

Allison Garwood, a senior music major, said the pictures of Balog’s work had the biggest effect on her while watching the presentation.

Said Garwood: ‘I think the thing that hit home the most was the time-lapse pictures that he took of the glaciers, where it was so painfully obvious of the actual rate of melting that is going on.’

rebarill@syr.edu

Published on March 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm