NorthSouthEastWest: Climate Change is Everywhere

See selections from an arresting new photo exhibition that captures German wind farms, malaria fighters in India, fisherman in Greenland and everything in between.

By Amy Schiller, Brandeis University
Wednesday July 27, 2005

Click here to go directly to the photo gallery.

If asked to visualize the impacts of climate change, most of us would start imagining polar bears floating by on melting arctic ice floes. But climate change is creating change all over the world, not just in the extreme north and south – from developing mega-cities in Africa to the rice fields of China to right here at home.

Teachers in Mexico City, one of the largest and most polluted cities in the world, have been reporting that their grade school charges rarely use blue colors to depict the surrounding sky, instead choosing shades of brown and gray. That is just one dramatic visualization of climate change. And a new photo exhibit, NorthSouthEastWest, currently on view in Washington, DC , provides dozens of other dramatic images of climate change. The exhibit takes a holistic approach to its subject matter, focusing lenses on everything from the obvious environmental impacts to the effects on food, local economies, human rights, technology and urban life.

The exhibit, sponsored by the British Council and the British Embassy who worked in tandem with the Climate Group in dispatching a group of Magnum photographers, an elite co-op of photographers renowned for their iconic snapshots, to ten locations, each matched with a particular angle on the climate change issue to document.

Viewing the devastating effects from climate change worldwide through the privileged distance of a photographer’s lens is an experience that brings several contradictions. How can you artistically capture suffering in way that is aesthetically compelling? How can something as abstract and amorphous as climate change be made concrete and real without reducing it to clichés?

Bruce Gilden, one of the Magnum photographers featured in the show, traveled to Mexico City, the perfect location to utilize his expertise in documenting urban life. Though he came to fame focusing his lens on New York City, here, he turns his lens on one the many megacities (more than 10 million people) in the developing world, like Lagos, Dhaka or Sao Paulo, which are now growing much faster than New York City. Of course, this assignment had an explicit political agenda, which was sometimes burdensome for Gilden.

A classic New Yorker, Gilden described moments when he bristled at his accompanying writer’s ideas for capturing the climate change issue that, he said, “were like visual aids for a class, and I just don’t work that way…there are buildings that are now leaning and tilted into the ground because of excess runoff water, which they wanted me to photograph, but that doesn’t make a visually arresting shot.”

One image that he found illuminating was that of a woman taking the bus on her way to work. The caption explains that people from the outskirts of Mexico City, which continues to sprawl further every day, sometimes travel two hours each way to get to work because the roads are so choked with traffic, despite the fact that their commute is only a few miles long.

Of course, there is even more to the story than what appears in the picture. The sprawl of Mexico City and the ensuing flood of polluted runoff water to nearby farmland has caused dispossessed farmers to leave their now-destroyed land and sell newspapers in the transit stations. Mexico City, with a population of over 20 million, accounts for a whopping 20% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Mexico and is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in Latin America where the city counts for more than 2% of total regional emissions.

Gilden insists that he is an artist, not an expert on the environment or an activist. “I’m not political, OK, because I’ve never voted,” he claims. Still, he has some pretty passionate ideas about what should be done about climate change. He indignantly recounted how he had to wear a mask during his travels because the air quality is so terrible in some of his shooting locations. But his greatest frustration was with our current administration for not only failing to address the climate change issue, but insisting, boldfaced, that they have a strong record on preserving the environment.

According to Gilden, in England there is a feature story nearly every night on the evening news about the environment and its destruction, to get the story into the general consciousness. “Its just wrong,” he says “that no one talks about it here- if they can in England, we must talk about this issue here.”

NorthSouthEastWest is currently on display at American University in Washington, DC until July 29, when it will move to the World Bank (call 202-473-8087 for more information).

Physical environment – Greenland
Ian Berry

A lone fisherman picks his way through the sea ice taking an opportunity to explore an area which normally would be frozen solid. The geological survey of Denmark and Greenland has recently recorded falls in the Greenland ice sheet of up to one meter (3.3 feet) per month in some areas.

Development – South Africa
Alex Webb

A woman from the remote village of Hluleka gets on with her day knowing she can look forward to a continuous electricity supply from a combination of wind and solar power. Wind turbines are by far the cheapest method of providing power for isolated communities.

Natural environment – Kenya
Alex Majoli

Elephants are constantly on the move looking for places to feed and bathe, often migrating long distances to avoid droughts. In Tanzania, more and more are invading the forests on Kilimanjaro as their homes on the plains are drying out. Once in the forest the elephants cause significant damage, further threatening the fragile forest ecosystem which is already under threat as a result of climate change.

Human Rights – Marshall Islands
Chris Steele-Perkins

The Marshall Islands are a series of coral reefs enclosing vast clear lagoons sometimes many miles across. The reefs once encircled volcanoes which have long since sunk back into the sea leaving these long narrow curving islands covered in coconut palms. There is usually less than 50 meters (55 yards) between the lagoon and the pacific. This is Majuro Atoll, a 47km (29 mile) long strip of land. It contains the country’s main airport, and in this section its capital, Majuro, built at the Atoll’s widest point, which is less than half a kilometer (one third of a mile) across.

Technology – Japan
Harry Gruyaert

Volcanoes can be very unstable and Hatchubaru Geothermal Power Station is built on top of one. While the station produces plentiful power, the raw energy of the mountain has to be constantly checked in the central control room to avoid accidents.

Food – China
Nikos Economopoulos

Harvesting the rice crop without mechanization is still the way of life for millions in China’s countryside. Here neighbors help each other with the first steps of the harvest. Changing weather patterns as a result of climate change will make planning the harvest more uncertain for farmers.

Health – India
Donovan Wylie

It looks like war and it is – although they are not soldiers but health workers fumigating the streets of Kolkotta against the number one enemy, the malaria mosquito. Planning preventative measures becomes more difficult as climate change causes rain patterns to become unpredictable.

Urban Life – Mexico Cty
Bruce Gilden

Poor people often spend two hours each way getting to work from the outer suburbs. To cut pollution the city is converting diesel buses to gas and plans dedicated bus lanes to shorten journeys and encourage more use of public transport.

Economy – California
Constantine Manos

Santa Monica’s famous amusement park has its showpiece the giant ‘Pacific Wheel’ at the end of the pier, driven by electricity from solar panels. California has introduced a law stating renewable energy must be the source of 20% of the electricity sold by 2017. Customers who operate their own wind and solar systems will be able to claim cash rebates.

Leadership – UK/Germany/NYC
Chien-Chi Chang

Germany has embraced the renewables revolution, particularly wind and solar power, with greater enthusiasm than any other country. The 30 megawatt Wkn Windfarm at Zitz-Warchaw in Brandenburg is part of a massive investment which has spawned a new manufacturing industry and is making Germany the largest producer of renewable energy in Europe.