Envisioning a Fragile Natural World
Artist Statement
Reverence is a feeling of deep respect, tinged with awe.
Growing up in Southeast Asia within missionary communities, I was infused with reverence and empathy for cultures and communities not my own. Born in Thailand, I spoke Thai before English. By the time I graduated from high school, I had attended fifteen different schools in five countries. Similarly, my youthful exposure to wonders of the natural world was broad, with voyages on three oceans and five seas, travels on four continents, including numerous remote regions. I was awed by the stories and photographs in the donated old issues of National Geographic that I treasured in Thailand.
Over the past decade, I have resumed exploring the world, especially the natural world, including sites on six continents, always with deep respect for both the awesome beauty of that world and its fragility in the face of multiple threats. I hope these scenes and their stories inspire you to care about and support the conservation of these places, their human and wild inhabitants.
The polar regions – Arctic and Antarctic – are both ethereally beautiful and especially threatened by human-caused warming. Melting ice can uncover darker water or land, which then absorbs more heat, accelerating warming. That has local implications, including on wildlife such as polar bears that depend on sea ice. In addition, however, the resulting sea level rise portends massive impacts on coastal areas and their inhabitants throughout the world.
Tropical latitudes, including the iconic and productive plains of East Africa, are also at serious risk over the coming decades. Climate change will substantially reduce precipitation in the already dry months, impacting both undeveloped and cultivated lands, their wild, domesticated and human inhabitants. Even in the short term, however, balancing the needs of a burgeoning human population with preservation of the wild will be extremely challenging.
One broad effect of climate change, including in the temperate zones that encompass most of the United States, will be to generally exacerbate the ferocity and frequency of damaging natural events like hurricanes, tornados and wildfires. Also, specific parts of the US, such as the Colorado River Basin, will grow warmer, potentially resulting in as much as a 25% reduction in the water available to the 40 million people who currently depend on it.
I am awed by the beauty I’ve experienced in these places and called to action by the jeopardies they face from climate change and other threats. I’ll be donating a portion of my proceeds from this collection to several key conservation initiatives and – just as important for every one of us – committing to choices in my daily life that reflect my reverence for our fragile natural world.
This map shows key circles of latitude that delimit the world’s main climate zones: the north and south polar and temperate zones, as well as the tropical zone centered at the equator. Highlighted countries or areas include image sites in this collection.
Setting the Scene
Of the countless sites of awe-inspiring beauty in our natural world, this collection samples just a few from six of the seven continents.
The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn bound the tropical zone.
In the north, the Arctic Circle separates the temperate and polar zones. For this map, the corresponding latitude circle in the south is 60°S, the northern boundary for the Antarctic Treaty System.
The Antarctic Treaty is one of a set of agreements that dedicate the Antarctic region to peaceful and scientific uses. The treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries and now has 52 signatories. In 1999, the active treaty parties adopted an introduction, especially intended for visitors, which begins:
There are few places in the world where there has never been war, where the environment is fully protected, and where scientific research has priority. But there is a whole continent like this – it is the land the Antarctic Treaty parties call “… a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”.
At the southern end of our world, those who share the challenges of distance and cold to visit the ice-bound continent have developed a tradition of warm cooperation. Such cooperation, unique on this scale, is cemented by the Antarctic Treaty.
This treaty framework formally adopts reverence for this part of the natural world to a unique and heartening degree. Author Carl Safina celebrated this magical area as a leader during my late 2016 visit in a lyrical essay, closing with these words:
This continent of eternity and change, formerly so ravaged of life but now the best-protected of all worlds on Earth, offers a chance, a glimpse of how to get it right.