KEEPING UP WITH ICE

Up for grabs: 1.2 million square miles of the most virgin territory on Earth. With the world watching to see how the fate of our precious Antarctica’s oceans fares this week, as voted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), at their conference in Bremerhaven, Germany, we wanted to immerse a bit in the latest books and films that feature both the history and the now of both Antarctica and the Arctic, both extraordinarily beautiful, fragile, and vital parts of our planet.

Photo: Courtesy of Amazon

 

“Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence, and Emperor Penguins,” by Gavin Francis (Counterpoint, 2013) is an account of the author’s 14 month sojourn with a magnificent community of the giant regal birds, as he served as the base camp doctor at the Halley research center on the remote Caird Coast of Antarctica.

Photo: Gavin Francis

Through the endless days of summer and the endless nights of winter, through cold way beyond bitter, Francis keeps us transfixed as he retells of the unparalleled beauty he encounters at every turn.

Photo: Courtesy of Amazon

 

We first learned about our frozen continent in 1820, when the first sailing ships tripped over it on their way to someplace else. “Antarctica: A Biography,” by David Day (Oxford University Press, 2013) presents the most comprehensive geopolitical history of this treasured end of the Earth.

 

The territorial tugs of war aren’t new. No matter that it’s hard to get to and hard to survive once you get there; whales, fish, seals, minerals, oil, and gas, have tempted the short-sighted human race to try to take all it could get over the past two centuries.

 

Painting: Ivan Avazovsky “Icebergs in Antarctica” (1870)

 

“Antarctica: A Biography” is a detailed collective biography of the explorers and scientists who ventured there, including the early pioneers, Scott, Amundsen, Ellsworth, and Byrd. It continues on through nations’ squabbles, as the most powerful aim to claim their own piece of the frozen pie. And it relays the realization that only through cooperation, and joint scientific effort, can we learn about the true value of Antarctica and how leaving it alone is the best, and, arguably, the only way, to get the most out of it.

Photo: Courtesy of Amazon

“25 Polar Animals,” by IC Wildlife and IP Factly  (Amazon Digital Services, Inc. 2013), is a wonderful collection of photos, videos, and surprising facts about the gorgeous creatures that grace our polar ice caps. While it’s geared towards children, it will delight anyone. It features the glories of the:

 

• Arctic Fox (watch the video here)

• Arctic Hare

• Arctic Tern

• Arctic Wolf

• Bearded Seal

• Beluga Whale

• Canada Lynx

• Killer Whale

• Lemming

• Moose

• Muskox

• Narwhale

• Penguin

• Polar Bear

• Red-Throated Loon

Photo: Courtesy of I Love Greenland

• Reindeer

• Rock Ptarmigan

• Rough-Legged Buzzard

• Snow Bunting

• Snow Petrel

• Snowshoe Hare

• Snowy Owl

• Stoat

• Walrus

• Wolverine

 

Video: Courtesy of Chasing Ice

 

How do you tell the biggest story on Earth? And how do you do it in a way that proves the truth as claimed by one side of one of the biggest debates on Earth? Environmental photographer, James Balog began the multi-year Extreme Ice Survey, in the spring of 2005, to document the arc of the story of glacial decline, as a testament to climate change. Balog developed an ingenious system of time-lapse cameras, placed at key points across the Arctic, to capture the evidence.

Photo: Courtesy of Vanity Fair

“Chasing Ice,” directed by Jeff Orlowski, is one of the most beautiful documentaries you will ever see. Ironically, it is a challenge to take an inherently beautiful subject, like a pristine frozen wilderness, and make a film that lifts its beauty to an even higher level. But Orlowski manages. The film won the award for best cinematography at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, among numerous other major awards. It was selected as a BN10 pick, on our top 10 Most Beautiful Films list.

 

Video: Courtesy of Chasing Ice

But this monumental beauty is fleeting, losing ground at an alarmingly swift pace. The film shows the glaciers calf, with masses of ice breaking off in epic proportions in ever-warming temperatures, cast adrift to melt away, putting Arctic wildlife, and, in fact, all terrestrial life in grave danger. We wonder how anyone can watch and doubt.... and wonder how, without a doubt, anyone can turn a blind eye.

 

Video: Anthony Powell

 

Time-lapse imagery has, to date, been the best means to portray our polar sagas. Another wonderful example of its use can be seen in “A Year on the Ice,” a new documentary featuring Anthony Powell’s photography. The film’s title is a misnomer—for it spans 10 years vs just one, and in doing so, we benefit from the repetition, seeing patterns of weather and life-cycles, with animal and planetary movements through time. “A Year on the Ice” debuts at the 2013 New Zealand International Film Festival this month.

 

Check out the rest of our posts on "Beautiful Cool" this week in Arts/Design, Food/Drink, Mind/Body, Place/Time, Nature/Science, and Soul Impact. And enter our new photo competition. The theme: "Beautiful Cool" (Deadline, July 21st, 2013).