American, b. 1952
Extreme Ice, 2009 (aired on December 28, 2011)
NOVA-National Geographic in association with Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 52 minutes
This film highlights the work of the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), which was founded in 2007 by photographer and geomorphologist James Balog. Using time-lapse photography, the artist documents melting ice fields and the dramatic retreat of glaciers that result from human-produced climate change.
In this film, 26 cameras managed by the Extreme Ice Survey focus on 16 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, the Himalayas in Nepal, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The project merges art and science, giving the natural world its own “visual voice.”
A film about Balog and his quest to document climate change, called Chasing Ice (2014), was awarded an Emmy in 2014 and has been viewed by people in 172 countries.