“The melting glaciers should be a similar warning of our hubris — and of the consequences that the earth will face for centuries unless we address carbon emissions today.”
WHAT IS WORTH A MILLION WORDS?
Visualize The Perspectives
If my front page photo in The New York Times was mostly luck other than hard work, then my interactive slider that got published along with a Nicholas Kristof column was the opposite. It took the whole package: strategic vision, content creativity and best distribution, in partnership with the Times.
“In politics, we can negotiate and compromise. But physics doesn't negotiate and they don't meet you half way...”
“No one yet has come up with a political agenda the glaciers might have to be behaving like it is, except that the climate of the planet is changing.”
“The Martians have arrived. It is in the form of climate change. We have not even begun to galvanize to deal with it.”
Essay: World Policy Journal
Over the next 25 years the "roof of the world," where most of Asia's great rivers find their headwaters, could well deliver an ecological crisis to Asia's billions of people. With glaciers melting away faster than anyone predicted, the people of China, South Asia, and Southeast Asia are confronting the prospect of diminished water resources. Full article
By comparison
... Some areas on the plateau, such as Lhasa and Nagchu in northern Tibet, have warmed even faster, with temperatures rising .36 and .40 degree respectively. The world's average temperature, by way of comparison, has only risen by about .13 degree every 10 years.
Mini-site: On Thinner Ice
Be stunned by the mesmerizing collection of glacier images brought back from the Himalayas by mountain climber David Breashears. And travel back in time by studying the loss of ice mass along the glaciers pixel by pixel. The site isn't accessible on AsiaSociety.org any more, but here below is the headline video, co-produced with Emmy-winning MediaStorm.
Changes to landscapes and livelihoods
As I wrote in the World Policy Journal, we are not only witnessing some of the greatest losses of frozen water reservoirs high up on the Andes, the Sierras, the Himalayas, we are also seeing the livelihoods of billions of people under threat. Some Tibetan nomads, whom I interviewed, said they had to move 12 times a year to chase after good grass for their yaks, whereas they only needed to switch pastures twice a year a generation or two ago. I felt obligated, and also blessed to be able, to tell the stories of the local people to make the picture whole and complete.
Baltimore Housing Project
Working on this neighborhood historic preservation and affordable housing project felt like being a detective. I successfully dug up photos from past to present of the houses and identified some amazing characters. The before-and-after images immediately tell a story of transformation of the neighborhood. And the woman living in one of the units also transformed her live from ten years in prison to working toward owning her first home.
Predicting Futures
I just couldn't unsee this series of images on Climate Central, who did a fabulous job rendering out these scenarios for flooded landmarks in a few global cities when the temperature rises 2C vs 4C in the future.
See these sliders to compare the flooded future scenarios on DailyMail.com.
Special Olympics Torch Run
To many organizations and employees, this event may not be a heavy lift. Just a few hours of volunteer time at a corporate campus. But to the Paralympian athletes and their families, this means a world to them.
Just feel the emotions in the video, and roaring support from all around! Check out the choking moment when TD's Chief Communications Officer John Pluhowski gave his remarks. When I was working on site covering the event, I couldn't help trying to hold back my own tears.
Memorial Day Flowers
I was brought on to the project and immediately rolled up my sleeves talking to a dozen veteran colleagues through the connections of my teammates. I vetted these initial candidates and whistled down to a couple of them. When I got the draft script and production plan approved, I crewed up and shot the story very soon. I even picked the music track and still love the whole piece coming together.
