Congratulations Daniel Beltrá On A Meaningful Life!

Photograph © Daniel Beltrá

Most of you know that I helped to found the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). We created ourselves to drive forward issues our works address. By working together we have greater strength, a larger audience -- and hopefully -- more immediate results. My Fellows are not just ‘other’ photographers working as I do, they are some of the most inventive, articulate artists I have met, and most importantly, these artists are doing their work in hopes of changing the human condition, not just to have a private conversation with a few museum curators and a handful of collectors.

Photograph © Daniel Beltrá

I am going to introduce you to some of them through this blog, so I hope you will enjoy these friends as much as I do. The first is Daniel Beltrá. Daniel has been on the frontlines of many topical issues – he was just in the gulf – but the work he has done on the burning and deforestation of tropical rainforests is signature.

Photograph © Daniel Beltrá

Daniel is being featured this month in Photo Media magazine, "Daniel Beltrá: A Meaningful Life" by Hermon Joyner with some excellent reproductions.  In addition, Daniel  has work and links at the iLCP website, and you may also peruse his own interactive website, Daniel Beltrá. Be sure to look at some of the equally interesting video. His images of forest destruction, to me, are some of the most iconic ever created.

Photograph © Daniel Beltrá

Photograph © Daniel Beltrá

#rgk

To Abby Sunderland: Welcome Home! Best of Luck on Your Next Big Adventure!

 Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

My son at age 11, free-climbing on the flanks of Haystack. Summit access along the diagonal crack in the background. Wind River Mtns., WY

In the last few weeks, many 'helicopter' parents have felt free to weigh-in as critics of the Sunderland family that allowed their young daughter to attempt an around-the-world sailing adventure. I would suggest before offering their opinions, have they asked themselves: When was the last time my child was “Into the Woods”? Has my child EVER had a serious, challenging encounter with wild land and wild-NESS in some form?

To me as a youth, and hopefully for my children, these are important encounters that allow them to make critical decisions for themselves and to go forward in life as individuals. Making tactical choices to keep yourself safe and alive in the face of difficult conditions is regularly revisited in wildness.

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

My daughter at age 8 under Temple Peak, fishing the jade green waters of Temple Lake (11,000+ feet) with her pink Barbie rod. The trout were biting, dinner for us was delicious! 9th day of the trip, Wind River Mtns, WY

More to the point, critics, ask yourselves, do you believe your children can read a map other than Google? Can they navigate from one point to another without Google or a GPS? Can they distinguish the difference between the atonal voices of any half-dozen pop tarts, but cannot distinguish between a howl of a dog and the cry of a coyote? Do their physical skills carry them to amazing places, or is most time spent inside maneuvering avatars through simulated worlds at war?

As to the adventurous explorers, sailors, climbers, surfers, skiers and the rest who feel secure enough in ourselves and our children to assume and to allow risk and challenge, leave us alone! Worry about the slugs on your couch whose xBox kill skills may be all they ever accomplish.

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum
Wood-Tikchik winter backcountry solo spring of my 60th year.

#rgk

Worth Reading: Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

AUDOBON MAGAZINE: Alaska. Fooling With Paradise

 

Double jeopardy: Spectacular Bristol Bay is threatened by both oil and gas drilling and a proposed mine.

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

Read the article on Audubonmagazine.org here

Alaska. Fooling With Paradise

Over the years Robert Glenn Ketchum’s arresting photos and dogged environmental advocacy have helped preserve endangered lands from Arizona to the Adirondacks. In 1998 Audubon ranked him among the 20th century’s most influential environmental advocates. In recent years the California-based photographer has focused his efforts on saving southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay, home to the state’s greatest wild salmon runs. The threats are twofold, coming from both the Bush administration’s interest in opening up the region to gas and oil exploration and from a proposed gold and copper mine that threatens to despoil Bristol Bay’s spectacular watershed, which Ketchum has visited many times and photographed for exhibits now touring the country. “It’s a place as big as the state of Washington,” he says, “and the longer I spend there, the more I see that this a unique, intact ecosystem, one of the last ones on the planet.”

The massive open-pit, hard-rock mine known as the Pebble Project calls for the creation of 10 square miles of “lakes” to contain an estimated 2 billion to 3 billion tons of contaminated mine waste at the head of salmon spawning streams. Opponents warn that a single earthquake in this seismically active region could release a poisonous stew that would take generations to clean up. “It’s a region with huge, off-the-charts biological value,” says Tim Bristol, Trout Unlimited’s Alaska program director, noting that nearby Katmai National Park has the world’s highest concentration of brown bears. Audubon Alaska has identified four large Important Bird Areas at the head of the bay that are major migratory waterfowl flyways for the Steller’s eider and other federally threatened species. Plus, the watershed accounts for a third of all salmon caught in Alaska; its sport and commercial fisheries together earn about $350 million a year. (For more information about Bristol Bay and how you can help, go to the Audubon Alaska website.)

On its website, Northern Dynasty Mines, the Pebble Project’s primary stakeholder, says more than $30 million has been spent studying “natural systems” to “achieve environmentally responsible mining.” Still, critics remain suspicious of such claims, pointing to the impact of hard-rock mines in Nevada and Montana, where heavy metals and carcinogens such as arsenic, along with the deadly cyanide used to extract metals out of raw ore, have wreaked environmental havoc.

As a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will probably oversee the permitting process. State officials are keeping a close eye on the situation, too. In the meantime, Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and others in Congress have introduced a bill that would protect Bristol Bay from energy development. Says Hinchey, “Drilling for oil and gas in Bristol Bay would have devastating consequences not only for the north Pacific right whale and the diverse array of fish, birds, and other wildlife to which the bay is home but also to the area’s economy.”—Dan Oko

Earthquakes & Volcanos & Climate Change

Here's this week's earthquake activity (5.5 magnitude+), as well as volcanic activity:

EARTHQUAKES above 5.5 magnitude:

• 5.9 earthquake hits Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India (6/19/2010)
• 5.5 earthquake (preliminary magnitude) jolted off Japan's northernmost Hokkaido Prefecture (6/19/2010)
• 6.3 earthquake rattled northern Japan (6/17/2010)
• 6.4 earthquake rocks eastern Indonesia (6/15/2010)
• 5.9 earthquake hits Southern California (6/14/2010)
• 6.2 earthquake jolted northern Japan (6/14/2010)
• 7.7 earthquake hits Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, tsunami alert in effect (6/13/2010)

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY :

• Colombia's government raised the alert code to orange for the Nevado del Huila volcano after increased levels of volcanic activity (6/15/2010)

#rgk

Read below, to see why these facts are relevant:

* * * * * * *

Personally I view the National Academy of Science (NAS) as very cautious and relatively conservative about their public statements, so I was especially alarmed to read the article I posted May 20th from the LATimes regarding the NAS’s most recent warnings regarding the acceleration of effects from climate change.

Here is some other recent science of note: NASA announced that satellite monitoring indicates Antarctica is rising very slowly now that the weight of glacial ice is melting off of it. This is a geological phenomenon known as 'isostatic rebound' and it is common to small islands in the Arctic, it is just no human has ever experienced it at the scale of the entire south pole... the largest continent on the planet.

So, first question being asked: 1) How much ocean will be displaced, as that will affect inundation levels elsewhere in the world. Scientists have begun to research this. 2) The question not yet asked is, if the largest continent on the planet is moving around, and it is connected to all of the plates, don’t you think the plates would move as well. Correspondingly, if that were true, it would seem there would be a lot more big earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occurring because of Antarctica’s “movement”.

If you were to 'Google' all earthquakes above 5.5, and all volcano eruptions in the last two decades, you will see a considerable upswing in both that begins to occur during the last 20-years, about the same time the ice began to unweight the continent.

I am no scientist, I am just sayin’… this is interesting, and I think it is much bigger than we know….

Read the LATimes article, 'National Academy of Sciences Urges Strong Action to Cut Greenhouse Gasses'

RECENT EARTHQUAKES above 5.5 magnitude:

• 6.7 magnitude hit the Andaman islands 139km southeast of Port Blair, India (6/01/2010)
• 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocks Southern Philippines, epicenter the island of Mindanao (5/31/2010)
• 5.7 magnitude earthquake jolted Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province (5/29/2010)
• 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Vanuatu (the South Pacific including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) (5/28/2010)

RECENT VOLCANIC ACTIVITY :

• Kamchatka's Gorely volcano is spewing steam and ash again after decades of dormancy (6/12/2010)
• Volcanic activity at Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano near Quito has increased, prompting authorities to raise alert to 'yellow-orange' (6/12/2010)
  
• Heightened volcanic activity at Taal Volcano on the island of Luzon in the Philippines has caused people to evacuate (6/12/2010)
• The 'Throat of Fire' volcano in Ecuador erupts (5/29/2010)
• Volcano erupts in Guatamala, shutting down capital city & international airport (5/28/2010)

Our Kids Need Nature for Life Lessons

 Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

My son at age 11, free-climbing on the flanks of Haystack. Summit access along the diagonal crack in the background. Wind River Mtns., WY

In the last two weeks, many parents have felt free to weigh-in as critics of the Sunderland family that allowed their young daughter to attempt an around-the-world sailing adventure. I would suggest before offering their opinions, have they asked themselves: When was the last time my child was “Into the Woods”? Has my child EVER had a serious, challenging encounter with wild land and wild-NESS in some form?

To me as a youth, and hopefully for my children, these are important encounters that allow them to make critical decisions for themselves and to go forward in life as individuals. Making tactical choices to keep yourself safe and alive in the face of difficult conditions is regularly revisited in wildness.

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

My daughter at age 8 under Temple Peak, fishing the jade green waters of Temple Lake (11,000+ feet) with her pink Barbie rod. The trout were biting, dinner for us was delicious! 9th day of the trip, Wind River Mtns, WY

More to the point, critics, ask yourselves, do you believe your children can read a map other than Google? Can they navigate from one point to another without Google or a GPS? Can they distinguish the difference between the atonal voices of any half-dozen pop tarts, but cannot distinguish between a howl of a dog and the cry of a coyote? Do their physical skills carry them to amazing places, or is most time spent inside maneuvering avatars through simulated worlds at war?

As to the adventurous explorers, sailors, climbers, surfers, skiers and the rest who feel secure enough in ourselves and our children to assume and to allow risk and challenge, leave us alone! Worry about the slugs on your couch whose xBox kill skills may be all they ever accomplish.

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum
Wood-Tikchik winter backcountry solo spring of my 60th year.

#rgk

Come Meet Me TONIGHT in Los Angeles at The G2 Gallery!

Earthquakes & Volcanos & Climate Change

Here's this week's earthquake activity (5.5 magnitude+), as well as volcanic activity:

EARTHQUAKES above 5.5 magnitude:

• 5.9 earthquake hits Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India (6/19/2010)
• 5.5 earthquake (preliminary magnitude) jolted off Japan's northernmost Hokkaido Prefecture (6/19/2010) 
• 6.3 earthquake rattled northern Japan (6/17/2010)
• 6.4 earthquake rocks eastern Indonesia (6/15/2010)
  
• 5.9 earthquake hits Southern California (6/14/2010)
  
• 6.2 earthquake jolted northern Japan (6/14/2010)
• 7.7 earthquake hits Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India, tsunami alert in effect (6/13/2010)

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY :

• Colombia's government raised the alert code to orange for the Nevado del Huila volcano after increased levels of volcanic activity (6/15/2010)
  

#rgk

Read below, to see why these facts are relevant:

* * * * * * *

Personally I view the National Academy of Science (NAS) as very cautious and relatively conservative about their public statements, so I was especially alarmed to read the article I posted May 20th from the LATimes regarding the NAS’s most recent warnings regarding the acceleration of effects from climate change.

Here is some other recent science of note: NASA announced that satellite monitoring indicates Antarctica is rising very slowly now that the weight of glacial ice is melting off of it. This is a geological phenomenon known as 'isostatic rebound' and it is common to small islands in the Arctic, it is just no human has ever experienced it at the scale of the entire south pole... the largest continent on the planet.

So, first question being asked: 1) How much ocean will be displaced, as that will affect inundation levels elsewhere in the world. Scientists have begun to research this. 2) The question not yet asked is, if the largest continent on the planet is moving around, and it is connected to all of the plates, don’t you think the plates would move as well. Correspondingly, if that were true, it would seem there would be a lot more big earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occurring because of Antarctica’s “movement”.

If you were to 'Google' all earthquakes above 6.0, and all volcano eruptions in the last two decades, you will see a considerable upswing in both that begins to occur during the last 20-years, about the same time the ice began to unweight the continent.

I am no scientist, I am just sayin’… this is interesting, and I think it is much bigger than we know….

Read the LATimes article, 'National Academy of Sciences Urges Strong Action to Cut Greenhouse Gasses'

RECENT EARTHQUAKES above 5.5 magnitude:

• 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Vanuatu (the South Pacific including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) (5/28/2010)
  
• 6.7 magnitude hit the Andaman islands 139km southeast of Port Blair, India (6/01/2010)
• 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocks Southern Philippines, epicenter the island of Mindanao (5/31/2010)
• 5.7 magnitude earthquake jolted Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province (5/29/2010)

RECENT VOLCANIC ACTIVITY :

• Kamchatka's Gorely volcano is spewing steam and ash again after decades of dormancy (6/12/2010)
• Volcanic activity at Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano near Quito has increased, prompting authorities to raise alert to 'yellow-orange' (6/12/2010)
  
• Heightened volcanic activity at Taal Volcano on the island of Luzon in the Philippines has caused people to evacuate (6/12/2010)
• Volcano erupts in Guatamala, shutting down capital city & international airport (5/28/2010)
• The 'Throat of Fire' volcano in Ecuador erupts (5/29/2010)

A Must Read: 'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming'

Global Warming Deniers and Their Proven Strategy of Doubt
by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

Naomi Oreskes is a professor of history and science studies at the University of California, San Diego. Erik M. Conway is the author of several books, including Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History. They are co-authors of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.

For years, free-market fundamentalists opposed to government regulation have sought to create doubt in the public’s mind about the dangers of smoking, acid rain, and ozone depletion. Now they have turned those same tactics on the issue of global warming and on climate scientists, with significant success.

This brief video clip of Naomi Oreskes explains how media's attraction to conflict doesn't accurately depict the realities of science:

Watch this presentation given by Naomi Oreskes at the University of Rhode Island where she discusses her book, 'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming' in depth:

#rgk

Don't Let Another British Corporation Ruin More of America's Wilderness - NO to the Pebble mine!

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

As most of my readers are aware, a few weeks ago Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and I did an event for the Natural Resources Defense Council condemning the proposed development of the Pebble mine in the headwaters of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

That evening, Joel Reynolds, Director of the West Coast NRDC office introduced an audience member, Bob Gillam, who has poured much of his personal resources into defeating the mine, creating things like a very clever 'NO Pebble Mine' pin, and an on-the-ground, grassroots, Alaska-based group called The Renewable Resources Coalition. I wanted to acknowledge Bob and his group with this posting and to pass on a very interesting fact he has discovered.

The Pebble plans project the amount of tailings waste the mine will produce, so Bob and his associates divided the BILLIONS of pounds of tailings from the Pebble mine by the current projected population of the world. If you want to understand the scale of this proposed nightmare hole in the ground, you may want to sit down to hear the results:

For every man, woman and child living on the Earth, the Pebble mine will produce 3,000lbs of tailings. That is not three people together, that is 3,000lbs of tailings for EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET. After this ongoing debacle of the oil spill in the Gulf, and the damage that it will have on the most valuable fishery in the Lower '48, are we really going to allow a Canadian corporation and international gold speculators out of London to wipe out the last healthy fishery Americans have? Isn't BP a British company as well?

Sign this petition to say NO to the Pebble Mine

#rgk

First Friday's in Venice are fun!!

Photograph © 2010 Robert Glenn Ketchum

Food trucks EVERYWHERE, galleries open, restaurants full, and a good bit of freak show going on. Reminds me of the Sunset Strip back-in-the-day, well, a little -- not as many Paris Hilton look-alikes. Anyway, part of the group show at G2 Gallery with a small selection of Bristol Bay images on display.

G2 gave me this show to celebrate the "Masters" designation from American Photo mag, so thank you Jolene and The Gottliebs.

With 5,000-10,000 people in attendance on the street, go early or forget about finding parking and don't even think about flirting with DUI, PoPo's are omnipresent.

The pic above is for real. No altered colors. Wood-Tikchik State Park, part of the Bristol Bay water system is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Help me keep the CANADIANS and the BRITISH from f'ing-up this with the monstrous Pebble mine.

Are the Pebble and the Gulf oil spill the way England is getting us back for declaring independence?

#rgk

"I’d Like My Life Back," ~Tony Hayward, BP CEO

Photograph © 2010 AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

An oil covered seabird sits on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the coast of Louisiana, June 3.

I am sorry to do this to all of you, posting these pictures is NOT pretty, but it is POWERFUL!!! These images infuriate me. Imagine if our children looked like this after a day of swimming. This portfolio is grim, but amazing. I hope it angers enough of you armchair social networkers to get out from behind your monitors and do something (or perhaps stay behind your monitors and do it in a different way!)

GOP Congressman Don Young says Gulf oil spill "not an environmental disaster" CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION AGAINST THIS!

"You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem." ~Eldridge Cleaver

Daniel Beltrá on the Deepwater Horizon spill

See Daniel Beltrá's Photography on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill here

'If Exxon Valdez was a heart attack, Deepwater is a cancer'. See more of Daniel Beltrá's Photography on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill here

As many of you know, I helped to found the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Among our more than 70 Fellows, Daniel Beltra is a good friend who has been doing AWESOME work in the Amazon and for which he was given the 2009 Prince's Rainforest Award.

He has been in the Gulf since the blowout and these two links will introduce you to his work if you do not know it already. What he is witnessing and saying is probably closer to the truth than much of what we are getting from the media, and all of what we are getting from BP.

Amazing, disgusting work. I wish these pictures would never have had to been made, but since BP has visited this upon us, THANK YOU Daniel and my other iLCP Fellows who are down there working and trying to provide the American public with visuals to drive their response.

Given my age, I have come from a generation that was not apathetic, and indeed was VERY proactive with regards to social and environmental justice. There does not seem to be too much of that these days. Most just want to do X and party while this unfolds. I hope the current generations of our children wake up soon, and react with FORCE about these corporate criminals or they will find themselves in a world that looks like the Gulf Coast... EVERYWHERE, and not just because of an oilspill.

Eldrige Cleaver said many years ago, "If you are not doing something about the problem, then you are part of it." Come on you guys, WAKE UP AND PARTICIPATE!!! Fight back before you end up like one of those oil-drenched seabirds.

See Daniel Beltrá's Photography on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill here

'If Exxon Valdez was a heart attack, Deepwater is a cancer'. See more of Daniel Beltrá's Photography on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill here

#rgk

Recent Earthquake & Volcanic Activity

Photograph © 2010 Patrick Taschen

Here's this week's earthquake activity (5.5 magnitude+), as well as volcanic activity:

EARTHQUAKES above 5.5 magnitude:

• 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Vanuatu (the South Pacific including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia) (5/28/2010)
  
• 6.7 magnitude hit the Andaman islands 139km southeast of Port Blair, India (6/01/2010)
• 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocks Southern Philippines, epicenter the island of Mindanao (5/31/2010)
• 5.7 magnitude earthquake jolted Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province (5/29/2010)

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY :

• Volcano erupts in Guatamala, shutting down capital city & international airport (5/28/2010)
• The 'Throat of Fire' volcano in Ecuador erupts (5/29/2010)
  

Read below, to see why these facts are relevant:

#rgk

* * * * * * *
Personally I view the National Academy of Science (NAS) as very cautious and relatively conservative about their public statements, so I was especially alarmed to read the article I posted May 20th from the LATimes regarding the NAS’s most recent warnings regarding the acceleration of effects from climate change.

Here is some other recent science of note: NASA announced that satellite monitoring indicates Antarctica is rising very slowly now that the weight of glacial ice is melting off of it. This is a geological phenomenon known as 'isostatic rebound' and it is common to small islands in the Arctic, it is just no human has ever experienced it at the scale of the entire south pole... the largest continent on the planet.

So, first question being asked: 1) How much ocean will be displaced, as that will affect inundation levels elsewhere in the world. Scientists have begun to research this. 2) The question not yet asked is, if the largest continent on the planet is moving around, and it is connected to all of the plates, don’t you think the plates would move as well. Correspondingly, if that were true, it would seem there would be a lot more big earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occurring because of Antarctica’s “movement”.

If you were to 'Google' all earthquakes above 6.0, and all volcano eruptions in the last two decades, you will see a considerable upswing in both that begins to occur during the last 20-years, about the same time the ice began to unweight the continent.

I am no scientist, I am just sayin’… this is interesting, and I think it is much bigger than we know….

Read the LATimes article, 'National Academy of Sciences Urges Strong Action to Cut Greenhouse Gasses'

Most tragic thing ever: Oil is farther ashore than predicted & hurricane season has started. http://ht.ly/1SOiT rgk oilspill