I am a regular contributing photographer to the @EverydayClimateChange Instagram feed. Everyday Climate Change, founded by James Whitlow Delano, is a collaborative Instagram feed that launched in January 2015. The group now communicates to over 100 thousand people on a regular basis and has been featured in numerous major international publications.
The feed features work from photographers who share images made across the seven continents. The feed presents visual evidence that climate change doesn't just happen "over there", but that it's happening "right here". Everyday Climate Change not only documents effects but also discusses and presents adaptations and solutions to mitigate global warming in our world.
Everyday Climate Change I am a regular contributing photographer to the @EverydayClimateChange Instagram feed. Everyday Climate Change, founded by James Whitlow Delano, is a collaborative Instagram feed that launched in January 2015. The group now communicates to over 100 thousand peop...
I am a regular contributing photographer to the @EverydayClimateChange Instagram feed. Everyday Climate Change, founded by James Whitlow Delano, is a collaborative Instagram feed that launched in January 2015. The group now communicates to over 100 thousand people on a regular basis and has been featured in numerous major international publications.
The feed features work from photographers who share images made across the seven continents. The feed presents visual evidence that climate change doesn't just happen "over there", but that it's happening "right here". Everyday Climate Change not only documents effects but also discusses and presents adaptations and solutions to mitigate global warming in our world.
Here are some selected images.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: Yak's carry supplies high into the Everest Himalayan region located in Nepal. The Himalayas have long been called the Earth's third pole, as contains the world's largest stores of ice that are located outside of the polar regions. Due to this vast amount of ice the glaciers feed some of the largest rivers across Asia, including the Ganges, Yangtze, Indus, and Bhramaputra. These rivers and scores more, which cross international boundaries, support the lives of billions of people from agriculture to industry. As climate change intensifies, this gigantic store of ice that is locked up in the mountains is quickly melting. The vast majority of glaciers across the Himalayan region are retreating at a rapid pace. The melting, in the short-term, may provide greater access to water resources throughout Asia. However, in the long-term, the threat that global warming poses on the Earth's third pole threatens the water security of billions, as the ice continually retreats more and more.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: Roasted Barley high in India's Spiti Valley. The Himalayan region is experiencing one of the fastest rates of warming on the planet. One of the most significant impacts of climate change in the Himalayan region is that on fresh water resources. Many areas, especially plateau villages that do not have immediate access to glacier melt water or a major river are reliant on spring water that is recharged by winter snowpack. As the Himalayan region's climate shifts into a warmer regime, winter snowfall is arriving in smaller amounts and melting faster when spring approaches. By the time the growing season arrives in Summer fresh water resources for food crops, like Barley, are scarcely available. Declining crop yields are one of the impacts of scarce water resources, which cascades into lower incomes for households, declining food security, and further reliance on imported food stuffs.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: A lone hiker makes his way back down off the face of the rocky and forested mountain. South Korea is an example of one of the most successful reforestation programs in history. After the bloody Korean War, the country was left barren and battered. Since the 1960’s with the aid of aggressive government reforestation policies, around 60% of South Korea is now covered in forest. This, or a similar kind of, reforestation model could be used as a working example for nations that are facing severe deforestation such as Indonesia and Nepal, amongst many others. Reforestation will play a crucial role in our fight against climate change across the planet, as trees are the Earth’s natural CO2 absorbers, which they do at no cost or material expenditure.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: Rainfall patterns across the Indian subcontinent are continuing to change for the worse. Many parts of the country are receiving too little or too much. However, the overall trends point to a much drier landscape in the middle and long-term future due to the increasing effects of climate change. Both rural and urban communities are facing the consequences of these water shortages, especially those peoples found at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Pictured are women in a slum settlement on the outskirts of New Delhi washing their bowls and collecting as much water as they can for storage.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: Quite often climate change and its associated impacts are discussed and debated in a way where it is framed as a distant issue. This type of thinking has in many ways effectively resulted in an apathetic attitude towards the topic by many politicians, decision makers, and businesses. However, climate change and its associated impacts are affecting people across the planet, right now. Pictured, the Buddhist Nun’s, close by to their Nunnery, are standing on a canal that has not seen water for three years. The mainspring that the Nun’s depended on has gone completely dry. They now have to pipe and carry water from a source almost five kilometres away, but even this will run out before the long, and harsh Himalayan winter. Many of the springs that so many communities in the Himalayas rely on are going dry due to a lack of snowfall during the winter. As climate change intensifies snowfall in the region has decreased dramatically resulting in less snowmelt to recharge springs and retreating glaciers. Increasingly, in an area that has seen little political conflict or interference so hundreds of years, there are reports that many villages are fighting over who have the rights to particular sources of water. This is climate change world leaders.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: My friend and guide, Kunga, shows me yet another spring in his village located in the India's Himalayan Spiti Valley, essentially dried up. He explained to me that no more than a decade ago the village had access to over 12 springs that fed the village water for their crops and livelihoods. These days, no more than 4 or 5 run throughout the summer months. This is due to a severe shortage of snow falling over winter, which recharges the springs. Climate change is significantly affecting weather patterns, including snowfall, in the Himalayas. The mountainous region is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the planet, excluding the Arctic. Water issues that Kunga's village faces are one of many.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: Where the Earth meets the sky - the mighty Himalayan mountain range. A vast and remote region that has fascinated explorers for centuries. The Himalayan mountain range bubbles the landscapes of multiple Asian nations such as Nepal, India, Pakistan, and China. This vast and remote region, however, is succumbing to the impacts of climate change, which knows no boundaries. As CO2 concentrations rise from the burning of fossil fuels (mainly coal and oil), the corresponding global average temperature is rising. In a region, like the Himalayas, where snow-capped peaks dominate the landscape climate change may seem like a distant threat. However, there is no better place to witness climate change than the Himalayas, where it is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, excluding the Arctic. Glaciers are in mass retreat, and as seen in the image (bottom left-hand corner) some of the largest glaciers are now forming pools of meltwater. Each warmer year that passes less snow falls, more ice melts, and the mountainous region that supports billions with water supplies become more vulnerable to adverse change.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: Solar panels in the Zanskar Valley, India. These panels have brought much-needed electricity to some of the most remote communities on the planet. In a government partnership with local communities, the state put forth the initial investment for the panels and then handed over the responsibility of maintenance to the communities in the valley. Influential economist E.F Schumacher coined the idea of ‘appropriate technology’ in 1973. His idea of appropriate technology hinged on the notion where the context of the situation determined what technology was to be used. This would do away with the ‘one size fits all approach’. In the case of electricity within the Indian Himalayan region, it is a prime example of this idea in play. The region receives 300+ days per year of sunshine and typically homes do not require vast amounts of energy. The solar panels allow the lighting of homes at night, charging mobile phones, and increasingly watching TV. Small-scale carbon emissions-free solar plants, as pictured, are a perfect source for these activities in remote parts of the world.
Photo by Ashley Crowther @ashleycrowtherorg for @everydayclimatechange: The notorious traffic jams in India’s megalopolis of Mumbai. In urban centres, private vehicle usage has been a part of life as long as one can remember. It is also, despite its conveniences, a key ingredient to climate change through the burning of fossil fuels such as oil. India’s population is on the move from the village to the city. This step brings with it a rising middle class and income levels, along with increased private vehicle ownership. In 2015 India added an extra 2 million vehicles to its already congested roads. This was an increase from 1.9 million added in 2014. Despite this, private vehicle ownership on the subcontinent remains relatively low with between 18-25 vehicles per 1000 people. The USA in comparison shows over 800 vehicles per 1000 people. However, what makes India such a crucial issue is the sheer scale of the amount of people rising into the middle class. India’s current population is hovering around 1.2 billion, and if Indians owned as many cars as Americans, it would be a carbon bomb in the atmosphere. This development trajectory that focuses on private vehicles as a major transporter of humanity is not sound. From climate change to road accidents there needs to be a radical shift in thinking about transport in the developing world. Despite this, according to the International Energy Agency, India by 2040, will add 425 million private vehicles to their roads. However, new and further investments into regional and metropolitan mass transit systems should be a top priority.
Ashley Crowther
Ashley Crowther is an Australian documentary photographer focusing on environmental, social, and climate-related issues throughout Asia.
