© Andrea Sparrow / Arctic Arts Project
Capturing the reality of climate change on film
The words “climate change” and “art” aren’t often used in the same sentence. But for the people behind the Arctic Arts Project, the two are closely connected. Started 12 years ago by US-based photographer Kerry Koepping, the project aims to bring the science of climate change alive and show the world what climate chaos looks like by visually documenting the changes happening in the Arctic. The project has grown from just a handful of artists to almost 100 photographers, filmmakers, scientists and conservationists from all around the world—all working together for a common goal.
Andrea Sparrow is the project’s executive producer. She spoke to The Circle about why the project uses art to highlight the negative impact humans are having on the planet—and how those involved hope to change some minds about climate change in the process.
Photo above: This glacier below Mount Kitchener in Banff National Park, Canada is in dramatic retreat, like many others in the area.
Photo below: Although methane is invisible, artists have been able to photograph it suspended in ice. The bubbles of methane will be released into the atmosphere when the ice melts. This photo was taken on Lake Abraham, Alberta, Canada in 2020. The bubble stacks form as the ice layer deepens during winter, capturing more and more methane rising from the lake bed.
© Kerry Koepping / Arctic Arts Project
© Florian LeDoux / Arctic Arts Project
How would you describe the Arctic Arts Project?
I would say we visually communicate the science of our changing climate. Scientists are good at measuring and producing data, and that’s critical for understanding how our planet is changing. But sometimes scientists have a hard time showing people what it means: what it looks like and how it manifests in the landscapes of the planet.
Yet it’s really important to find a way to show people the Arctic. It’s changing much more quickly than the rest of the planet—around three times faster—so it’s easy for people to appreciate how dramatic the changes are there. And I think when people can see these changes, they have a different response than when they hear them described by scientists in a more clinical way.
Of course, the science is very important because it quantitatively measures change. We try to bring climate change to the public in a way they can understand—but that is also true to the science.How would you describe the Arctic Arts Project?
Photo to the right and below: These photos of a polar bear and an Arctic fox were taken in eastern Svalbard. Both species are struggling with the impacts of climate change.
© Florian LeDoux / Arctic Arts Project
How did the project get started?
It basically began as a very loose affiliation of photographers who were travelling in the Arctic and seeing these drastic changes. Kerry [Koepping] lives in Boulder, Colorado, where the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) is located. Kerry had gone to Denali (the highest mountain peak in North America) and noticed that below the mountain, there was this patterning on the ground that was just so unusual. He came back and showed it to the scientists at INSTAAR, and they were like, “Oh, that’s basically permafrost melt.” Kerry realized then that you could document the changing climate by showing how it impacted the Arctic landscape. He started acquiring imagery from people to develop this visual story of climate change.
© Orvar Thorgeirsson / Arctic Arts Project
Photo: This aerial photograph of tundra in Iceland shows how thawing permafrost can create thermokarsts and lakes.
How do you bring that visual story of climate change to the public?
Our visual products are usually either videos or photographs for our website and for presentations. We do public presentations about what we’re seeing and the science behind it. For example, all of our films are shown on a giant screen in the main area of INSTAAR, and some of INSTARR’s scientists use them in their classrooms. We’re trying to provide visual tools to the people who are working to make changes because most people can’t relate to just the words of science—they need to see what the scientists are talking about to really grasp it. It brings it home in an entirely different way.
© Andrea Sparrow / Arctic Arts Project
The title of your organization is the Arctic “Arts” Project. How is what you're doing art?
Well, it is an interesting line to walk, but everyone in the project is either a professional photographer or filmmaker and is contributing really high-quality visuals. That is important to us. Each image needs to be extremely compelling. It needs to be beautiful. It’s not a snapshot, it’s something that requires some vision and skill to capture. People are drawn to beauty, and if you can pull them in with compelling beauty and they realize what they’re looking at—that’s essentially the hook.
Photo: Tiny methane bubbles with autumn leaves and algae in Scoresbysund, Bear Island, eastern Greenland.
© Andrea Sparrow / Arctic Arts Project
What are some examples of changes you’ve been able to capture in a beautiful, visual way?
Methane is a very interesting one. Methane is not something you can see in the environment or atmosphere, but it has a massive impact—greater than CO2 by a long shot. We have gone into the Arctic—to Alaska, Greenland, Iceland and the high Alpine regions of Canada—and found ways to “see” methane. Normally, there’s no way for people to visualize what is happening. But we’ve been able to show massive areas in Alaska, for example, where changes in the tundra are thawing permafrost and releasing —methane bubbles are literally captured for a period of time until the ice melts and releases them into the atmosphere.
Photo: This photo of methane bubbles frozen in Lake Abraham, Alberta, Canada, shows the structure of the bubbles in ice.
What difference do you hope you’re making?
I don’t know that it’s necessarily measurable, but I will say that we have had many encounters with people who have seen our films or presentations or exhibitions and have said things to us like, “I had no idea that that’s what that meant.” They know things are warming, but what does that actually look like? What does glacial melt look like? What does change in the tundra look like? When they see it and they can read a layman’s explanation of the science, they can understand it. We want our beautiful visuals to bring people in, not with fear, but in a way that lets us bridge political divides. This is simply a worldwide crisis that needs to be addressed. But we want to communicate with facts, not with hyperbole. When I hear people say, “You know, I didn’t realize that, but now I get it,” I know the work we’re doing is valuable.
Andrea Sparrow is a US-based photographer and Executive Producer of the Arctic Arts Project.
