The biggest proof of our climate catastrophe ever caught on film

Key Points:

• Photographer James Balog and his crew captured the largest glacier calving event ever filmed in Greenland, documenting a massive ice chunk the size of lower Manhattan breaking off and sliding into the ocean.
• Initially skeptical about climate change, Balog became convinced of its reality after a 2005 National Geographic Arctic expedition revealed tangible evidence of rapid ice melt and environmental shifts in Greenland and Antarctica.
• Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey, which lasted 15 years and produced over 1.5 million images archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, aimed to visually document the urgent and ongoing impacts of climate change.
• The follow-up documentary "Chasing Time" premiered on PBS, highlighting the conclusion of the Extreme Ice Survey and reinforcing Balog’s mission to raise awareness about the climate crisis through powerful imagery.
• Balog hopes his photographic work serves both as a historical record and a warning to future generations about the real and present dangers of climate change, emphasizing that the crisis is happening now.