Views of the natural environment & climate change
I am stretching things a bit because today’s post does not focus on the natural environment, rather one that is human-made. According to the “rules,” the harsh light of mid-day is the worst time to photograph. However, today’s unsettled weather found the sky filled with clouds moving at a good clip so I got my “Big Stopper” filter and went out to photograph Rochester’s iconic bridge, the Douglass-Anthony Memorial.
My camera set to ISO 100, lens @ 29mm, f/22 @ 30 secs., here it is:
Our annual June show is fast approaching! My entry’s theme is Winter’s Simplicity. Shot on film during those cold winter days that would seem never to go away, the photos show the season’s essence.
Stop by to say hello and ask any questions at the reception on June 9.
Best regards,
-Steve
As winter is simple, spring is complex as a variety of life re-emerges. Plants are budding, even though we had record lows and snow, earlier this month. Here are just a few photographs of what I found.
Winter is not the most popular time to photograph. Not only is it cold but everything is so drab. However, winter is a great time for us black and white photographers. So, I donned my winter gear and spent some time in the woods in late February looking for some good tree compositions to photograph after dark. My idea was to use my flash to highlight a particularly interesting tree so it would stand out against a relatively dark background, much as you might do in a studio with a black, felt background cloth.
Once finding the compositions, the trick was finding the same shooting spot after dark. Accomplishing that, I set my camera on a tripod; then using Kodak Tri-X 400 film I set my lens to f/2 and the shutter to bulb. While handholding my Speedlite flash off-center from my camera, I opened the shutter just long enough to manually trigger the flash. I took three shots of each composition at 1/1, 1/4, and 1/8 power. Twenty-seven frames later, here are the best (click to enlarge).
Located at the eastern end of Lake Erie, the Dunkirk power plant, built in 1950, now burns natural gas, though coal can still be used as a backup fuel. As you can see, the stacks no longer emit that dense smoke plume as in years past. Coal only produces about 1/2% of New York State’s power. In 1950, coal power generated nearly 46 percent of electricity in the country, making it the largest power source at the time, according to the Energy Information Administration. However, by 2017 natural gas had overtaken coal , generating about 34 percent of electricity compared to coal’s 30 percent.
Still, natural gas emits some particulates, along with carbon dioxide. While natural gas is a step forward, greenhouse gases will continue to raise global temperatures, most pronounced at the poles and in the seas, at an alarming rate. The computer models all show that the planet’s flora and fauna will be drastically affected by the end of the century. Many coastal cities will be partly under water, agricultural land will be displaced, and summer heat will become dangerously high.
Nova recently aired a two-hour special on climate change, showing each step of how scientists from a range of disciplines have demonstrated how the level of carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases such as methane and water vapor) have caused global temperature change over the past 800,000 years. Scientists have also documented the fossil fuel signature of modern carbon dioxide molecules, showing how they differ from those carbon dioxide molecules produced before the industrial revolution. This is the “smoking gun” proving not only that the global temperature is the hottest in 800,000 years, but that the warming climate is caused by human activity.
The documentary concludes with the political and economic realities, and the policy strategies needed to address this global threat. Addressing climate change is a formidable challenge not only because of politics and economics, but also because we not only have to stop emitting carbon dioxide, we have to go carbon negative to stop the steady increase of global temperatures.
This not only means producing nearly all of our power from renewable energy, it also means using far less power—leading us into what I call neo-industrialization. More on this in a future post.
Will we do it?
Even if you disagree with the findings of climate scientists, this Nova special is well worth watching. It is always useful to be familiar with one’s opponents’ arguments and evidence to know what one is refuting.
