honorable mention
Paul Christener switzerland
title
What Will Happen To Us?
The question went through my mind as I hiked with my wife on a rainy day in Switzerland’s Emmen Valley region. In 1896, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius pointed out that burning coal and kerosene could lead to global warming. According to NASA, since the measurement of global temperatures began in 1880, 18 of the 19 hottest years have been measured in the past two decades. Most of the carbon that humans have spewed into the atmosphere has been emitted in the past 30 years.
David Wallace-Wells, the author of The Uninhabitable Earth, begins his latest book with, “It is worse, much worse than we think.” Day by day, we knowingly destroy what we require to survive. In the words of Wallace-Wells, “We have done as much damage to the fate of the planet and its ability to sustain human life and civilization since Al Gore published his first book on the climate than in all the centuries.”
You don’t have to be a scientist to realize that we have reached a critical point in history. It is more than doubtful that the “well below two-degree Celsius global warming target” established by the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement can be met.
I compare the situation today with the first (and only) crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by the RMS Titanic in 1912, a few miles away from an iceberg whose size could not be foreseen. The captain, convinced of the unsinkability of the Titanic, is not a human being but a world intoxicated by a mixture of populism, false information, lies, stupidity, and special interests—a dangerous cocktail that does not inspire confidence in the future.
All images made on 120 Ilford PANF 50 ISO Rollfilms.
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entry description
What Will Happen To Us?The question went through my mind as I hiked with my wife on a rainy day in Switzerland’s Emmen Valley region. In 1896, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius pointed out that burning coal and kerosene could lead to global warming. According to NASA, since the measurement of global temperatures began in 1880, 18 of the 19 hottest years have been measured in the past two decades. Most of the carbon that humans have spewed into the atmosphere has been emitted in the past 30 years.
David Wallace-Wells, the author of The Uninhabitable Earth, begins his latest book with, “It is worse, much worse than we think.” Day by day, we knowingly destroy what we require to survive. In the words of Wallace-Wells, “We have done as much damage to the fate of the planet and its ability to sustain human life and civilization since Al Gore published his first book on the climate than in all the centuries.”
You don’t have to be a scientist to realize that we have reached a critical point in history. It is more than doubtful that the “well below two-degree Celsius global warming target” established by the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement can be met.
I compare the situation today with the first (and only) crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by the RMS Titanic in 1912, a few miles away from an iceberg whose size could not be foreseen. The captain, convinced of the unsinkability of the Titanic, is not a human being but a world intoxicated by a mixture of populism, false information, lies, stupidity, and special interests—a dangerous cocktail that does not inspire confidence in the future.
All images made on 120 Ilford PANF 50 ISO Rollfilms.
back to gallery