The recent Wilkins ice shelf collapse has provided us with one more danger signal that the global warming is for real. And more and more scientific studies are point towards the disturbing (at least it should be) possibility that IT IS already too late for us to stop the climate change. It is well and truly under way and all we can try to do is lessen its impact by slowing down its devastating march. The Earth is predicted to be in the middle of sixth mass extinction. So while we’re trying to get our act together in slowing down the climate change, it is also a good idea to try and record the ecology as it is today. Because after 20 to 30 years, many of its features will be extinct, such as various species or ecosystems. Extreme ice survey (EIS) is one such attempt at painstakingly recording the ice-features of the world before they start vanishing like the Wilkins ice shelf.

EIS describes itself as “the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. EIS uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography, and video to document the rapid changes now occurring on the Earth’s glacial ice. The EIS team has installed 27 time-lapse cameras at 15 sites in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. EIS supplements this ongoing record with annual repeat photography in Iceland, the Alps, and Bolivia.” The originator of this idea and project, James Balog, is an internationally acclaimed nature photojournalist and a mountaineer with a graduate degree in geomorphology. In 2006, while shooting for a cover story for National Geographic, Balog recognised that the features that took centuries to develop were being destroyed in just a few years or even just a few weeks. These changes were the most visually dramatic and immediate manifestations of climate change on our planet today.

The project was started with the aim of recording the movements, birth and demise of these magnificent white, glittery landscapes across the planet. The website showcases some fabulous videos, photographs and time-lapses that are a result of meticulous efforts of the EIS team. The website also gives some interesting information about glaciology and climate change that any visitor will find useful. But it doesn’t just stop at telling you how the glaciers form but it goes on to tell you what you can do to stop them from disappearing so fast.It is definitely a website and a project that is worth a look and think, a commendable effort on behalf of humanity to preserve the images of the present which might be lost forever to our future generations.