THE CLIMATE CHASE
Gardiner River along the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Montana, that washed out part of a road on Monday, June 13, 2022. (National Park Service via AP)
For the first time in thirty four years, Yellowstone National Park has been evacuated and is closed due to historic flooding, landslides and washouts.
Areas of Wyoming and Montana have recently received record breaking rainfall, leading to this historic flooding disaster. What feels like a very real escalation of the effects of climate change on our lives, and perhaps existence, was the impetus for my wanting to document what we stand to lose via our Tall Trees expeditions. It was our intention to bring even more awareness to the importance of our forests as the “lungs” of our planet, and how quickly that is being jeopardized with the loss of so much from wildfires, landslides/flooding, and insect invasion. But, we are saddened that we may be arriving too late to document Yellowstone.
Though often repeated rhetoric, it is the one fundamental truth of this time; if we fail to immediately and successfully act to stop the progress of, and maybe reverse, the results of climate change, then nothing else matters. Life will devolve into a daily struggle for existence, finally crossing a point of no return.
We will continue on with our expeditions for as long as possible, photographing Nature, wildlife, and a few of the humans who are leading the climate chase. The countdown already started. You should become one of the warriors to save our planet, if you have not yet. There are daily changes we can make to reduce the levels and effects of our pollution, and to assist in repairing the land, sea and air.
“We have forgotten that we, ourselves, are just a part of nature, an animal which seems to have taken the wrong turning, bent on total destruction.”
- Dame Daphne Sheldrick (b.1934 - d.2018) author, conservationist and expert in animal husbandry, particularly the raising and reintegrating of orphaned elephants into the wild for over 30 years.
** Daphne Sheldrick was long a hero of mine. When I began my travels in 2017, in France, I brought along my copy of her book LOVE, LIFE AND ELEPHANTS, stowed away safely in my backpack, with the intention of asking her to autograph it when visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust when I arrived in Nairobi. That was to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences for me. However, before I could get to Kenya, Mrs. Sheldrick was diagnosed with cancer for a second time and died on 12 April 2018. What a legacy she and her husband, David, left behind. I think this Dame Daphne quote could not be more appropriate and timely for today. - lc