James Balog’s Chasing Ice

In December 2012 a huge glacier that broke up and collapsed in Greenland was captured on film and thanks to the film of it the news went viral, and was featured on news channels and in newspaper reports worldwide. The glacier itself was around 3,000ft high and it retreated for almost a mile during the calving.

Today’s documentary is the story behind the filming of that event, following the life work of award winning National Geographic photographer James Balog. James has been publishing groundbreaking works on wildlife and the environment since the 1980s, his latest project being on the effect of climate change on the ice fields.

The film gives background on James’ previous works before moving to his latest project and follows the difficult and at times dangerous work of trying to bring the effects of climate change to people in a way that they can actually see what is happening.

One of the problems with getting recognition for the devastating effects of climate change has been that it mainly consists of arguing over numbers and models. James’™ work makes it come alive and therefore has an impact scientific discussion by itself lacks.

Below there are two videos, the first simply shows the break up itself, and the second is the main film made by National Geographic.