ice

Climate change

My Point of View, Photography

A lot of people are talking about climate change. I witnessed it personnally during my stay in Austria last month. We were visiting the Grossglockner glacier. A funicular carries tourists down to the foot of the glacier….well down where the glacier used to be!

From there you still have to hike for a while to touch the ice. On the way down from the valley station of the cable car you can see sign which give you the glacier position at a given year. Watch for yourself!

Here a view down to the end of the funicular. No ice visible.

  
I took two images of the position signs : 1985 which was exactly 30 years ago and 1970, the year I was born. The view is quite striking, scaring.

What will be left here in 5 or 10 years?

   
 
Here a panoramic view from the top of the cable car

  
More images on flickr : https://flic.kr/s/aHskhZ3Fii

On the go-anyone fancy an ice dive?

Photo of the day

After work I had a glimpse at the Upper Sure lake. This drinking water reservoir is our one and only dive spot in tiny landlocked Luxembourg. Due to the changing water level ice diving is not often possible. The negative temperatures over the last days made me curious.
And guess what? Ice formation started in several parts. So I may have the opportunity to get under the ice soon. Any volunteers? Come on! Water is warmer than air right now!

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Goodbye “Little Red Ship”

Travels

It took me by surprise. The BBC ticker ran on my computer with a heading saying : Tourist ship sinking off Argentina. As I have a strong emotional connection to this part of the world since I’ve been there I checked it out immediately. The Explorer, “the Little Red Ship” was MY boat. I spent two weeks aboard in December 2004/Jabuary2005. I couldn’t really believe it until the first images of a sinking ship were on the net.

explorerI still remember the noise of the ice scatching the boat, the strong winds, the waves. Going through the Drake passage the natural elements remind you at every moment that you have to accept them, live with them. Fighting them is nearly impossible.

I never felt as close to Nature, except underwater.

 

I wrote already about that experince earlier. You are surrounded by strange birds, penguins, unable to fly, taking a close, curious look at you, not frightened at all. In the water they become fast and elegant swimmers.

In the skies large flying birds, such as albatrosses , storm petrels and skuas play in the wind.

icebergEntering the Antartic convergence we came across huge tabular icebergs,deep blue, larger than our boat. The unfortunate sinking of the Explorer reminds us all that after all “Terra Australis Incognita” remains one of the most hostile and unpredictable places on earth. Nowadays more and more ships cruise the Antartic peninsula. Are we aware of being in a environnement never dominated by men? We’ll soon going for a holiday on the moon , so what could happen on earth? We get so much used to control every movement in our life, but a trip down South is not a sunny Sunday afternoon walk.

Another question rises in my mind : how much damage will be done by the sunken Explorer? Leaking problems of the tanks? Hopefully not. A sad ending!

More photos here