Climate change is about more than melting ice caps and images of the Earth on fire, says Sean Valles, assistant professor in Michigan State University’s Lyman Briggs College and philosophy department.
We first went to Churchill, Canada, to see its famous polar bears, whose life was being threatened by the vagaries of a civilization. We went to touch the space of their frontier, because we knew that their continued presence on earth represents a critical buoy to our future.
The poet, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, wildlife photographer, and son of the renowned artist-couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude does not care for fame (he grew up with it) or even for the permanence of his work, he explains during a phone interview. “If we could stop the ivory trade, I would burn every [photo] negative tomorrow,” he says. Representations of wildlife essentially do not matter. He would rather see those animals thriving in their natural habitat. He writes, photographs, and films to inspire others in a call to action.