THE HIGH ARCTIC
Artist documentation on climate change from the summer of 2019 research and film expedition to the high Arctic in Utqiagvik, Alaska, the most northern point in the United States.
During the summer of 2019, Blane De St. Croix took a seven-person film crew to the high Arctic in Utqiagvik, Alaska, to document and study the effect of climate change. Utqiagvik, the most northerly point in the United States and home to almost 4,500 Inupiaq. It is also the most all-encompassing climate research area in the United States with the stations, labs and instruments throughout this Polar region. Major institutions to include the National Weather Service and Earth System Research Laboratory (both part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin.), Atmospheric Radiation Measurement, research Facility (Dept. of Energy), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Dept. of Interior).
Blane interviewed leading international climate scientists and spoke with the Inupiaq about the devastating effect of climate-changing in the Arctic. He extensively documented this vulnerable and fragile landscape—both the melting permafrost and the eroding Arctic Coast with the film crew and his camera. Due to climate change, the Arctic region is warming three-times faster, and 2019 was one of the hottest Arctic summer recorded.
Photographs
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- Utqiaġvik, the most northern point in Alaska, has an eighty-five percent Inupiaq population.
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- Over decades, intensity of the cold in Utqiaġvik is dramatically tamer due to climate change.
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- Abandoned Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, Utqiaġvik, AK.
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- NOAA’s Point Barrow, Alaska, observatory, close to the edge of the Arctic Ocean, and numerous other climate science lavatories throughout the area.
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- Nalukatuk festival, bi-annual traditional event to share and save the Inuit communities dance and song, Utqiaġvik, AK.
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- Artist with Inupiaq tribal leaders Herman Ahsoak and Ned Arey, overlooking the Arctic Ocean, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Installing Superbags of gravel to save the Utqiaġvik community from increasing climate created Arctic storms, AK.
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- Climate change has created severe Arctic storm floods in Utqiaġvik, AK.
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- Artist looks out over thousands of Superbags (gravel bags to protect coastal surges and storms). Arctic Ocean, High Arctic Utqiagvit, AK.
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- Superbags protecting the town from costal surges and storms in Utqiagvit, AK.
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- Artist standing in the Arctic Ocean after severe storm, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Local Utqiagvik graveyard flooded due to melting permafrost, AK.
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- Blane De St. Croix with Climate Scientist Craig Tweedie looking across the Arctic’s Permafrost, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Artist climbing 30 feet down to a research ice cavern below a giant ice wedge, Utqiagvit, AK.
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- The view 30 feet up from research ice cavern, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Artist with Climate Scientist Craig Tweedie in ice cavern dated back 75,000 years, Utqiagik, AK.
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- Arched ice cavern ceiling dated back 75,000 years, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Macro image of cavern ice dated back 75,000 years, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Fractured three story coastline collapsing into Arctic Ocean, North Western, Teshekpuk, AK.
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- Fracturing Permafrost collapsing into Arctic Ocean, North Western, Teshekpuk, AK.
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- Ariel view of fracturing Permafrost on the Arctic Ocean coastline, North Western, Teshekpuk, AK.
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- Ariel view of fracturing Permafrost on the Arctic Ocean coastline, North Western, Teshekpuk, AK.
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- View of vast Permafrost, High Arctic, Utqiagvik region, AK.
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- Artist carrying plein air sculpting crate through Permafrost, High Arctic, Utqiagvik region, AK.
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- Artist sculpting eroding Arctic Ocean coastline in view of Superbags, Utqiagvik, AK.
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- Artist sculpting permafrost erosion plein air on Arctic coastline, Utqiagvik region, AK.
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- Ariel perspective of artist sculpting permafrost erosion plein air on Arctic coastline, Utqiagvik region, AK.
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- Artist mailing plein air crated sculpture at most northern USPS station, Utqiaġvik, AK.
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- Inupiaq fishing village, High Arctic, Point Barrow, most northern point in Alaska.
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- Sea gulls feed on Bowhead whale carcasses, Point Barrow, most northern point in Alaska.
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- Bowhead whale carcasses, Point Barrow, most northern point in Alaska.
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- Polar bear scavenging for food, Copper Island, High Arctic, Alaska.
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- High Arctic, 2019, devastating loss of sea ice, Arctic Ocean, Utqiagvik region, AK.
blane de st. croix 