I personally spend the majority of my time by far on outreach and education and fundraising and administration.
James BalogGlacial pace is actually an incorrect concept. The glaciers move a lot faster and they react a lot faster than people imagine.
James BalogI have often thought that my work with wildlife taught me the meaning of patience, and my work with the big trees taught me the meaning of humility, and my work with the ice has taught me the meaning of mortality.
James BalogThe problem is almost everybody is just recording the world with home photographic toys, not doing metaphor or ideas. We have a photographic culture that's not conditioned to think in terms of symbol.
James BalogThere is a glacier in Iceland, Solheimar, which has retreated a great deal, and every time I go back there and see what's not there any more, it does something to the heart. It makes you realise it's possible for a gigantic natural element to just disappear.
James BalogEarly in my career I discovered that there was something really special about photographing at night that places your mind on the surface of the planet. Youโre no longer just a human being walking around in the regular world. Youโre a human animal striding around on the surface of the planet thatโs out in the middle of the galaxy. We as a culture, weโre forgetting that we are actually natural organisms and that we have this very deep connection and contact with nature. You canโt divorce civilization from nature. We totally depend on it.
James Balog