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Photographer seeks to start global change locally
Joe Duggan / Lincoln Journal Star
Throw a frog in a pot of boiling water and it will supposedly jump out.
Not many speakers use frog metaphors at a public lecture before 2,300 people. But by the time National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore got on amphibians Thursday night, he had his Lied Center audience engrossed by tales of the world and the photographic images he has made along the way.
For nearly 90 minutes, the Lincoln photographer was humorous, solemn, agitated and provocative in an attempt to get people to not only care about keeping Earth a living planet, but to do something about it.
Sartore's lecture was the first in a series on the environment presented by the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues.
But back to the frog.
Dump the hot water, fill the pot with cool, put the same frog in, turn the flame on low "and he'll stay in there until he cooks," Sartore said.
Plants, animals and humans will cook together if we don't respond to global climate change soon, a colleague at National Geographic recently told Sartore. The magazine, which prides itself on accuracy, has reported that just a 1.8-degree rise in the world's temperature will trigger water shortages, glacier melting and a rapid increase in the pace of extinction a third of the planet's species. Even now, half of the world's amphibian species are on pace to go extinct within the next 10 years.
What happens to them will happen to us, Sartore said. And not just in places like Alaska and the Amazon, but right here in Nebraska, too.
"Humankind is on the edge of a great cliff,"he said. "Environmental ruin is at the bottom."
A hotter planet is the symptom. Among the causes are unbridled consumerism, gas-guzzling vehicles, wanton extraction of natural resources for profit and urban sprawl, according to Sartore. He even took a swipe at corn ethanol, asking people to consider if it's really the best substitute we can find for fossil fuels, a question he readily admits isn't a popular one to ask in his home state.
Then the audience found itself looking at a single lump of coal on the huge auditorium screen. That shiny black rock, which fuels the power plants that light our lamps and pump music from our iPods has more to do with an impending environmental peril than all of the above.
Change must happen, on a tidal scale, Sartore said. He urged the U.S. to lead the world in making the change because he's seen developing countries where people are simply too busy trying to survive to think about the planet.
"We're wealthy. We can afford it,"he said.
Then Sartore gave the audience members a few suggestions on what they can do.
Buy less stuff and reuse it. Recycle it as a final option.
Be informed and vote.
Spend your money on goods produced sustainably and closer to home.
Drive a smaller car.
Ride a bike when you can.
Keep an open mind.
The problems look overwhelming, but by taking small steps, we all can make changes that will add up.
There is still time, he said. But just barely.
What if all the people in Memorial Stadium Saturday started changing the way they live, Sartore asked.
"If we could get 80,000 people to care about something significant, about the future of life on Earth, could we save the planet?"
"You bet we could."
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.
This article appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star September 14, 2007.