HYDE PARK — People can now watch 10 years of glacial melting happen in just a few minutes at a new exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry.
“Extreme Ice,” which opened Thursday at the museum at5700 S. Lake Shore Drive, collects the photos and videos of mountaineer James Balog, including time-lapse videos of glaciers that stretch over 10 years.
“When I look at this ice sheet, I see something dying,” Balog said Thursday, pointing to a picture of a glacier from 2006, just before he started setting up time-lapse cameras in some of the most remote places on Earth.
He said was sent out on assignment by National Geographic to shoot the glaciers, and it became clear something profound was happening that most people were still unaware of. Balog decided to build time-lapse cameras to capture visually what scientists were telling him was happening during his expeditions.
"Chasing Ice" documented the first four years of James Balog's experiments of time-lapse photography of glaciers. He's bringing another seven years of footage to a new exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. [Youtube/bavajose]
“In the beginning, I didn’t know what the glaciers would do,” Balog said.
What he captured are some of the first images ever that show sheets of ice nearly the size of a mountain make a 10-year crawl out of the peaks and into the ocean.
The exhibit, which was curated by staff at the museum with Balog’s help, will run for the next two years.
“Extreme Ice” also collects some of Balog’s most striking images during his many mountaineering expeditions and puts them in the context of how climate change has transformed these landscapes since he started his project.
Balog said he doesn’t have a lot of patience for how politicized climate change has become as the evidence of its effects become more clear.
“These kids are going to be paying the consequences of melting glaciers when they’re my age,” Balog said.
Kids flocked to Balog at the exhibit on Thursday when they weren’t touching a giant ice wall the museum created for the exhibit.
“From the get-go, this exhibit about ice and glaciers, we thought we wanted something real that people could touch,” said Patricia Ward, director of science exhibitions and partnerships at the museum.
And people were eager to touch the white wall of ice, leaving behind imprints of their hands melted into its surface.
The exhibit is included with the cost of museum entry.
