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With the enormous and pressing amount of problems facing our planet today, artists and designers are needed now more than ever to help raise awareness and help devise solutions for tackling these global hurdles. One area that has become synonymous with the perils of climate change, the Arctic is in the midst of a crisis that could render its incredible beauty a thing of the past. Working to try and save this splendor before it vanishes for good, internationally renowned photographer, author and activist Sebastian Copeland has created Arctica: The Vanishing North as a stunning homage to the Arctic in a bid to help raise awareness of the immediacy of its situation. Filled with over 200 rich photographs taken as he explored its unforgiving terrain, Arctica (whose name recalls an ancient continent that once was situated in the current North Pole) presents a landscape in transition; moving from breathtaking vistas of impossibly flat ice sheets to images of struggling polar bears, whose own plight we recognize as a symbol of climate change’s toll on animal populations worldwide. This book strikes a strong balance between being an art object and being an activist call-to-arms, as it seamlessly weaves Copeland’s photos with accompanying texts by leaders in the fight against climate change; including Prof. Andrew Weaver, Dr. Ted Scambos, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Shelia Watt-Cloutier and Børge Ousland. Also featuring a foreword by Sir Richard Branson, the book captures the poetic grace of the landscapes that have captivated minds for centuries alongside a strong appeal for us all to help foster a more sustainable future so that areas like the Arctic will be enjoyed by generations to come. Its large size, 4 gatefolds and hardcover make it an item worth holding onto; a touchstone to catalyze the activist within all of us who hold mother nature’s bounty as dear as well as necessary for our own survival. Copeland provides a fine example of how artists and others who may feel they have nothing to contribute to this fight can find ways to help, and one can only hope that with our combined efforts the Arctic and areas like it can survive as more than photographs in the future.
© Arctica: The Vanishing North by Sebastian Copeland, published by teNeues, Bay of Qanaaq, Northern Greenland, Photo © 2015 Sebastian Copeland. All rights reserved.
