In the spring of 2005, National Geographic photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images of the Earth’s changing climate. The outcome: A movie called “Chasing Ice.” 

"Chasing Ice" star Adam LeWinter joined us for a discussion on how they did it and what they discovered. 

Learn more, and watch the film's trailer: http://www.chasingice.com/

About "Chasing Ice"

In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Even with a scientific upbringing, Balog had been a skeptic about climate change. But that first trip north opened his eyes to the biggest story in human history and sparked a challenge within him that would put his career and his very well-being at risk.

Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, including Adam LeWinter, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.

About Adam LeWinter

Adam LeWinter joined the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) in the beginning of 2007. Prior to joining EIS he was a design engineer and machinist in Colorado and New Zealand, bringing his practical experience in product design and fabrication to the custom-made time-lapse camera packages used by EIS. In addition to working on the development and fabrication of the time-lapse equipment, Adam managed the expeditions and fieldwork for EIS, working extensively in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, Montana, and Nepal.

LeWinter’s skills were utilized in the 2008 Discovery Channel show, Project Earth and he was featured in the 2009 NOVA production, Extreme Ice. He was also featured with James Balog in the June 2010 issue of National Geographic for their work capturing the changing landscape of the Greenland ice sheet. Over the years Adam has developed his photography through his experiences with EIS and in 2010 was offered an opportunity to work as a researcher at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, New Hampshire. His work now focuses on capturing changing landscapes using state-of-the-art LiDAR technology.