While at the Arctic Frontiers science and policy conference in Tromsø, Norway last January, I did a story about the booming phenomenon of Northern Lights tourism. “Seeing the light” is on everyone’s bucket list these days, and you can read more about it in my story that appeared online in Smithsonian Magazine this month.
CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW TO “SEE THE LIGHTS”:
Northern Lights shimmer above Lofoten Islands. © Randall Hyman
As the list of venues grows where I have presented my video/photo lecture show on climate change and sustainability, the NBC affiliate television station in St. Louis recently interviewed me about my travels in the Arctic as a Fulbright Scholar and beyond.
Display of Randall Hyman’s photos at lecture.
A trilogy of articles for Discover Magazine’s Field Notes department covers my recent trip with a team of scientists off the north tip of Norway studying clams for insights into Arctic climate change past and present.
CLICK ON PHOTOS BELOW TO READ EACH OF THE THREE ARTICLES:
Arctica islandica clam at Ingøya, Norway. © Randall Hyman
SECOND ARTICLE:
Scientists deploy rack of clams fitted with electronic loggers. © Randall Hyman
FINAL ARTICLE:
Scientists examine trove of shells washed ashore at Ingøya in storm. © Randall Hyman
On the final day of my week-long editorship of Smithsonian Magazine’s Instagram page exactly one month ago, here are the last three Arctic Oracle images and texts published. Click each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram page:
Scientist walks across thinning pack ice 500 miles from North Pole. © Randall Hyman
Newly-hatched kittiwake chick. © Randall Hyman
Northern Lights shimmer over Lofoten Islands. © Randall Hyman
On the sixth day of my week-long editorship of Smithsonian Magazine’s Instagram page one month ago, here are the three Arctic Oracle images and texts published. Click each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram page:
Sea angel. © Randall Hyman
First night of midnight sun in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Russian trawler’s catch. © Randall Hyman
On the fifth day of my week-long editorship of Smithsonian Magazine’s Instagram page one month ago, here are the three Arctic Oracle images and texts published. Click each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram page:
Scientist releases weather balloon at science base in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Emaciated, stranded polar bear looks for meal on land. © Randall Hyman
Scientist sets up GPS to track glacial flow. © Randall Hyman
On the fourth day of my week-long editorship of Smithsonian Magazine’s Instagram page one month ago, here are the three Arctic Oracle images and texts published. Click each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram page:
Bearded seal on ice in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Randall Hyman sits on iceberg in Arctic Ocean.
Scientist researches Arctic tern migration. © Randall Hyman
Next in the Smithsonian Magazine series, here are the three Arctic Oracle images and texts published exactly one month ago on the magazine’s Instagram page. Click each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram page:
Scuba diver gathers marine samples in the Arctic Ocean. © Randall Hyman
Diver triumphantly pumps fists after finding plankton beneath ice 500 miles from North Pole. © Randall Hyman
Entire face of glacier calves in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Following up on the previous post, here are the three Arctic Oracle images and texts published exactly one month ago on Smithsonian Magazine’s Instagram page. Click each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram page:
Puffin portrait in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Dog sledding in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Young Svalbard reindeer. © Randall Hyman
From May 17th through May 23rd, I hosted Smithsonian Magazine’s Instagram page and featured my Arctic Oracles project. I posted text and photos three times a day covering important aspects of the changing Norwegian Arctic. Here are the postings, one month later, day by day. Today’s three photos and text originally published May 17th. Click on each photo to retrieve the corresponding Instagram posts:
Randall Hyman stands on ice pack beside research ship 500 miles from North Pole.
Scientists take core samples of fjord ice in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
Norwegian children celebrate 17th of May in Kirkenes, Norway. © Randall Hyman
It is soldagen, or Sun Day, here in Tromsø, Norway, far above the Arctic Circle. Last time folks here saw the sun was mid November, and there is great anticipation on this clear frigid day in the third week of January, especially among the children. My day begins at 9:00 a.m. (still very dark in mid morn), attending a speech by the Norwegian prime minister on Arctic foreign and domestic policy in the wake of climate change. While she is from Norway’s right-wing party, there is no debate in Scandinavia about whether climate change exists, just debate about how to deal with the problems and opportunities, as avidly discussed this week at the Arctic Frontiers international conference. After another speech from Greenland’s first female prime minister about her determination to put traditional indigenous lifestyles above exploitation of the country’s lucrative mineral and petroleum resources, I slip out of the dark auditorium to catch a city bus for the coast.
When I was last here in July, kids were swimming in skimpy suits in the cold waters, but today the rocky shore is covered with snow and sheets of ice. Only three girls with a sack of cordwood get off the bus with me. The shore is empty, save for a couple of photographers shivering in the 15F° weather. Distant snowy mountain peaks are already glowing in the rosy first light of sunrise at 11am, but here the southern tip of Tromsø Island is still in shadow. The three girls begin building a fire, and soon more groups arrive, lighting fires along the shore. Suddenly a woman runs forward excitedly pointing and shouting. I swing around and, lo and behold, at 11:04 a.m. the sun has returned from her winter slumber.
Even I, having only spent a few days here, am giddy with excitement. It is the sun, in all her glory, beaming across the ocean from behind a mountain, dancing across the calm waters on this frigid winter day. I run along the shore photographing people’s reactions, and then it is over at 11:11am just as I catch a group of kids sitting on ice-covered beach rocks around a fire with the sun setting behind them.
Norwegian schoolchildren celebrate sun’s return in Tromsø, Norway. © Randall Hyman
(click above photo for video!)
I ask someone where all the school groups are that traditionally come each year to celebrate along the shore. A woman tells me they are on their way and will still see the sun rise. Impossible! It has already set! I suddenly hear the distant commotion of hundreds of boots shuffling down a snowy path carrying hordes of chattering children. Here they are, crowds of them, with suns painted on their faces and decorated paper headbands.
As the kids gather above the beach, the sun magically reappears from behind the distant mountains, as promised, playing peek-a-boo between peaks, tracing a low path along the horizon. Kids are darting wildly everywhere, waving, pointing and jumping with glee. Before it is all over, an hour has passed and the sun has set and risen three more times. I finally join the crowds of happy children and teachers marching from the beach up icy streets back to school.
For me, the celebration is still missing one thing. A girl walking her huge, fluffy white Samoyed dog (never did a dog look better suited for such an icy climate) suggests I duck into the Tromsø Museum to warm up and get some hot chocolate. I discover they have no cafe, but the receptionist escorts me into the staff cafeteria where a party is underway with workers happily drinking hot chocolate and munching on the traditional solbolle, or sun buns— sweet dough, fried like donuts and sprinkled with sugar, some with cream or raspberry filling. My hands are thawing, my spirits are high and my celebration is complete. The sun has returned home to the Arctic, and so have I.
CLICK PHOTO TO WELCOME THE SUN BACK:
Norwegian schoolchildren greet sun after almost two months without sunrise in Tromsø, Norway. © Randall Hyman
For those who have the stamina, here is a link to a video of my lecture, “Shattered Arctic,” at the St. Louis Zoo in December 2013. It contains much of the same material used in my lectures across North America about the impact of climate change on the Arctic. Through photos and videos, I present the Arctic as a crystal ball for the rest of the globe, exploring what is happening there and what it is telling us about our future. I also delve into what North Americans can do to improve that future. It’s over an hour long, but the first ten minutes are the most important. Enjoy!
CLICK POSTER TO GO TO LECTURE:
Many Americans seem to be waking up to the reality and threats of both climate change and the poisoning of the Arctic Ocean, with NPR, The Weather Channel and even conservative talk-radio shows eager to discuss the various topics I explored during my four-month Fulbright project in the Norwegian Arctic. Here are two more radio interviews:
CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW TO HEAR PODCAST:
Puffin colony in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
AND CLICK HERE FOR ANOTHER RADIO INTERVIEW:
Bearded seal in Svalbard, Norway. © Randall Hyman
As word spreads about my climate change work as a Fulbright Scholar, so does media coverage. Here is a link to a recent article about my work and photography posted on The Weather Channel’s website.
CLICK BELOW TO VIEW ARTICLE AND PHOTOS:
Diver prepares to slip through seal hole and explore Arctic Ocean beneath ice pack 500 miles from North Pole. © Randall Hyman
More and more Americans are becoming concerned about the fate of the Arctic and how it relates to their own actions and future. With growing concern comes increased media coverage. Link to my interview of December 9, 2013 on NPR’s St. Louis Public Radio affiliate, KWMU, which focuses on my traveling lecture show and exhibit, Shattered Arctic, and includes photos, embedded videos and podcast audio of three segments of the interview.
CLICK PHOTO TO GO ON AIR:
Northern Lights shimmer over Lofoten Islands, Norway. © Randall Hyman