His images of global warming have struck a particularly responsive chord. "When I had pictures from my project on the BBC's website, I got 900,000 hits on my site on a particular day. My site usually shows about 25,000 hits, so there's a remarkable connection with people on this issue. They've begun to understand what's happening. My collection of photographs is drawn on constantly by magazines and environmental groups who are trying to illustrate what's going on."

His comparison photographs seem to have the most power. "People can see the changes that have occurred on the landscape. The glaciers are the most obvious. Photography is uniquely positioned to show us that this is the way it was, and this is how it is now." He also found that as he began to take pictures that depicted how people were affected by global warming, the response got stronger. "People in Bangladesh, kids in front of a power plant, kids in a wave in Tuvalu—the story is clear. We're already living with global warming and with the energy choices we've made. I think the more I emphasize the effect on people, the more people get it, and the more connections they make in their own lives."

There is, he says, an obvious honesty to these photographs. "People are often wary these days of photos because they can be changed and manipulated. No one expects an advertising picture to be real, but news pictures and pictures of the landscape and of storms—people know those are not faked. It gives global warming much more currency to see a picture made just last year or in the last few months of flooding taking place or of a particular dry area that used to be a glacier."

Gary has pursued the project on his own; it's not funded by foundations or corporations. "It's basically my own visits to the places in the world where global warming is a big factor. It's as simple as that: I go there and take the pictures that show the effects. In the last two years I've been to China, Australia, Bangladesh, Tuvalu, places in the Arctic—I've really expanded the project to make it a world view."

But global warming is not the only subject of his photographs. "I took a lot of photographs that show the landscape and the people of the places I visited. The project took me to places I'd never seen before, and I always took pictures that went beyond the project to depict the people and the country. It was always, hey, turn around and see what else is going on. But then, it's always been hard for me to stop taking pictures, no matter what the project or the assignment. The entire planet is there for me, and there's a connection between me and the world. First I see it and I appreciate it; then the camera comes into play, allowing me to make a record of what I see, to apply the magic that contrast and exposure and composition can do. So I get a double pleasure out of being in these amazing places."

Gary's book is not all about the evidence and extent of global warming. It's also concerned with what we can do to ensure the future. "I want people to understand that what's happened is serious, but it's not an unmitigated disaster. We have lots of things we can do, and there's still time to do them." A lot of those things, he maintains, will make life better for us in the long run. "We are going to be healthier if we don't burn as much coal for power. We're going to spend less money and put less pollution in the air if we have more efficient automobiles. We'll spend less money on our home's electricity if insulation is better and we use low-power appliances and generate some of our own power with solar cells on the roof."

To see more of Gary's photography visit his website at http://www.braaschphotography.com.

Gary Braasch has been an NPS member since 1975.