Photographer highlights climate change in Antarctica in new exhibit

A Toronto photographer is highlighting the effects of climate change in Antarctica as part of a new photo exhibition.

Neil Ever Osborne, also a Trent University environment professor, traveled to Antarctica in November 2023, taking photos of the landscapes and animals that now sit in Toronto's Berenson Fine Art gallery.

While the photos serve as a reminder of his travels, he says they're meant to help spark conversations around the melting ice and endangered habitats on the continent. 

"Nowhere on planet Earth is going to be untouched by a warming world, including Antarctica," he said. 

Osborne says he made the decision to embark on a five-day journey to the continent with a team of researchers after learning that emperor penguins were struggling to breed — something he also attributes to a warming climate. 

Once he arrived, Osborne said he caught sight of dead penguins encased in ice. He says one possible scenario is that they died naturally on the sea ice.

"But it could also be the case that these penguins have fallen into melt ponds," he said. "We're making hypotheses and we're making some conclusions that that could be because of the warmer temperatures."

It wasn't just penguins that made Osborne come face-to-face with the effects of climate change. He says his cameras captured icebergs with arches that were caused by melting ice. 

"We're speaking to just how fragile this ecosystem might be. But I'd also like to think that these iceberg formations last a while. And so we're also speaking to the strength of the ecosystem as well."

Antarctic ice melting rapidly, study shows

The melting of ice in some of the world's coldest areas has been happening rapidly and steadily over several decades.

According to research from The Cryosphere, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, nearly 28 trillion tonnes of the Earth's ice has melted between 1994 and 2017, 2.5 trillion tonnes of this came from the Antarctic ice sheet, the study says.

The situation is alarming to people like Osborne.

The photographer has joined a global campaign by Only One, a non-profit organization dedicated to protection ocean health and tackling climate change. The campaign aims to help protect Antarctica's surrounding waters by calling on the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to establish four marine protected ocean areas around the Southern Ocean. The CCAMLR is an international body meant to protect and preserve the southern ocean and its wildlife. 

The online petition has gained more than 300,000 signatures. Osborne is encouraging guests to add their names to the petition. 

"If we can get enough of this critical mass to influence the decision makers, we stand an opportunity to make some real, meaningful consequences here, meaningful actions that could lead to the protection of Antarctica," he said.

Continent should be in 'deep frozen slumber': researcher

While the campaign continues to see signatures climb, York University professor and climate researcher William Colgan says combating climate change starts with lowering carbon emissions.

"We really need to reduce carbon emissions. That is the number one goal in keeping Antarctica the way it should be, which is in a deep frozen slumber," he said. 

Colgan says global emissions dropped by one per cent year over year during the pandemic, and says similar reductions are needed for the next 20 years.

"We've been stubbornly clinging to this so-called business-as-usual pathway," he said.

As for Osborne, he says his fight will continue, and that includes through his art. 

"Just like you and I get up every day to go to work, images can do that too. In some ways I feel like I have a responsibility to do more with this work. It's even an obligation," he said.

The exhibition runs until Oct. 12.