q: many people cringe at the idea of parasitic insects. what is it about parasites that interest you so much?

a: i think what i find so interesting about parasites is the fact that they challenge my assumptions about how the natural world works. i learned about biology, i learned about all these kinds of ecological interactions; predator and prey, and how animals evolve, defenses against predation, or competition. all of that sort of fits into a framework of how i understand the world. and these parasites come along and then give examples of things that don’t really fit that framework, and all of a sudden i realized wait a minute, the level of complexity that’s possible in nature is far beyond what i thought was possible. it’s not like i thought i knew everything about nature ahead of time. but you feel confident in saying ‘yeah, i see this hawk chasing after a squirrel. that fits into what i know of how the world works.’ and then you read or hear about how these parasites are manipulating their host, and you think that makes no sense. and i found that really interesting. it’s so novel; it’s so interesting to me.

q: how do you think photography can be used as a form of environmental communication and why might this be more effective than, say, a scientific paper?

a: photography has this advantage because we are very much visually oriented creatures. so much of our biology is based around the fact that we have such good vision. i think our brains are already well-built to take in imagery; it’s automatically stimulating for us. so, you sort of have this built-in advantage. in that sense, i think it takes a lot less effort to grab somebody’s attention. now, when it comes to changing somebody’s worldview, and inspiring their curiosity, and all those things, it takes more than just the image to do that. it takes a story, it takes context, and a better understanding of what your audience’s assumptions are. a photograph by itself can’t do all that, but it’s an amazing way into somebody’s attention. i didn’t really recognize that until i was having a conversation with my editor over that story, and he really defined my objective for that story. like, you’re not going to teach everybody about every step of this process. the magazine is only going to give you one page, one photograph. and your job is to get people to stop flipping through the magazine and read the caption. and i’ve really seen that as what the role of photography is more broadly. you can’t necessarily give somebody an entire biology lesson with a single photograph. but you can get them to be at least interested to learn about it on their own, or to listen to you talk, or to read the paper or read the article. i just think it’s this window into a larger subject.

q: in your talk “beauty and the bizarre,” you talk about photographing the emerald wasp. could you talk a bit about their relationship with cockroaches and the possible relation to parkinson’s disease? what exactly does the emerald wasp do?

a: the emerald cockroach wasp, or the emerald jewel wasp (another common name it’s known by) hunts cockroaches. but these cockroaches are larger than it, like many times. so rather than try to overpower it or kill the cockroach, it has figured out a way to immobilize its prey. it does that by leading its stinger into the back of the cockroach’s head. its stinger has special sensors that can actually detect where in the brain its stinger is, and it finds the part of the brain that is responsible for the motivation for movement in the cockroach. it then injects a venom cocktail that disrupts the dopamine activity of that part of the brain. and that’s a general way of describing a process that’s actually more complex than i understand. i know that it involves something that disrupts the dopamine activity. what that means is this cockroach can still move, but it can no longer decide to move on its own. so the wasp removes its stinger, and then it grabs the cockroach by an antenna, and by pulling on the antenna, that stimulates the cockroach to move. but if it lets go of the antenna, the cockroach can’t run away. so it’s this way of getting around the fact that its prey is too large. but it also doesn’t want to kill the prey because it’s not going to eat it itself, it’s going to actually feed it to its babies. it’s going to bury it alive with a single egg that can feed on this living cockroach that stays fresh, because it’s not dead.

so i visited the scientist frederic libersat in israel who studies the action of this venom. i went to the lab, and i photographed this. i had done some research on this biology, but i didn’t realize until after when i saw that professor give a lecture at a conference where he said “you know, we’re actually working with parkinson’s researchers to try and develop a better treatment for this disease by studying the wasp.” and that’s because the dopamine-disrupting activity of this venom has a similar mechanism to how parkinson’s works in humans. and what i don’t understand is how close that gap is. so on the one hand, it’s insane that our own brains and cockroaches brains share similar neurotransmitters. it kind of points to the common building blocks of all of the animal world, and the biological world more broadly. i don’t know how far along that collaboration is, or what the near-term implications are. i don’t know that they’re necessarily going to market with a new drug based on this, but i think the idea that they can think about the activity of this disease and the system from a mental perspective. it’s almost like a model system where the activity of this neurotransmitter and the chemistry of the cockroach’s brain is far simpler in terms of its effects on the cockroach’s behavior than our own super complicated brain and super complicated disease. so it’s a way to simplify a system and think about how to approach the much more complicated problem.

q: what’s next for you?

a: for the immediate, i’m very much trying to organize my life and take a break. but i am in the beginnings of my next project on jellyfish and using that as an example for how to think about complexity in the biological world. parasites is another example of this; it’s creatures that have something to teach us about how the world works. everybody knows about jellyfish, but even i’m just scratching the surface of how intricate and beautiful and complicated they are. to look at this thing that just looks like a bag of goo and to understand how it sees the world and has survived longer than almost any other animal on the planet, through mass extinctions. this is a cool thing that we could probably learn something from. so that’ll be the next project for me.

he applied for national geographic’s early career grant, and went to patagonia to photograph the biodiversity of these ecosystems. upon arriving back to d.c., he presented his work to national geographic, and proposed another story about parasites. he realized an immense challenge in this story, for he would have to get people to get over “their visceral aversion to parasites” and pay attention long enough to learn the fascinating science behind these interactions.

ultimately, his result was something uncannily beautiful. his inspirations were film noir, graphic novels, and japanese animation. in other words, hard lighting, dramatic backgrounds, and selective attention to detail. from japanese animation he learned that “not all details are equal”: for a human character, anime emphasizes the eyes in order to make characters more expressive, more emotionally appealing. varma had to figure out exactly what details were important in telling the beautiful, fascinating story about parasites he had in mind. in his photo of a crab infected with a parasitic barnacle, the important details were the millions of specks coming out of the crab: parasitic barnacle larvae. he didn’t care about the texture of the crab, or its color, but rather draws the viewers attention to the millions of parasitic offspring coming out of it.

similarly, when he was photographing bees for a different story, he realized that he had to find a new, fresh perspective that was interesting and engaging. he needed to find a different story about bees that had not been done before. after much experimentation, he zeroed in on the figures of bees emerging from their cells. he did a time lapse of bees developing, the first 21 days of a bees life condensed into 60 seconds, and the results were astonishing. varma has an ability to turn such essential natural processes that are normally hidden, hard to see, and hard to grasp into recognizable and beautiful processes.

the last piece that he showed us shocked me with a sense of wonder. he translated a hummingbird. the photo shoot was set up so that the hummingbird would fly through an artificial wind chamber, with a fog machine blowing visible fog so that you could see the air stream around the hummingbird. then the video footage was slowed down 100x so that the rapid pace of hummingbird life was suddenly translated into human time. the result was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. i will remember the blinking of a hummingbird’s eye for the rest of my life.

up next: town hall: do we have the energy to lead? >

“i have always believed that tourism and conservation go hand-in-hand,” he said in the video. “i wanted to connect people with wild places — and i wanted them to understand the importance of these places.”

frank sesno then welcomed lindblad to the stage and they began with lindblad sharing some insight into what storyfest winners will be experiencing on the expedition to alaska with lindblad expeditions.

we’re constantly looking for ways through storytelling to broaden the exposure of these experiences — the beauty, wonder, and relevance, lindblad said.

sesno also asked whether he had witnessed any evidence of climate change himself.

lindblad shared that he’d just returned from the norwegian arctic — after not visiting since about 1976. on his original trip he said they wouldn’t have dreamed of going prior to late july because the sea ice would have been so thick. this march he traveled to see what it was like in the spring — so this was four months earlier in the year than his previous journey, 42 years ago. what did they find?

“just very thin sea ice, formed very recently. we were totally able to move freely,” he said. “and it’s been that way for years — though this was a particularly extreme year. and this is happening all over the arctic.”

up next: anand varma: the beauty and the bizarre >

he captures the potential of this form of media in order to show people what the inside of a melting glacier in iceland or the deteriorating reef ecosystems of the south pacific look like.

giving a viewer a 360 degree experience complete with sound effects and movement provides a powerful communication platform with which to evoke emotions from the viewer and thus make that viewer care about these problems.

the future of ar/vr is incredibly bright and is developing rapidly with the power to make huge impact in environmental storytelling.

up next: the explorer’s story: sven lindblad >

these techniques are so important because they translate science and data into easily consumable stories.

while the story, “greenland is melting away,” includes a written article, the important information that appeals to the viewer’s emotions is in the infographic that combines the footage of a drone and satellite. the viewer can see the researchers’ tents set up near the river, and then zoom out and see that it is not just this one river, but many rivers melting greenland from the inside out.

this is layered with data, relaying all of the surprising and important facts about how much water each river carries, and the impact these rivers have on the land mass of greenland and salinity of the surrounding ocean.

up next: reality revolution: how ar/vr can create empathy, urgency, and a new sense of place >

the following panel consisted of policinski, beth stewart, creative directory for discovery’s in house ad agency, felecia nave, former provost of prairie view a&m, and roric paulman, owner of paulman farms in nebraska. chris mooney of the washington post listened to their stories, and then presented his findings to the audience: what would he choose from these characters’ work to write a story about?

stewart and discovery are partnering with the world wildlife fund in order to double the amount of wild tigers by the year 2022. mooney identified three different stories, each for a cause of the declining tiger populations. the story about poaching considers the question, why haven’t we stopped this problem and what are the challenges facing the end of this problem? the second story hones in on conflict with humans. he suggested pursuing a character who realizes that conflict is not the only way to live with tigers and then chasing the story based around this character. the third story would focus in on habitat loss.

mooney was interested in one of policinski’s problems in particular: how is dialogue failing to occur between farmers and the rest of the population and what are some examples? this story would focus on this problem and how to find a solution.

regarding nave, mooney brought to light the problems facing communication of science. the public will not always understand the point of scientific research if there is no clear result, if they do not understand how it is benefiting them. he says that it is crucial to link the science education and investment to innovation, company, product, and economic development. without a solid outcome it is hard to relate science to a public audience.

paulman’s story also played the role of bridge building. mooney wanted to know what made paulman different that he was willing to engage in conversations about sustainable agriculture and the environment, whereas other farmers were not receptive to such conversation. what needs to be communicated to other farmers in order to bring this kind of conversation to the table, how do we get other farmers to care about this issue?

up next: climate fwd: how the new york times is transforming environmental reporting >

storyfest finalist and planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播  olivia urbanski, of loyola university chicago, talked about the video she made while studying abroad at ol pejeta conservatory featuring sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, who died on march 20, 2018.

harrison watson, of jackson state university in mississippi, and a storyfest 2017 finalist and amazon traveler, talked about the use of language in storytelling — how words can take us to a deeper place than images and sounds, and his interest in the intersection of religion and environment.

anna sumi a recent george washington university grad, spoke of her adventures to siberia in summer 2017, and the challenge of translating science. one major issue for these arctic urban areas is the melting permafrost, for their infrastructure is built according to the permafrost layer, and its degradation will disrupt the entire foundation of these cities.

alaine johnson of yale-national university of singapore, a 2018 planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播 and storyfest finalist, talked about her studies, which have her looking at how patterns of urbanization are effecting the way we are linked with the environment. using yoga as an example, she said the instructor is telling you to feel the earth beneath your feet — but it’s kind of hard to do that when it’s 22 stories below you. 

zack smith of suny-esf, and also storyfest 2017 finalist, spoke of the magic of sound, and the power that vibrations have to transport the listener to a place.

up next: what’s your sustainability story? >

national geographic brought the photographers together. having collaborated on many projects, the pair decided to start their own organization to inspire a new generation of environmental photographers.

to explain how they got to this point, they started with their own stories: slides of pictures of them as kids, both growing up on farms and playing outdoors, and then getting interested in taking photos. jim won the county fair’s blue ribbon prize for his black and white photo of a dog looking whimsically into the distance. fast forward 30 years, and they were both working for national geographic, doing stories on the ogallala aquifer, soil health, and how to feed the growing the planet.

these pieces inspired the next series of photos, pictures of the same landscapes through time. the alberta boreal forest a blend of green trees blurring together and then the same picture, more recently, of destroyed landscape and oil sands, a story of demolition and destroyed biodiversity.

they posed the question: how do we address a rapidly growing world with skewed food, power, and economic privileges? will we lean toward a world running on stored sunshine, energy billions of years old captured in the form of coal and oil? or, will move toward a more beautiful and regenerative world of current sunshine?

up next: find your voice, raise your voice: student storytellers >

frank sesno, founder of planet forward and host of the conference, warmly welcomed the audience to the kickoff of a killer summit. now more than ever, he said, we need to find ways to “communicate and connect, to engage public audiences.” in a politically divided time, these stories will provide a uniting platform on which a divided population can engage in conversation. “you will simply do better if you can communicate,” sesno said.

tom lovejoy, the “godfather of biodiversity” and founder of camp 41, a research camp located in the heart of the amazon, stepped up on stage for a short conversation with sesno. lovejoy sees the earth and environment as not just a physical system, but a linked physical system, and he believes it crucial for humanity to recognize this fact in order to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .

up next: eyes on earth: inspiring a new generation of storytellers >