http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/too-soon-gone-gary-braasch-visual-chronicler-of-climate-change

Braasch gets the last word, in the form of a short passage from Chapter 5 in that book that succinctly describes the vision he was pursuing:

However they come about, new controls on greenhouse gas emissions will have to be made across the entire spectrum of energy production and use. It is nothing short of a transformation to a world that still enjoys abundant energy, but it will be energy that comes from different sources…. An intelligent and fast-acting program for moving toward the best energy sources will have to involve equitable costs for carbon emissions and fair limits on greenhouse gas emissions; a level economic and legal playing field for all energy sources, purveyors, and users; and an open marketplace in which pollution level, safety, siting, and price will select the mix of sources. The fact of global warming is that we are going to need some combination of all kinds of clean energy.

The chapter heading, which could easily serve as Braasch’s epitaph, was: “Choosing a safer, cleaner and cooler world.”

Eban Goodstein

Bard College March 9, 2016

I worked with Gary when he took a half a dozen high school students up to Mt Hood for a few days to teach them how to shoot climate change stories back in 2002, on a project we ran called "Artists Respond to Global Warming." He was so generous with the kids-- I like to think they are all now doing good work, thanks to his influence.

Elizabeth Taylor

NJ March 9, 2016

Someone like Braasch, who got beauty and wonder and saw the threat to them, who worked devotedly and never gave up, is the sort of human more of us should know of and admire. Reading about him gave me a reassuring wave of knowledge that there are still folks that care much more about humanity and its home than how many Twitter followers they have, or how they can "monetize" their work. His work was his life, his life his work, for the good of all.

DavidMorris

Bellingham, WA March 9, 2016

This is a really fine report about a true hero to humanity and all the world. It is very moving and informative about the life of one very special person and about a very big topic and all of life on earth. I feel very appreciative of Mr. Revkin and Mr. Braasch and all of their associates engaged in the mutual endeavor to deal with the most critical challenge in the history of humanity.

GHS

Morristown, NJ March 9, 2016

A few years back, Jim Byrne, Peter Sinclair and I had the pleasure of a sit-down interview with Gary, with the discussion combining his usual clear-eyed analysis of what’s happening with climate alongside his characteristic optimism that if we can just envision - what an appropriate approach for a photographer! - a clean energy future we might be more empowered to achieve it. As Joshua Wolfe mentioned, Gary was kind enough to grant us access to many of his amazing images from all around the planet, as well as photos of himself, on the road. It’s good to read the tributes from his many collaborators and friends, but we thought you might also like to hear from Gary one more time, in his own words, and to see his smiles. He clearly loved doing his important work, his mission, his vocation… and he will be very much missed. We’ll update the video with dates and an "in memoriam" line, but for now we wanted to allow Gary to share his message of hope and progress in his own words and images.

https://vimeo.com/92280463

“Not farewell, but fare forward, voyagers…”

Geoff Haines-Stiles

Don McQuiston

Sedona, Arizona March 9, 2016

Back in the late 1980's Gary would occasionally come by our studios to show us his work of the Northwest, our firm Mcquiston & Daughter Inc.were producing photographic books on that part of the world along with large format books on the great western National Parks. It was always a pleasure to exchange ideas and talk about conservation issues with him. I like to think we all collectively enlightened people to the wonders of the natural world. I'm 83 now and in looking back it seems it was a gentler time for conservation, but I hope I'm wrong. Saving our planet is critical, it is the only home we have.
www.mcquistobooks.com

David B. Benson

southeast Washington state March 10, 2016

Physics demonstrates that atmospheric carbon dioxide elevates temperature.

Learn some physics so as not to appear the fool.

Scott Mc Kiernan

San Clemente, Republic of California March 9, 2016

nice tribute:)
Gary loved exploring and was a driven man with a passion for environment and protecting it.
He died with his boots on...
Braasch was an Environmental ROCK STAR!
AND was one long before it was cool to fight for Mother Earth.
We at ZUMA Press mourn our colleague and occasional ZUMA contributor and express profound sorrow to his family and friends.
Scott Mc Kiernan CEO/Founder ZUMA Press

Too Soon Gone – Gary Braasch, Visual Chronicler of Climate Change

Andrew C. Revkin

March 8, 2016 7:30 am

Gary Braasch was a gifted photographer passionately devoted to chronicling climate change. I only met him a handful of times, and always, regrettably, in passing. On Monday, word rapidly spread through environmental circles that he had died at age 70 while snorkeling with a companion near Lizard Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian Museum, which runs the Lizard Island Research Station, released a statement indicating that Braasch had been found floating face down and could not be resuscitated.

He was there, of course, to continue building the globe-spanning photographic record he had been creating since he latched onto global warming as his prime subject in the late 1990s. (Watch a 2008 presentation by Braasch and the climate scientist Stephen H. Schneider to get a feel for his work and views.) He mainly pointed his camera at ecosystems and human communities in harm’s way, but sometimes focused on the fossil fuel industry — most notably in capturing the first images of Shell’s (ultimately ill-fated) Arctic oil rig Kulluk as it prepared to drill an exploratory oil well in the Beaufort Sea in 2012.

Two of Braasch’s longtime friends and collaborators sent reflections on his life and legacy. Below you can read an appreciation by Joshua Wolfe, a photographer who has developed a variety of media and online projects related to climate change and energy.

But first, here’s Lynne Cherry, an author, illustrator and filmmaker who collaborated many times with Braasch, particularly notably in my favorite book on climate change for younger readers, “How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate.” You can explore some of the book’s beautiful pages here. But of course I recommend you buy a copy.

Here’s Cherry’s eulogy to her friend:

Gary Braasch, world-renowned photojournalist, died on Monday while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Gary was the first photographer to devote his life to documenting the effects of climate change around the world, to alert humanity about its perils and to encourage the world’s leaders to take immediate action to reduce CO2 emissions. Gary captured this profound love of place in his magnificent photographs which allowed the viewer to feel the essence of a place in a still image.

I write this stricken by grief but wanting people to understand what an extraordinary human being has been lost to the world, way too soon. This is a remembrance of our many years of adventures, exploring tropical rain forests, ancient forests, mangroves and national parks, searching cypress swamps for the ivory-billed woodpecker and interviewing and photographing climate change scientists. Gary loved the natural world and devoted his life to trying to save natural places, and with his work to stop climate change, the entire planet.

When I met Gary twenty years ago, he was an award-winning photographer for major magazines such as Audubon, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine and Life. His awards include the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography and Nikon’s Legend Behind the Lens [link]. But he would not consider assignments from any company that was causing harm to the Earth.

Living in the Pacific Northwest, in a cottage surrounded by huge redwood trees, Gary was especially focused on trying to save the magnificent old growth forests. His images allowed the viewer to experience these mysterious and magical places in a deep emotional way, capturing their unnamed shades of green, darkness broken by rays of light streaming down into natural cathedrals.

Gary was one of the purest souls I have ever known. His deep reverence and love of the natural world was unparalleled and it guided his life’s mission to convey the sanctity of nature to others in an effort to stem the steamroller of exploitation and destruction of so many things good and beautiful.

As Gary traveled the world as a photojournalist, he often photographed and wrote about scientists unlocking mysteries of the natural world and he began seeing a pattern: across disciplines, scientists were realizing that Earth’s climate was changing and affecting the organisms and ecosystems that they were studying.

One of the many scientists Gary accompanied and photographed was forest-canopy researcher Meg Lowman of the California Academy of Sciences. In reflecting on Gary’s life, she told me, “We have lost a hero of the planet. Gary not only portrayed the complex stories of Mother Nature, but he spoke in her voice, and inspired millions of people to both conserve and love the natural resources of our planet. Whereas Aldo Leopold used his pen, Gary used his camera lens to convey important messages about science.”

Gary aggregated the scientific research, accompanied by his rich photographs, into one of the first photographic books on climate change, “Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World,” and launched a website, “World View of Global Warming.”

Perhaps Gary’s most famous photos were those of receding glaciers. Gary found old photographs of glaciers from the 1800’s and early 1900’s and then traveled to those places and photographed what they looked like now—mere shadows of themselves. Some of these photographs were included in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”. Many climate scientists used Gary’s photographs to illustrate their lectures.

In an effort to alert the world to the climate crisis, to write about climate change on a level that would be understandable to the general public and to promote climate solutions, Gary and I wrote the children’s book, “How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Planet: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming,” which won 15 awards including the American Association for the Advancement of Science Best Middle-School Science Book of the Year. But, still, the world didn’t seem to be waking up to climate crisis.

So, in 2009, Gary and I founded Young Voices on Climate Change to champion youth solutions to the climate crisis through the “Young Voices for the Planet” film series. The films empower and inspire other young people to speak out and take action on climate change by documenting success stories at reducing CO2.

If Gary was looking down upon us now, what would he want? In tribute to his exemplary life, I think Gary Braasch would want us to share his images far and wide and to step up our own personal commitment to address climate change. He always believed that we all can make a difference.

One day while hiking in Aspen, Gary saw the mist beginning to float through a mountain pass and. Observing the position of the sun, he exclaimed that, from a higher vantage point, we would be able to see a rainbow forming. We raced up the mountain and, just as he had predicted, a breathtaking rainbow painted itself across the entire valley.

Being a world-class photographer requires waking before dawn to be at a special spot before the sun rises when the huge flocks of wood storks take off from their night roosts and return again at sunset. It requires being in tune with the ebbs and flows, the seasons, the light and shadow, the rain, the mist — and, sometimes, being able to predict what Mother Nature is going to deliver.

Now, Mother Nature is about to release havoc on the human race and Gary’s life was dedicated to trying to convince people to do something about it. We now have an opportunity to do something that could make a huge difference. Let’s pay tribute to Gary’s exemplary life: We can address climate change by working to get a price on carbon, which will reduce fossil fuel consumption and promote renewables. What a lasting legacy this would be for Gary’s decades of hard work.

Yes, I have a hole in my heart, but Gary’s spirit will be within every rainbow.

Here’s Joshua Wolfe’s note:

I was deeply saddened to read this morning of the passing of the environmental photographer, Gary Braasch. He was a friend, colleague, and mentor to many of us in the environmental field.

He never really got the credit he deserved. Gary was really the first photographer to fully dedicate himself to photographing climate change. He was the first to spend the time and energy working with scientists to understand what is an image that accurately reflects the science and tells a compelling story. As a freelance photographer, he made his living selling images to newspapers and magazines, but he took many of these photos before there was much of a market for them, passing up more lucrative subject matter.

I started photographing subjects related to climate change in 2004. At the time, I searched all the major news archives and with the exception of a few images of polar bears and the occasional photo from a small pacific island with a note saying this scene is threated by climate, there was very little other than Gary. Things started to change around that time. National Geographic came out with their full issue on the subject photographed by Peter Essick in 2004 and Al Gore came out with “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006. A whole generation of photographers trying to capture the effects of climate change began to emerge. Folks like Daniel Beltra, Ashley Cooper and Benjamin and Sara Drummond were finding news ways to tell the story of climate. Gary beat us all to the subject by a decade when he had started photographing climate change in the 1990s.

It’s hard to underestimate the value of establishing the visual language for a subject. When we discuss climate change, visual images pop into our head of melting glaciers, polar bears, drought, forest fires, and industrial smokestacks. For many people, the first image of climate change they internalized was taken by Gary’s camera.

Environmental photography is a field full of disappointments. A photographer will spend weeks to capture a photo that they hope will change the way the world sees an issue. Nine times out of ten, it won’t be seen by many people. I once spent two months working long days trying to capture the effects of rising sea levels, only to have magazines purchase the image of a bungee jumper I took on a long layover during my flight home. To keep your head up and go out again takes an enormous sense of mission. Gary had that. A trip to Washington, D.C., was not just a chance to meet with the photo editors who paid for his work, but an opportunity to go to Capitol Hill and show his photographs to as many members of Congress and staffers as would meet with him. Maybe just one of them would find a use for his images that would make the world a better place.

He had some big victories. He was the first person to photograph the Royal Dutch Shell floating oil rig 12 miles offshore from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It ended up running on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. As a freelance photographer, it took a huge leap of faith that this was worth photographing. Gary had to fly to Alaska and charter a small plane to take him close enough to photograph the oil rig. All of that is extremely expensive and there was no promise that anyone would pay to use the images. But for Gary, there was never a question. It was important that he tell the world about it and if he never made a penny from the image that would have been ok.

No project was too big or small to remember and find a way to help out. When I asked him for images to grace the homepage of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, he happily sent a collection to choose from, despite the fact we could only afford a fraction of his usual fee. I mentioned that an image of Malcolm Hughes in the field would be useful. Malcolm is being targeted by a legal nonprofit organization that doesn’t like the results of his research. The last email I received from Gary before he left for Australia read, “Hi Josh. I finally came up with a version of a photo of Malcolm Hughes in the White Mountains from 2002. Please use it, crop it if you want, if [it] will help your presentation about his work and challenges.” Three months after we talked he was still looking. It was a chance for his images to be useful.

Gary’s photography on climate change can be seen at worldviewofglobalwarming.org.

You also can and should buy his book, “Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World.“

Braasch gets the last word, in the form of a short passage from Chapter 5 in that book that succinctly describes the vision he was pursuing:

However they come about, new controls on greenhouse gas emissions will have to be made across the entire spectrum of energy production and use. It is nothing short of a transformation to a world that still enjoys abundant energy, but it will be energy that comes from different sources…. An intelligent and fast-acting program for moving toward the best energy sources will have to involve equitable costs for carbon emissions and fair limits on greenhouse gas emissions; a level economic and legal playing field for all energy sources, purveyors, and users; and an open marketplace in which pollution level, safety, siting, and price will select the mix of sources. The fact of global warming is that we are going to need some combination of all kinds of clean energy.

The chapter heading, which could easily serve as Braasch’s epitaph, was: “Choosing a safer, cleaner and cooler world.”

EXPLORING CULTURES: A Global Blog (all languages)

Friday, March 18, 2016

Andy Revkin's nice tribute to the late Gary Braasch (resting in peace now) on DOT EARTH blog at the New York Times, with comments below