The Climate Pledge is collaborating with the National Geographic Society to support climate storytelling as part of the Society’s Global Storytellers Fund. Over the next three years, we will empower 15 National Geographic Explorers to document the global climate crisis through authentic storytelling and illuminate the challenges, solutions, and communities on the front lines. The collaboration will also support up to 45 mentees as part of the Society’s Second Assistant Program, which empowers early career women and storytellers of color by training them and placing them in the field alongside National Geographic Explorers.

The first five National Geographic Explorers to be supported through this collaboration include:

• Ciril Jazbec

Climate resilience in communities facing glacier melt in the Himalayas, Alps, and the Andes

• Luján Agusti

Peatland ecosystems globally focused on five significant peatlands in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Northern Europe

• Miora Rajaonary

Climate impacts on food supply and agricultural solutions to Southern Madagascar’s “Kéré,” or period of hunger

• Kiliii Yüyan

Traditional Indigenous methods of conservation land-management and climate change mitigation communities in Russia’s Bikin National Park and Palau

• Asha Stuart

Climate and environmental justice in the Southern United States

In an era that is so traversed by digital influence, anthotypes scans represent a magic of losing control and moving away from the “perfect image,” inviting randomness. The exploration of these images reflect on the place that peat bogs have historically occupied in society, despite the great environmental value they have. These images question the beauty and hegemony of the image.

These anthotypes are made with an emulsion that included turmeric and peat extracted from a peat bog that is in recovery from being drained, located in the area of the valley near the Olivia River. They were created by painting paper with an emulsion containing the material and, together with an image in transparency, exposing them to sunlight, which creates the image.

Peatlands are a type of wetland with accumulation of organic matter in basins generally of glacial origin. They form when the deposited organic material exceeds the decomposition in a lagoon or swamp after glaciers left. Peatlands are considered one of the largest biological carbon deposits in the world. They are common in North America, Northern Europe, and Patagonia. The Island of Tierra del Fuego houses 95% of the peatlands of Argentina, including those of Peninsula Mitre, the largest in South America. Fuegian peatlands arose as a result of the decrease and disappearance of glaciers, and may be up to 18 thousand years old. Many times these peatlands are known as BLACK GLACIERS.

-Luján Agusti
National Geographic Explorer, Argentina