Adam LeWinter surveys Birthday Canyon, about 150 feet deep, in
Greenland on June 28, 2009. / James Balog, Extreme Ice Survey
Photographer James Balog set out to film climate change by
placing two dozen time-lapse cameras throughout the Arctic. The
result, aside from frostbit fingers and a near helicopter crash,
are stunning images of melting glaciers. His footage is captured
in "Chasing Ice," a 75-minute documentary with scenes of a house
being washed away by surging water - a timely visual given
Superstorm Sandy's recent rampage along the East Coast. The film
opened Friday in New York City and will enter select U.S.
theaters later this month. Balog, once a skeptic of global
warming, was surprised by what he and his crew found. "In the
first few months, we were seeing tremendously mind-boggling
change in some of the cameras," he says. "Then as a few years
went on, we all started to get the feeling of, God, this is such
a powerful piece of history. We've got monumental change
happening in front of our eyes." H