In her new book, entropy photographer Diane Taft explores the damage a warmer climate is doing to bodies of water.
Utah’s Great Salt Lake (pictured above) is a notable example. Here, as temperatures rise due to climate change, demand for fresh water from industry and agriculture has slowed the flow of mountain streams, and the lake’s volume has shrunk to two-thirds of what it was in 2000. The phenomenon, photographed by Taft from a helicopter, is the result of differently pigmented algae living in either high-salinity (pink) or low-salinity (blue) waters separated by railroad causeways.
The second image shown above shows what was once a rice field turned into a salt pan on Qutubdia Island in Bangladesh. This country is on the brink of water quality change. Projections suggest that by 2050, 17 percent of the country could be underwater, with saltwater rendering much of the land unsuitable for crops.
With too little water on one side and too much water on the other, “both places perfectly represent problems at opposite ends of the spectrum,” Taft says.
Photographer Diane Taft
Publisher Monacelli/Phaidon
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Source: www.newscientist.com
