Tag Archives: climatechange

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I was looking over my photos today and rediscovered this image from Haiti. I had split from my group and decided to take my Holga for a walk when I came upon a group of mausoleums. I observed the reddish-brown demarcation on the mausoleum where the floodwaters had risen,…..when from nowhere this young boy, walked into the frame. I was relieved that I was not seeing an apparition. This relief was based on my sense of rawness – from that sense of bearing witness to collective thirst, hunger, and misery. When we had arrived with our supplies we were not rushed upon as people had grown too weak… this was compounded by an eerie sense of quietude – as all the animals had either died in the flood or eaten to survive.

Image © AnaElisaFuentes/Archive

Katrina10 – Children, Education and Toxic Metals

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BAY ST. LOUIS, MS -- SEP 12, 2005: A soil sample is placed on a desk in the kindergarten classroom at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. Samples were collected to look for heavy metals and toxins. PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS — SEP 12, 2005: A soil sample is placed on a desk in the kindergarten classroom at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS -- SEP 12, 2005: Gene Herring, Environmental Engineer with the Mississippi Department of Health takes a soil sample from the kindgergarten classroom at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. Samples were collected to look for heavy metals and toxins. PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS — SEP 12, 2005: Gene Herring, Environmental Engineer with the Mississippi Department of Health takes a soil sample from the kindgergarten classroom at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. Samples were collected to check for heavy metals and toxins.
PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS -- SEP 12, 2005: Gene Herring, Environmental Engineer with the Mississippi Department of Health holds a clay sample washed to shore from the

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS — SEP 12, 2005: Gene Herring, Environmental Engineer with the Mississippi Department of Health holds a clay sample washed to shore from the “bottom of the Mississippi sound” – the area of water between the barrier islands and the shore. Samples were taken to test for heavy metals and toxins released from the hurricanes storm surge. Samples were collected at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005.
PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.

GULFPORT, MS -- SEP 9. 2005: GULFPORT, MS -- SEP 9, 2005: DR. Alan Manevitz, psychiatrist from New York, New York, embraces Frances Fields, epidemiology nurse, district two of Tupelo, Mississippi. Both are members of the Mississippi Emergency Agencies on the gulf coast. Photo: Ana Elisa Fuentes for the New York TImes.

GULFPORT, MS — SEP 9. 2005: Dr. Alan Manevitz, psychiatrist from New York, New York, embraces Frances Fields, an epidemiology nurse, from district two, Tupelo, Mississippi. Both are members of the Mississippi Emergency Agencies on the gulf coast. Dr. Manevitz, is a trauma expert who worked with the public during 9/11; volunteered to assist during hurricane Katrina. Photo: Ana Elisa Fuentes for the New York Times.

 Photos copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes

Views from Air and Water

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Aerial view of devastation caused by hurricane Katrina, over Gulfport, Mississippi on Sunday September 11, 2005. The long red/orange object to the right, is a barge that served as a gambling casino. The water and winds from the hurricane relocated the casino to a different neighborhood.

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This is what the front page looked like.

Dap Dang, of Biloxi, Mississippi, paddles his skiff to assess the damages done by hurricane Katrina to the family shrimping business,

in  Gulfport, Mississippi,  on Friday, September 9, 2005.

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Throwback Thursday – with all the chatter about the upcoming anniversary of hurricane Katrina, I started going over my photo archive and

rediscovered this photo of me sitting on the tail of a Chinook helicopter, which served as  my photography vantage point while on assignment, flying with the Ohio National Guard.

 One of the best times in my life ever!

Recorded on September 11, 2005.

Hard to believe ten years have gone by.

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The Chinook preparing to land in New Orleans, bearing 14 tons of supplies and yours truly. The stench from above was foul.

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A nomadic woman walks with her belongings to the river, along the Plateau of Tibet, at elevation of 12,000 feet. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, at the United Nations, in New York, New York. Photographed on Kodak color slide film with flash fill. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes.

Nuns walk with their dri ( a juvenile yak) on the Plateau of Tibet. Image copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Photographed on color slide film, donated by Kodak. Selected for the Voice exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, United Nations.

Nuns walk with their dri ( a juvenile yak) on the Plateau of Tibet. Image copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Photographed on color slide film, donated by Kodak. Selected for the Voice exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, United Nations.

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Two women wait for a bus in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Photographed on Kodak color film. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes.

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Women, members of the Dani tribe mourn, the passing of their tribal chief, in the Baliem Valley, of Irian Jaya. A very rare photograph. I was permitted to sit on my haunches at the entrance to the mourning hut to record three frames. Recorded on color film. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

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A refugee from the war in El Salvador, this young girl studies at a school in San Miguel Desamparados, a village outside the of San José, Costa Rica. Recorded on Kodak black and white film, copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Selected for the exhibition by Her Eminence Mary Robinson.

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Children on a street corner, with a playful scheme in mind, in Havana, Cuba. Recorded on black and white film. Image copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

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A mother carries cooking embers with her children following behind, on a main street in Port-au-Prince,Haiti. This photograph was recorded after the UN exhibit. However, it illustrates one of the main points in my presentation which I will deliver in Oxford, England, next month. Digital image, photo copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes

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A Haitian hurricane survivor waits for medical attention, at a refugee camp, in Jimani, Dominican Republic. Digital image copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes. This photograph was recorded after the UN exhibit. However, it illustrates one of the main points in my presentation which I will deliver in Oxford, England, next month. Photography copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes

All images copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes.

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Women, Climate Change and World Refugee Day: Connect the Dots

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webIMG_0164Today is World Refugee Day, and this begs the question, how  many of us will become refugees as a result of climate change? This Haitian woman, is a hurricane survivor who was relocated to a camp in the Dominican Republic at the border with Haiti. TWO PERCENT of Haiti is forested. Simple math tells that the remaining 98 percent is DEFORESTED.

Soil erosion is the result of deforestation, which makes the island nation vulnerable to landslides and floods during hurricane season.

Where there is no soil, there is no food;  which leads to hunger.

Deforestation has led to Haiti to depend on other nations, agencies, ,and NGO’s for food.

According to a report published on June 10th, 2015,  by the United Nations Internal Oversight Services, “over 200 women were forced into sexual acts with UN peacekeepers in exchange for basic necessities”

Think about the number of displaced persons as a result of hurricane Katrina.

Were they not climate refugees?

This week the Guardian published an article on American’s First People who are now America’s First Climate Refugees.

The people of Newtok, Alaska, like the people of Haiti are, literally,  losing the ground below their feet.

Photograph and text copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes

Shundahai

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Sunrise Prayer – Shundahai – Peace and Harmony With All of Creation

image copyright anaelisafuentes

Wheel of Time

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Kalachakra

Monks from the Namgyal monastery create the sand mandala known as the Wheel of Time or the Kalachakra at the Watts Towers Arts Center in Watts, a community of Los Angeles, California. More about the Kalachakra here http://www.buddhanet.net/kalimage.htm

 

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Melva, a community member contributes to the sand mandala.

photograph copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes

Photographed using Fuji RDP medium format slide film

Why the Buzz Around Kate Frey?

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Kate Frey pictured among blooming peas at the sustainable Fetzer Valley Oaks garden in Hopland, California.

Kate Frey, has for 18 years designed and  managed the gardens at the Fetzer Valley Oaks vineyard with her award-winning bio-diverse, organic and sustainable gardening methods in Hopland, California. Her merits include gold medals at the  Royal Horticulture Society Chelsea Flower show in 2005 and 2007; and a Silver Gilt in 2003. Her colorful and sustainable gardens were not only favored by the judges but met with literal approval from Her Majesty Elizabeth ll, Queen of England, who met with her privately in 2003 and 2007.

Unassuming yet vibrant, Frey was eager to roam the gardens that gave birth to her career. There are numerous accolades attesting to her achievements but there is no mistake,  that her work is all about the love for sustainable gardening and the beneficial insects, pollinators, and birds who are the punctuation of a colorful garden palette. She likes to create what are called “bird and insect hospitable gardens.”

Since Chelsea, Frey and her husband Ben Frey have accepted invitations from the Shizouka prefecture in Japan and a consultation   with the Royal House of Saud to tailor their organic farms.

Apart from her international accolades and achievements, Frey continues to focus her commitments on the California landscape. Her gardening successes, awards, and prizes have brought her to her current position as teacher and director of Sonoma State University’s Sustainable Landscape Program with Extended Education. The program started in 2007 and issued their first Landscape program certificate in 2008. Her additional projects include presentations at the social and scientific Bioneers conference, and biodiversity specific projects such as The Melissa Garden, a honeybee sanctuary located in Healdsburg, California. Frey was commissioned to the sanctuary project because of the “pollen generator” plants and flowers that are at the heart of her garden landscape design. Pollinators are a given throughout the year, floral nourishment and an environment free from pesticides. The 40-acre ranch owned by Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger consider themselves “bee-stewards.” “It is no secret, Frey said, that bees are a dwindling population in the US.”

We named the sanctuary “Melissa,” after Melissa officinalis or Lemon Balm a herbaceous planet and a favorite of bees in horticulture and mythology. Melissa, in Greek mythology who fed Zeus honey as an infant and who later transformed into a queen bee. Melissa is a Greek word meaning honeybee.

A bumblebee during buzz pollination:  the rapid movement of their wings dislodges pollen from its source.

Words and Pictures Copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes