Since about the time of the American Civil War, CO 2’s crucial role in warming the planet has been well understood. That negligible wisp of the air is carbon dioxide. Of more immediate interest today, a variation in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere of as little as 0.1 percent has meant the difference between sweltering Arctic rainforests and a half mile of ice atop Boston. When the unseen tug of celestial bodies points Earth toward a new North Star, for instance, the shift in sunlight can dry up the Sahara, or fill it with hippopotamuses. Big rocks whiz by overhead, and here on the Earth’s surface, whole continents crash together, rip apart, and occasionally turn inside out, killing nearly everything.
We live on a wild planet, a wobbly, erupting, ocean-sloshed orb that careens around a giant thermonuclear explosion in the void. This article was published online on February 3, 2021. In his photo illustrations throughout this article, the colors of the original photos have been adjusted, but the images are otherwise unaltered. Images above: Glaciers from the Vatnajökull ice cap, in Icelandīrendan Pattengale is a photographer who explores how color can convey emotions in an image. Photo Illustrations by Brendan Pattengale | Maps by La Tigre
