As Art Basel and Design Miami simultaneously unfurl their cultured glitz and glam under the Floridian sun, photographer and filmmaker James Balog is keen to remind us that many miles away, the glaciers of Greenland, Nepal, and Alaska are depleting by the hour. 

"Climate change is a universal, non-partisan issue with health, national security, economic and environmental consequences for everyone," says the American mountaineer, who is hardly new to the topic, having embarked upon an examination of man-made environmental change for three-decades-plus. His documentary Chasing Ice won the award for Excellence in Cinematography at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Now, as part of a Swarovski-sponsored installation at Design Miami, Balog has partnered with Chicago-based architect and MacArthur fellow, Jeanne Gang, to create “Thinning Ice,” an interactive installation seeking to draw attention to the melting polar ice cap. As part of the show, Balog will screen footage from his Extreme Ice Survey, an innovative fusion of art and science that has revealed how climate change has altered the earth’s polar and alpine landscapes. The ambitious long-term photography project includes time-lapse photography captured via 28 cameras stationed at 13 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, the Nepalese Himalayas, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains of the US. 

Natalia Rachlin is Design Editor-at-Large at NOWNESS.

Thinning Ice is showing through December 7 at Design Miami.