I got some cousin mail yesterday with a disturbing view from her Los Angeles home:
"This is from my front yard the other night. Right now, it's 8:41 and basically dark out. "
Holy wow; these fires make me nervous. I searched around for some great photo essays on the subject and to my delight, found some incredible work Vincent Laforet did for National Geographic last year. Called Drying of the West, the work looks at the effect of drought throughout the American Southwest.
The aerials are amazing, do have a look.
An air tanker drops retardent on the Los Padres National Forest, just north of Santa Barbara, CA. The Zaca fire of July 2007 covered over 240,000 acres, making it the second largest fire in California history.
Hot spots flare up for over a month before the fire is contained.
An aerial view of the wasteland that used to be Owens Lake. In 1913 Los Angeles began diverting the river that fed into it to quench the city's thirst. A mining road accesses deposits of halite, trona and thenardite, which are then harvested.
Without cold weather to kill off their larvae, mountain pine beetles infest over 600,000 acres of lodgepole pines in Colorado forests. The dry trees raise the risk of forest fires.
Center-pivot-irrigation creates "crop circles" in the San Luis Valley in Central Colorado.
Lake Powell's water level has dropped below 50 percent capacity, leaving a white "bathtub ring" extending nearly 100 feet up the cliff wall.
Phoenix residents escape the 105 degree weather by relaxing in a backyard pool.
An aerial view of a golf club in the Mohave Desert. Golf courses in nearby southern Nevads use 8% of the region's water.
See more from Mr. Laforet, here.
[...] photography as graphic design, in a way. You can see many more of Vincent’s images here and, while you’re at it, check out the rest of Rachel’s [...]
that golf course shot is crazy.
I love the shot of the Golf Course, it helps to understand why we are having so much troubles in the images above. Who needs grass in the desert?