This spring, Florian is traveling to cities across the country to talk about his experiences in the Arctic. On the first leg of his tour, Florian visited seven cities to attend premiere events for the film, To The Arctic, in partnership with our friends at MacGillivray Freeman Films. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Left: Florian spoke at the To The Arctic premiere in Fort Worth, TX.

What signs of climate change have you witnessed?
Unfortunately, I have witnessed dramatic changes in the short time— ten years—that I have been traveling to the Arctic. On land, the permafrost is melting at an unprecedented rate. During my aerial expeditions I was shocked to see the Arctic Ocean west of Barrow completely ice free at the beginning of July, as well as many areas where entire hillsides had come down in giant mudslides, taking all the vegetation with them.

From elders in different Native communities, I have heard the same story of shockingly accelerated change. The time when hunters can travel on the sea ice has been significantly reduced, and the dangers have increased. I experienced this myself on my 1,200-mile trek across Baffin
Island. Many areas had dangerous ice that was too thin for safe passage.

The massive Red Dog mining operation is positioned in the middle of the migration route of the Western Arctic caribou herd.

What impact do these changes have on the wildlife?
Without ice, seals and walrus need to spend more energy moving between their resting areas and feeding grounds. Polar bears are dependent on the sea ice for their
food, too—mainly ringed seals—and are under increasing pressure, which is why they are a symbol in the fight against global warming.

Caribou are affected by winter rainstorms, as a thick layer of ice prevents them from reaching food below the snow. Increasingly
regular tundra fires destroy vast areas of their summer feeding ground.

The warming trend also means that wildlife species are pushing north. Moose, for example, are seen more often now in the Arctic plains due to changing vegetation.
And we will also see many more species of fish in Arctic waters as the temperature warms.

The Arctic is very scarcely populated, and very few people ever visit. Why should the rest of the world be concerned about the
changes in the far north?
We need to see the world more as a whole. The Arctic ecosystem is very much a part of the rest of the world. Millions of birds and several species of whales migrate past our latitudes to the south, where they spend the
winter each year. On a larger scale, we need to see the Arctic as an “air conditioner” for the world. Without the cooling effect of the Arctic on the atmosphere, we are experiencing disasters around the world like tornadoes, hurricanes, major floods, and droughts with greater frequency and of greater intensity.

Given all of this, can anything be done to slow climate change?
One major way to reduce warming in the Arctic is to cut black carbon emissions globally. My conservation partner, Earthjustice, is fighting to achieve this goal. Black carbon reduction would have a very
quick effect, as it can leave the atmosphere in a matter of weeks. Of course, reducing CO2 emissions needs to be the number one
priority, and it can be achieved through improved technology and partnerships with the major stakeholders.

Most of the Arctic is so remote and inaccessible; it would not seem to lend itself to industrial development.
Unfortunately, prices for natural resources have increased dramatically over the past years, making exploitation attractive to corporations even in remote areas. There are enormous amounts of resources, from minerals to coal and oil, stored in the Arctic. With the Arctic Ocean increasingly ice free, the Arctic is more accessible to ships. I have seen hundreds of miles of tracks from seismic testing crossing the Arctic tundra and mining operations like the Red Dog Mine—a massive scar right across the migration route of the Western Arctic caribou herd.

One of the oil facilities in Prudhoe Bay, just west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Despite strict regulations,
it is difficult to avoid contamination of the land, sea, and air from the oil facilities.

The fight over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been going on for a long time. Why is it so important to keep this area protected?
In the Alaskan Arctic, the refuge is probably the greatest mix of stunning landscape with many different types of habitat, and presents the most spectacular
array of Arctic wildlife in a relatively compact area. It is also of fundamental importance to the Porcupine caribou herd, which has migrated across the refuge for thousands of years.

How much impact does the oil industry have in the Alaskan Arctic?
To be honest, I was shocked at the size of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield when I saw it from the air. We flew for almost an hour over pump stations, oil facilities, pipelines, and
roads. That being said, I have to say that in Alaska I have seen the oil industry making a very serious effort to abide by environmental regulations. They are not interested in bad publicity. Unfortunately, accidents happen nevertheless. Major oil spills have occurred along the Alaska pipeline because the pipeline walls have corroded.

In the Gulf of Mexico, there are thousands of offshore oil wells. Why is oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean such a big deal?
As we saw with the Gulf oil spill in 2010, major disasters can happen. It took many weeks to get the situation under control in the Gulf, even under fairly modest weather conditions and with great infrastructure in place.

Now think of an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean, where for months out of the year darkness and extreme cold temperatures are the norm, and there is no infrastructure—no ports or access for possible cleanup crews. To date, there is no known method to clean up an oil spill in
icy waters. The entire Arctic Ocean ecosystem could be destroyed, and animals from the little krill to seals and polar bears could be heavily affected and possibly wiped out.

Given all you have seen, what are your thoughts on climate change?
I see a lot of forces exploiting this planet at an ever-increasing rate, even though rising average temperatures and CO2 levels are
causing climate catastrophes like the dying of the world’s coral reefs, rising sea levels, hurricanes, tornadoes, widespread drought, and intense floods. These phenomena are not mere predictions anymore—we are watching them on the news. The world won’t disappear, but human society will be forced to adapt, and it’s likely that we will lose a large percentage of the diverse species that share the planet with us.

If life as we know it will change, do you have hope for the future?
Hope is to wish for fulfillment of dreams in the face of all life’s challenges. Hope is fighting for what you dream about. I dream that rationality will win over greed. I have faith that the human race is capable of unthinkable achievements. First, we need to recognize that environmental destruction and climate change, not terrorism or a neighboring country, are the biggest enemies of our time. We need to fight on multiple levels—through public education, through change of policy, and on the industrial level through technology and the way we consume and invest. Often we hear the argument that the economic cost of enforcing a greener policy is too high, but scientists warn today that the price to be paid in the future will be much higher. Our children and children’s children will pay this price. As I am writing these words my wife, Emil, is carrying our first baby in her belly. It was conceived in the high Arctic of Greenland. I hope that in the years to come, I will not have to tell my son stories of a world that once was. I hope that we can continue to explore this frozen world as a family to tell the story of the Arctic. And I am fighting for this dream. This gives me hope.

What was it like working with the MacGillivray Freeman film team?
Creating a companion book for a giant-screen film was a perfect match for my style of photography because I like to capture the animals in connection with the surrounding landscape. Because the filmmakers shoot images for a giant screen,
they compose a lot of their imagery in a similar fashion— with large landscape shots that show animals in relation to their environment.

Of course I was very excited to work with some of the premier cinematographers in the field— sharing ideas and experiences with people such as Howard Hall and Bob
Cranston as well as Shaun and Greg MacGillivray.

How much patience did it take to create your photographic account of the Arctic?

In serious wildlife photography, your patience is often tested. For years I returned to the Arctic just to find the large caribou herds, never mind getting the caribou images I envisioned. It took me years to even see my first polar bear, and I spent over seventy-two hours in a blind to photograph the snowy owls in this book. But, even when I’m not getting perfect images, I am learning so much about the landscape and the wildlife. So I cannot say that I’m bored waiting; I’m excited to be out in the wilderness.

You mentioned waiting for the caribou herds. What was it like when you finally saw them?
It was like a dream come true when the caribou suddenly appeared.

As a child, I envisioned the millions of bison roaming the Great Plains. These great herds have disappeared, but in the far north, millions of caribou still roam. They are a symbol for me of the wilderness areas I am trying to help protect with my photography.

As a wildlife photographer you see animals in many difficult situations. What made you decide to step in to help the caribou calf that had lost its mother?
In the course of a week, over 60,000
caribou crossed the river by our camp. Unavoidably, caribou calves got separated from their mothers, ran around lost, or even drowned in the water. I remember a particular moment when a caribou baby ran up to me and Emil, without fear, looking for help because it thought we might be its mother. This was when I just couldn’t pretend not to feel anything for these orphaned calves.

When Emil found the calf that she is holding in the photograph trapped in a mudhole, she believed she saw its mother and that we could actually reunite the two. We lifted the calf out of the mud and brought it in the direction of the frantic mother that we saw running around. Once they heard each other’s calls, they ran to each other and were reunited.

I’m aware that nature needs to take its path, and that the caribou might have died and become food for a grizzly bear, but it was difficult to ignore my own emotion. The emotion I felt for this caribou calf
reminded me that if we could all feel this strongly toward wildlife in a more abstract way, we might take more care of their habitat and give them this room to live.

On some occasions you dove with the film team. How dangerous is it to dive in the Arctic Ocean?
On one hand you’re confronted with water that is below freezing, around 29 degrees. The only reason it’s not solid is because of the salt content in the sea water.

The cold water can cause the regulator to freeze, and air can start shooting out of your mouth piece. Because of the danger of hypothermia, you have to pay close attention to your overall body condition. Even though you’re wearing a dry suit, your face and head are exposed to the freezing water, and you lose a lot of energy this way. When you’re in the water diving or snorkeling, your lips and mouth freeze. When you are in the water for up to an hour, you come out and talk with a slur—it’s the same feeling as if you were at the dentist and he numbed your whole mouth. You have no control because the nerves aren’t functioning.

The other danger is that if you enter through a hole in the ice, you have to make sure to find your way back to the hole. In an ideal situation, someone is monitoring a
rope to pull you back to the surface. If the person holding onto the rope doesn’t watch closely, you could be trapped under the ice.

You have a lot of aerial images in the book. How did you go about getting them?
I organized an entire Arctic aerial expedition. The key was finding a slow-flying airplane that would have a long range, and a pilot who was willing to go out with me for several weeks. The perfect match was my friend Ken McDonald, a fantastic pilot and airplane mechanic who took me out on a World War II Super Cub—a two-seater plane that can land just about anywhere (with the right pilot). We landed and camped on riverbeds and the shores of the Arctic Ocean, lifting up into the air whenever the weather was fair.

The aerial perspective allowed me to show the vastness of the Arctic landscape. Through this perspective you understand that there aren’t just 100, or 500, but tens of thousands of caribou migrating across the Arctic tundra.

Whenever possible, Florian’s wife, Emil Herrera Schulz, accompanies him into the field. For Florian and Emil, creating conservation photography projects is much more than a job—it’s a way of life. Florian is away from home for much of the year, spending eight to ten months in the field. While on expeditions together, Emil and Florian have been challenged by extreme
cold temperatures, giant swarms of mosquitoes, and long stretches without showers, but have also experienced the joy of seeing a vast herd of caribou pass their tent and watching polar bears on the ice.

Florian and Emil work closely together to create powerful visuals for books, magazines, and the live multimedia presentations they give to audiences across the United States and Europe. Emil is involved in the creation of the still images, video footage, and sound recordings that play an important role in their work.

What is the closest you’ve ever
been to a polar bear?
On one occasion, a very determined
polar bear came within fifteen feet
of me and my guide. Its eyes had a
special expression that went beyond
curiosity. They looked hungry. I was
preoccupied with taking frame-filling
images of the polar bear that would
communicate this expression when
my guide realized there was no more
time to spare and decided to shoot
a flare. No bear had ever come that
close to either me or my guide, who
has lived in the Arctic for many years.

What can you do to scare a polar bear away?
They don’t scare very easily, that’s for sure. This is one big difference between polar bears and grizzlies. Most polar bears are simply not intimidated by humans, even if you wave your arms and yell. They also can be very curious animals. If they spot a camp from the distance, they may come straight in your direction to check it out. One time we had a whole polar bear family head straight for our camp. They first circled around us until they caught our scent on the wind, and then they came right into the middle of our camp. Raising our voices did not impress them in the least. It took one of the Inuit hunters to shoot into the air to chase them away. That’s why either my guide or I carry a rifle and flare gun.

What’s in your camera bag when you’re out there?
For cameras I carry a Nikon D7000, a Nikon D3s, and a Nikon D3x. My lenses are the Nikon 14–24 mm, 24–70 mm, 28–70 mm, 70–200 mm f/2.8, 200–400 mm f/4, 600 mm f/4, 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye, and 24 mm tilt-shift; and I use the 1.4x teleconverter. Other equipment includes remote camera boxes, Manfrotto and Gitzo tripods, a PocketWizard for my remote setups, a Subal underwater housing, rollable solar panels, sixteen Li-ion batteries, a Nikon GPS, an Apple MacBook Pro, over 200 GB of CompactFlash cards, and three Western Digital 500GB pocket drives.

What were some of the challenges you faced working in the Arctic environment?
Hunting for incredible light, a photographer gets very little sleep in the Arctic between late spring and early fall. As the sun does not set during these seasons, the best light often is found in the middle of the night. I frequently needed to switch my entire schedule around, sleeping during the middle of the day and then photographing throughout the night. As the light is still good in the morning or afternoon, it does not take long until one gets very sleep deprived.Working in extremely cold conditions was particularly challenging. I created a layering system of gloves, wearing very thin undergloves, then midweight gloves, and added heavyduty mittens on top. I often took the two heavier layers off to access small buttons on the camera. When my fingers were so badly frozen that I could not stand it any longer, I would put my mittens back on and beat my hands against my body until my fingers would work again. Wind, of course, makes the situation much worse than the cold alone.

What about your camera equipment? How did it perform in the extreme cold?
Well, the first trick is to never press your nose against the metal part of the camera, because it will quickly freeze to it! As far as how the equipment worked in the cold, I found that my cameras did fine to about -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, the batteries drained faster and the cameras responded more slowly, but overall they performed well. I always kept my extra batteries close to my body so that I had a fresh, warm set whenever I needed them.

Do you need to keep the cameras
themselves warm, too?
A mistake many newcomers to the Arctic make is that they keep their camera underneath their parka. No! Bad idea. The camera will fog up completely and be unusable. When I head out into the field, I let the cameras freeze and then remain frozen. If I need to bring the cameras inside a warm room or a heated tent, I put everything into an airtight plastic bag and let it warm to the ambient temperature before I take it out of the bag.

What did you hope to achieve
with this book, and how did
that play into how you chose to
photograph the Arctic?
My overall goal was to produce a
visual account of the Arctic that
would bring the ecosystem to life.
I wanted viewers to be able to feel
what I felt when I was out in the
Arctic landscape. In order to achieve
this, I tried to make the wildlife part
of the picture whenever possible,
using wide-angle lenses or shooting
in a panorama format with midrange
or telephoto lenses to incorporate
the animals. The panorama format
also lends itself beautifully to this
particular landscape. In these shots
I used a video tripod so I could level
out the tripod head for a straight
horizon. This allowed me to rotate
the camera and keep a series of
images in line, which allowed for
easy stitching later. Getting close
to animals with the wide-angle lens
was trickier, of course, especially
with polar bears. For the bears I
worked with remote cameras and
protective cases for the camera body.

How do you get to remote
Arctic locations?
Most of the time I would take a
jet as far north as possible, then
transfer to a small prop plane. From
this point, I would jump between
small Native communities on prop
planes with as few as fifteen people
on them. These planes often would
be the only transportation between
the Native settlements in the far
north. Our final destination in the
Arctic was usually a small Native
community.

Is this where you began
your expeditions?
Yes, these small communities
are where the last expedition
preparations were done and the
travel routes were decided based on
the weather or the ice conditions.
Working with local guides was
essential because of their intimate
knowledge of the area and the
wildlife. I became very sensitive
to the way my guides paid close
attention to the weather, noticing
subtle changes and predicting
storms long before they hit.

How did you travel out on the
sea ice?
I’ve traveled thousands of miles on
snowmobiles, but it was particularly
meaningful when I was able to work
with guides who used traditional
dogsleds. I specifically recall traveling
for hundreds of miles in the north
of Greenland with sleds pulled by
fifteen dogs. The guides were able
to maneuver the sleds just by calling
out short commands to the dogs.

What do you eat while on an
expedition in the Arctic?
Forget fresh fruits or vegetables.
When you’re out in the Arctic, all of
the food is as frozen as if you had
taken it out of an ice chest. Eating
in the Arctic centers around boiling
water, with which you prepare food.
You also have to store water in
thermoses to keep it from freezing
instantly.I bring things like rice and oatmeal
that will expand with water, but
on the other hand, I have eaten
traditional foods that my guides have
shared with me, such as musk oxen,
caribou, seals, arctic char, snow
goose, narwhal, and beluga.
There are small stores in the
Native communities that sell canned
foods and other things that can be
found in a supermarket, but they’re
very expensive and the Inuit prefer
to eat the food the land provides.

Did you ever have the chance to
accompany the Inuit on a hunt?
I had the opportunity to go along
on a musk ox hunt with the Inuit
in Greenland. We went out on
traditional dogsleds. Each sled
had fifteen sled dogs—we needed
enough dogs to pull the sleds when
they were heavy with meat from
the hunt. This particular time, the
Inuit brought back four musk oxen to
share within the community.

What is it like to camp in
polar bear country?
Quite challenging! When you’re inside
your tent, you are always aware that
at any moment a bear might come
right through the side. Someone
always has to be on watch, which
is fine when you’re in a large group,
but can be really hard when there
are just two of you, as is frequently
the case with me because I’m often
with only a guide or my wife. When
it’s your turn to go on watch and you
have to crawl out of a warm sleeping
bag to head out into the cold, it
becomes a mental battle between
you and your exhaustion. Sometimes
when I’m worn down by the cold
and by sleep deprivation, I just want
to stay in bed, polar bears or not.