This image is from a series by Panos photographer Joan Bardelleti. The entire series is a good example of the climate visuals principles applied to a collection of imagery. Our research highlighted the need to show ‘real people doing real things’. This series personifies the issue of climate change and demonstrates how it has an impact right now on individuals. Our research has shown that this is essential if we want to communicate the nuanced stories that make up the issue of climate change. This in-depth reportages demonstrates how multiple images or media can expand on a single frame to be more effective communications. These are excellent tools that should be embraced by visual communicators.
WHAT IT SHOWS: Leanne and Dan Belmann sit in their living room. They are a farming family, are passionate about horses and love the rural American lifestyle. They are now letting part of their property to a trailer park where newly arrived workers in the oil and gas industry are able to park their mobile homes.
North Dakota is second only to Texas in oil producing states in the US. Oil and shale gas reserves that were until recently uneconomical for large scale production have become highly profitable with new hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technologies. The populations of towns like Williston, which lies near some of the biggest reserves in the state, have doubled in size in the space of two years and local services are struggling to keep up. Trailer parks have emerged on the outskirts of towns where oil companies are renting out rooms for between USD 100 to 150 per night, which includes two meals. Accidents have doubled in a year and the crime rate has risen sharply. By 2012, North Dakota had 198 drilling platforms compared to 30 in 2009.