In Focus...
Photo-Documentary Internet Webcast to Explore Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest
by Kevin T. Sparkman
Internet Expedition Documents Signs of Climate Change
Whidbey Island, Clinton, WA -- The award-winning wilderness expeditions team from OneWorldJourneys.com will webcast from Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest as part of an Internet production on climate change titled "Mercury Rising: Bearing Witness to Climate Change." The photo-documentary webcast, co-sponsored by the Epson Corporation, will run from Feb. 1-12 at http://www.OneWorldJourneys.com.
The climate change webcast is inspired in part by the work of Portland-based environmental photographer Gary Braasch who has traveled the world for more than three years creating a visual, photographic record of Earth's response to global warming.
The multi-media web production will include photo galleries and articles focusing on major climate change issues as well as observations made by citizens over time that offer evidence of global warming. In addition, resources are offered for K-12 teachers and students, and Mercury Rising is presented as a distance learning and continuing education course for teachers through The Heritage Institute and Antioch University.
Daily satellite dispatches during the webcast will include digital photography, audio, video and stories about climate change research in Monteverde, one of the most studied cloud forests on the planet. Some of those who will be featured in the expedition will include: Biologist Alan Pounds known for pioneering work in correlating changes in climate conditions to the loss of certain amphibian populations in Monteverde; Tropical Biologist Richard Laval who has researched the bat populations in Monteverde since the 1970s, most recently looking at possible changes related to global warming; and, Deborah DeRosier, a conservation biologist studying possible impact of climate change on the endangered three-wattled bellbird. The One World Journeys team will also spend time with members of the Quaker community who originally helped create the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and local Costa Rican farmers working on restoring certain sections of the forest.
"Our teams have chased jaguars through Mexico, documented sharks and other wildlife on a remote Pacific Island and explored deep into the Caucasus Mountains of former Soviet Georgia, but taking on climate change has been one of our greatest challenges so far," says Russell Sparkman, creator of OneWorldJourneys.com and president of FusionSpark Media. "Through Gary's photos from around the world and our expedition in Costa Rica, our storytelling will offer a unique perspective on how global warming is changing our Earth."
The expedition team will include author and Pulitzer-winning science writer Bill Dietrich from Anacortes, WA, along with his wife Holly Dietrich, an elementary school teacher who will be writing a daily dispatch for teachers and students. The field team will be led by One World Journeys executive producer and digital photographer Denise Rocco. Those following the online expedition will be able email questions to the team in the field.
Mercury Rising is the sixth online wilderness expedition at OneWorldJourneys.com, which is produced by FusionSpark Media Inc., based on Whidbey Island, Clinton, WA. OneWorldJourneys.com has received several awards and numerous accolades for its photographic web expeditions focusing attention on unique or threatened ecosystems and species.
Kevin T. Sparkman
Co-founder
http://www.oneworldjourneys.com
| 
