James Balog to Present At Conservation Alliance Breakfast

Bend, Ore., The Conservation Alliance Breakfast at the January 2010 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market will feature guest speaker James Balog, a renowned photographer and adventurer, and founder of the Extreme Ice Survey. Balog’s presentation is a stunning look at the impact abrupt climate change is having on the world’s glaciers. The breakfast, which is open to the public, is Friday, January 22, 7:00-8:50 AM at The Marriott in Salt Lake City.

During his presentation, Balog will share stunning images and footage of glaciers melting worldwide. Balog’s team has installed 27 time-lapse cameras at 15 sites in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains, and has produced dramatic footage of glaciers melting that demonstrates the immediacy of the global warming challenge.

“James’ work is the best illustration I’ve seen that global warming is an immediate problem, not something to deal with in 50 years,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance. “We’re lucky that James and his team are out there documenting these changes, and equally lucky that he will share his story with us.”

Balog is the author of Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, just released by National Geographic Books. He is also the author of six other books, including Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest and Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife, which were hailed as major breakthroughs in nature photography. Balog’s images are regularly published in the world’s major magazines and he is a contributing editor to National Geographic Adventure. He is the first photographer ever commissioned to create a series of stamps for the U.S. Postal Service.

In addition to Balog’s talk, The Conservation Alliance Breakfast will feature a review of the organization’s spectacular conservation success in 2009, and a look ahead to the coming year. The Conservation Alliance Breakfast is open to the public. For complete information, see http://conservationalliance.com/UserFiles/File/W10%20Breakfast%20STD3.pdf.



About the Conservation Alliance:
The Conservation Alliance is an organization of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Alliance funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands and climbing areas.

Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment.

Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $7.9 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 49 million acres of wildlands; 28 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 17,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas.

For complete information on the Conservation Alliance, see www.conservationalliance.com.