Environmental migrants: the last illusion

<p> <strong>VIDEO ITALIAN VERSION </strong><a href="https://vimeo.com/55260743" target="_blank">ITALIANO</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>"I would like to give them a voice. I hope you want to do it too by supporting this project.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Io vorrei dargli una voce. Spero voglia farlo anche tu col tuo supporto a questo progetto."</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>ENGLISH (ITALIAN SEE BELOW)</strong></p> <p> 302 natural disasters in 2011 alone.</p> <p> 12 million hectares of fertile land lost every year in the world due to desertification.</p> <p> 30 cm rise in the level of the sea feared over the next 100 years.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Behind the cabala of statistics and forecasts hides the desperation of people forced to abandon their land, made unlivable as a consequence of climate change. They are called <strong>environmental migrants</strong> and they have no definition or legal existence in international law.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>For two years I have been following these 'ghosts', their movements and I try to tell about their life with photos, videos and interviews.</strong> I have been to Mongolia and Bangladesh. This part of my work has aroused the interest of the media and was published by the <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#17" target="_blank">Sunday Times</a>, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/09/paradise_lost" target="_blank">Foreign Policy</a>, <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#11" target="_blank">Sette del Corriere della Sera</a>, <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#3" target="_blank">Days Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#5" target="_blank">Alternatives Internationales</a>, <a href="http://environmentalmigrants.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/zoom-magazine-international/550556_10152183291190702_622315177_n/" target="_blank">ZOOM magazine,</a> and others. It also received prestigious international recognition, among them the <a href="http://www.worldphoto.org/news-and-events/sony-world-photography-awards-2012-liris-dor-and-winners-announced" target="_blank">Sony World Photography Awards</a>, <a href="http://www.px3.fr/winners/zoom2.php?eid=1-27984-12&amp;uid=3237554&amp;cat=Press" target="_blank">PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris</a> and <a href="http://daysinternational.net/en/category/award/award_2012/" target="_blank">Days Japan International Awards</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Traditional' financing for photojournalism has almost disappeared. I need your help to go to Kenya and complete the project.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Climate change is becoming a 'diabolic mixture'</strong>. In a not too far future the whole planet will have to support the economic and social weight of its consequences. I chose to investigate maybe the most complex <strong>and devastating: rural/urban migration.</strong></p> <p> The year 2008 marked the point of no return: for the first time more people live in cities than in the countryside. As always happens, the highest price is paid by those vulnerable, by those who are least capable of protecting themselves. In fact 90% of this migration does not concern the rich countries; the ones responsible for altering the ecosystems, the already overcrowded and degraded (slums) urban areas, which are the countries of origin. Metropolises double together with the misery. If there are no funds to invest or adequate development policies, no research for sustainment and a better future, it turns into a blood-chilling war between the poor, one last illusion.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>I chose Bangladesh, Mongolia and Kenya to offer a cross-cut view of the three different types of climate change.</strong> I slept in a tent at -50°C along with the Mongolian shepherds and their weakest sheep. I was taken in as a guest in the flooded houses of the Bangladesh peasants, who shared with me what little food they had. I saw crammed life in Ulan Bator and Dhaka. <strong>We come full circle in Kenya</strong>: I could document the drought, the daily struggle of nomad shepherds, the internal clashes for water and pastures, the Nairobi shantytowns.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>They are environmental migrants and they are people. They are losing their land, their traditions. International political agendas don't talk about it. I would like to give them a voice. I hope you want to do it too by supporting this project.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> You can monitor everything that concerns <em>Environmental Migrants: the last illusion </em>on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/environmentalmigrants?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, on the <a href="http://environmentalmigrants.wordpress.com" target="_blank">blog</a> or my <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/portfolio/permalink/261384/9790d861954b9e" target="_blank">website</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> A heartfelt thanks for any contribution you can make.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Alessandro</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="08" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/5147/08.jpg"></p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="07" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/5107/07.jpg"></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>ITALIAN</strong></p> <p> 302 disastri naturali nel solo 2011.</p> <p> 12 milioni di ettari di terra fertile persi ogni anno nel mondo a causa della desertificazione.</p> <p> 30 cm l’innalzamento del livello del mare paventato nei prossimi 100 anni.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Dietro la cabala delle statistiche e delle previsioni si nasconde la disperazione di persone costrette ad abbandonare la propria terra resa invivibile dalle conseguenze dei mutamenti climatici. Si chiamano <strong>profughi ambientali</strong> e non trovano definizione né esistenza giuridica nel diritto internazionale.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Da due anni seguo questi ‘fantasmi’, i loro spostamenti e cerco di raccontarne la vita attraverso foto, video e interviste.</strong> Sono stato in Mongolia e in Bangladesh. Questa parte del lavoro ha suscitato l’interesse dei media ed è stata pubblicata, tra gli altri, dal <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#17" target="_blank">Sunday Times</a>, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/09/paradise_lost" target="_blank">Foreign Policy</a>, <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#11" target="_blank">Sette del Corriere della Sera</a>, <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#3" target="_blank">Days Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/album/published?p=1#5" target="_blank">Alternatives Internationales</a>, <a href="http://grassani.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/zoom-magazine/550556_10152183291190702_622315177_n/" target="_blank">ZOOM magazine</a>. Ha inoltre ricevuto prestigiosi riconoscimenti internazionali tra cui il <a href="http://www.worldphoto.org/news-and-events/sony-world-photography-awards-2012-liris-dor-and-winners-announced" target="_blank">Sony World Photography Awards</a> e il <a href="http://www.px3.fr/winners/zoom2.php?eid=1-27984-12&amp;uid=3237554&amp;cat=Press" target="_blank">PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris</a> and and <a href="http://daysinternational.net/en/category/award/award_2012/" target="_blank">Days Japan International Awards</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> I finanziamenti ‘tradizionali’ per il fotogiornalismo sono quasi spariti: ho bisogno del tuo aiuto per andare in Kenya e completare il progetto.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Il cambiamento climatico sta diventando una ‘miscela diabolica’</strong>: in un futuro non troppo lontano tutto il pianeta dovrà sostenere il peso economico e sociale delle sue conseguenze. Ho scelto di indagare forse la più complessa <strong>e devastante: la migrazione rurale/urbana.</strong></p> <p> Il 2008 ha segnato il punto di non ritorno: per la prima volta c’è più gente che vive nelle città che nelle campagne. Come sempre accade il prezzo più alto viene pagato dai vulnerabili, da quelli che hanno meno capacità di proteggersi. Il 90% di questa migrazione, infatti, non investe i Paesi ricchi, responsabili delle alterazioni degli ecosistemi, ma le aree urbane, già sovraffollate e degradate (slums), delle nazioni d’origine. Le metropoli raddoppiano insieme alla miseria. In assenza di fondi da investire e di adeguate politiche di sviluppo, la ricerca di sostentamento e di un futuro migliore, si trasforma in un’agghiacciante guerra tra poveri, in un’ultima illusione tradita.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Ho scelto il Bangladesh, la Mongolia e il Kenya per offrire una panoramica trasversale delle tre diverse tipologie di mutamento climatico.</strong> Ho dormito in una tenda a -50° insieme ai pastori mongoli e alle loro pecore più deboli. Sono stato ospitato nelle case alluvionate dei contadini del Bangladesh che hanno condiviso con me il poco cibo che avevano. Ho visto vite ammassate a Ulan Bator e a Dhaka.  <strong>In Kenya il cerchio si chiude</strong>: potrei documentare la siccità, la lotta quotidiana dei pastori nomadi, gli scontri intestini per l’acqua e i pascoli, le baraccopoli di Nairobi.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Sono profughi ambientali e sono persone. Stanno perdendo la loro terra, le loro tradizioni. Le agende politiche internazionali non ne parlano. Io vorrei dargli una voce. Spero voglia farlo anche tu col tuo supporto a questo progetto.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> Potrai monitorare tutto quello che riguarda <em>Environmental migrants: the last illusion </em>sulla pagina <a href="https://www.facebook.com/environmentalmigrants?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, sul <a href="http://environmentalmigrants.wordpress.com" target="_blank">blog</a> o sul mio <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/portfolio/permalink/261384/9790d861954b9e" target="_blank">sito web</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Grazie di cuore per qualsiasi contributo.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Alessandro</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>WHO AM I ?</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="01_ritratto_bn" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/5140/01_ritratto_bn.jpg"></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>ENGLISH (ITALIAN SEE BELOW)</strong></p> <p> I was born in Pavia in 1977. I decided to become a photographer so I could tell stories and show others what, for various reasons, they wouldn’t have the opportunity or power to see and know. I love long term projects and chose to investigate those levels of society that the mass media rarely pays attention to.</p> <p>  </p> <p> I have collaborated with the main national and international newspapers, including <strong>The New York Times, Sunday Times, Sette del Corriere della Sera and Vanity Fair.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> My works have been exhibited in one-man and collective shows in Italy, London, Madrid, Tokyo, New York, Paris and at the Recontres d’Arles and were awarded at the <strong>Sony World Photography Awards, Days Japan International Awards, Luis Valtuena Humanitarian Photography Award, PX3 International Awards, Premio Lucchetta-Miran Hrovatin, IPA International Photography Award.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> At present I am represented by the LUZphoto agency.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://www.luzphoto.com/">www.luzphoto.com</a></p> <p> <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com/">www.alessandrograssani.com</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>ITALIAN</strong></p> <p> Sono nato a Pavia nel 1977. Ho deciso di diventare fotografo per raccontare storie e mostrare agli altri quello che non hanno l’opportunità di vedere e conoscere. Amo i progetti a lungo termine e scelgo di indagare quegli strati della società su cui raramente si poggia l’attenzione dei grandi media.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Ho collaborato con con le principali testate giornalistiche  nazionali e internazionali, tra gli altri, <strong>The New York Times, Sunday Times, Sette del Corriere della Sera e Vanity Fair.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> I miei lavori sono stati esposti in mostre personali e collettive in Italia, Londra, Madrid, Tokyo, New York, Parigi e ai Recontres d’ Arles e sono stati premiati al <strong>Sony World Photography Awards, Days Japan International Awards, Luis Valtuena Humanitarian Photography Award, PX3 International Awards, Premio Lucchetta-Miran Hrovatin, IPA International Photography Award.</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> Attualmente sono rappresentato dall’ Agenzia LUZphoto.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://www.luzphoto.com">www.luzphoto.com</a></p> <p> <a href="http://www.alessandrograssani.com">www.alessandrograssani.com</a></p>