Seeking cd drivers and heavy equipment operators for a new 2 year project in Flagler more info at 303-688-6611 this is Southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station or c c k or c c h d Colorado Springs. Starkville m k w c c f m Woodland Park from w.h.y. Y. In Philadelphia this is Fresh Air I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross today she opened up her mouth which is her head's twice as big as a grizzly bears and now I'm staring down our throat her canines are 2 above my head and my camera 2 are below the animal Paul Nicklen is talking about is a leopard seal one of Antarctica's top predators Nicklin is a conservation photographer who works in the polar regions on the ice and underwater documenting the impact of climate change on polar bears penguins Sienna ML's and the ice he says melting ice is making it difficult for some polar bears to survive we're starting to find emaciated bears dead bears you know in Alaska in the bowl for it where there's really ice has taken a beating also film critic Justin Chang will review the new psychological drama loose That's coming up on today's fresh air. First news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying most Democrats in the u.s. House are now publicly supporting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump today California Representative Salu garble. Became the 118th House Democrat to go on the record that means a majority of the caucus of 235 Democrats is now in favor of moving ahead with impeachment However the speaker of the house is still unswayed Nancy Pelosi has long argued that the House needs to follow through with investigations into trouble and cultivate at least some bipartisan support before going down the road of impeachment public opinion polls still show that a majority of Americans do not favor impeachment. Puerto Rico governor he got the role say yo is promising to step down from office by popular demand later this afternoon but as N.P.R.'s David Wolman explains it is not yet clear who will be the u.s. Commonwealths new governor with the clock ticking toward the 5 pm hour when Governor Bosio says he'll abandon the governorship he's held for 2 and a half years Puerto Rico's House of Representatives met an extraordinary session to consider confirming Pedro Pierre Luis see as secretary of state Rosales name p.r. And we see to that post which is 1st in the line of succession earlier this week after its previous occupant quit over the same scandal that also forced Ross a u.s. Resignation a vote on confirming p.r. Lisi is expected in the House this afternoon if he is rejected next in line for the governorship would be justice secretary Wanda Vasquez she faces possible impeachment proceedings David Bowman n.p.r. News San Juan Puerto Rico u.s. Secretary of state Mike pump aoe is wrapping up his visit to Bangkok after meeting with Asia Pacific counterparts but not before a parting shot at China a day after President Trump impose new tariffs on Chinese imports Michael Sullivan has the details from Bangkok in his early morning speech pump ale was blunt for decades China has taken advantage of trade he said it's time for that to stop he took another dig a China when he said Asian nations are better served by private American investment than major things state led investment often made for political reasons all right investments Pompeo said don't serve a government or a political party or a country's imperial ambitions he also said the current unrest in Hong Kong clearly shows that the will and the voice of the governed will always be heard China today accused the u.s. Of fanning the flames of dissent in Hong Kong and demanded it stop for n.p.r. News I'm Michael Sullivan in Bangkok at last check on Wall Street the Nasdaq composite index was down 1.7 percent s. And p. Is off more than one percent and the Dow is also down 8 tenths of a percent this is n.p.r. News. I mean goodly and this is a day in the life for August 2nd all you gotta do is give me and I've made it one way. It was on this day in 1029 that Fats Waller ate misbehave and was 1st performed at the premiere of Conti's hot chocolate in Harlem. 'd while or got his start as a vaudeville pianist playing bootleg joints in apartment parties according to legend while his 1st grand paycheck a $100.00 tip came from none other than Al Capone is what draws my admiration is that which gives me joy in those different days of the 1920 s. The measure of a song success was how it sheet music sold and the frequency with which the song was recorded by other artists remarkably Ain't Misbehavin was recorded 6 times in 1909 and each time it made it into class caps top 20 there was the Louis Armstrong version the. Meat meat. There was the version Gene Austin recorded with Leonard Joey in his orchestra. For you and the version recorded by Leo Reisman and his orchestra. For the sounds inspiration will never know for sure legend has it that the lyrics had their origin in Waller's answer to questions regarding his reputation for indulgence known for keeping 2 bottles of gin on his piano during rehearsal one for the band and one from self while it kept himself always on the edge of misbehaving and the rest as they say is history. Brought to you by range food direct offering real food from local farms and ranches availability to Colorado Springs retail locations 1228 East Fillmore and 4635 Town Center Drive online ordering available at ranch food a direct dot com. Hey this is David Greene and this is Abigail Backman every weekday morning on 91.5 k. Or c. C. Abigail and I and a whole bunch of other journalists around the world bring you the latest news on N.P.R.'s Morning Edition whether it's the k r c c news room the east or west coast bureaus of n.p.r. Or journalists stationed throughout the world you can count on us for in-depth and impartial reporting I mean impartial unless my Steelers are playing the Broncos I'm not going to be very impartial but aside from that yes I'm a Chiefs fan Oh Ok weekdays 5 to 9 am on k. Or c c. This is Fresh Air I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross according to the u.s. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration June was the planet's hottest month on record today we're going to listen to Terry's interview with self described conservation photographer Paul Nicklen whose beautiful photos documents some of the most dramatic consequences of climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic he's been working in those regions since 1905 taking pictures of polar bears penguins Sienna moles and the ice and it's been a lot of time in frigid waters taking underwater photos the threat of hypothermia and of getting attacked by predators makes it a risky business despite the inhospitable temperatures He works in Nicklin feels at home he grew up in an interview with community just a few 100 miles from the North Pole Mifflin's down about 20 stories for National Geographic he and his partner and fellow photographer Christina Mr Meyer founded the group c. Legacy which uses photography and film to inspire people to protect the oceans in a few moments you'll hear Nicklin talk about working in the Arctic archipelago of fall Bard this week researchers in Norway reported that 200 reindeer had starved to death on an island there where the ecosystem has been affected by climate change a new book of Paul Nicklen photographs called Born to eyes was published last year Terry spoke to him in 2017 Paul Nicklen welcome to Fresh Air one of your most famous photos has to do with melting install Bard this is a photo that Al Gore has used to illustrate the changes caused by climate change and it's basically like a glacier that's become a waterfall because of melting ice Absolutely it is one of my favorite images you know we were working as fall Bard photographing it was a really traumatic day because we had been photographing polar bears and traveling around Svalbard there was no sea ice to be found anywhere the bears were stranded on land and and I was actually had philanthropists who're. Who I was the guy you know and guiding bring in with us to do our c legacy work and they were you know allowing us to show them what's at stake as well allowing us to do our journalism and our storytelling. And that day in the morning I had found them finally some polar bears that were sleeping and we sat there waiting for hours for the Bears to get up until I realized that the Bears were probably never going to get up and I walked up to the Bears and they were both dead they had starved to death and they were young 3 year old bears on the shores of all barred and it was just a gut wrenching moment we filmed and documented and then later that night we had to move the vessel because of a really big storm was coming and winds were up to 80 knots and we came around down behind the ice cap of Nordhaus land at the Northeast ice cap of Svalbard just to get out of the wind from the storm and as the light hit this fice face the ice cap to look back and to see not only was that you know that outside temperature 68 degrees Fahrenheit but to see 20 waterfalls in a row just gushing off the top of this ice cap and then you start to tie that to the science that's coming out that 1st time in recorded history that the entire ice cap of Greenland is melting and then you know so just yeah I was just a really powerful humbling moment and I felt very lucky to be able to capture all these waterfalls you know pouring off the top of this ice cap Now you mentioned the photograph that you took in 2014 of a dead polar bear and you'd found 2 dead polar bears on that trip how does that connect to climate change. I mean for me it's you know when I was I was a biologist I worked on polar bears. Throughout the Arctic and helped you know look at population dynamics and movement patterns and you know in all those years of flying around in helicopters and driving across the sea ice on snowmobiles and looking for bears I never I never found a dead polar bear you very for some reason you very rarely fine dead bears and in the last 20 years to have the scientists talking about how we're you know reaching the lowest extent of ice we've ever had a place for likes fall bar Norway historically has been covered by sea ice year round and in the last 20 to 30 years that ice has been just in a few fjords and now in the last few years there's been no ice at all arounds full bar there's been a little strip down the east side and when there's no ice that means bears basically do not have that platform to catch seals and that's their main food source they might eat a little bit of seaweed but they might get the odd bird egg or the odd bird but that's not given him any nutritional value essentially bears are designed to go on land for long periods of time they can be on land for 2 months and not eat a meal but they're not designed to go 4 or 5 or 6 months on land without eating any food and that's where we're starting to find emaciated bears dot dead bears you know in Alaska in the Beaufort where there's really ice has taken a beating especially that multi-year ice that lives for many years they're finding dead bears floating out in the sea and these are most likely bears that have attempted to swim from the ice pack in the summer in the fall back to land and if they have to swim you know several 100 miles and they're already a skinny bear they are going to suffer from hypothermia as well so when you start to see these examples you just see how tied they are to their food source if they don't have SEALs they're going to get angry if they have seals you're going to get fat bears you have a photo that I think's pretty recent of a mother polar bear and her cub stranded on a small piece of glacier ice would you describe the photo and tell us how you interpret it. Yeah absolutely so that's a very good point in when you say you know people see bear standing on ice. And they think they're fine but in this case for me it was very important to put that photograph in context it's a mother and her 2 year old standing on a piece of glacier ice drifting out in the middle of the ocean we were over 150 miles from land anywhere and we were not around any pack ice at all so at this point the mother and her cub are basically stranded drifting out to sea on a pan of ice or on a on a piece of glacier ice hoping to it probably at some point get deposited off near land where they could at least see land or smell land and be able to get her cubs safely to land when they're on glacier ice like that it's not like a seal is just going to hop up up in the ice and just you know present itself and they're going to build a kill a seal when the Bears are in that situation they're not catching they're not hunting they're not killing they're not eating so you see you know. Again it's the art part is it's beautiful to look at and then when you start to assess the image and I think that's what most people are not doing right now they're not stopping and asking why or what it means and that's that's another image for me that starts to create conversation and drive debate which is which serves its purpose so polar bears have a very special place in your work and in your life like what's their importance to you personally. I think the fact that having grown up in the high Arctic with the you know it as a kid. And just spending so much time throughout my life with bears you know I've seen probably if I had to guess over 2000 polar bears in the wild and to have spent so much quality time sort of an intimate settings with them throughout my life from the time I was young and then mostly as a young adult when I was working as a biologist and living on the sea ice for you know 34 or 5 months at a time and spending so much time with bears that you just sort of fall in love with these species and you get to know it so intimately and you know I've never had a scary moment with a polar bear and everyone people come to me is like is not the only animal that actively pursued humans for food and you know I just see the sort of all powerful but very fragile vulnerable species that is so at the mercy of its ecosystem and it's sort of the one species that I really used to drive home that connection to how important this ice ecosystem is I want people to realize that ice is like the soil in the garden without ice the polar regions cannot exist when you have healthy ice you get big crops of Coppa Pods and amphipods those crust ations that live on the bottom of the ice you've got the algae that they feed on underneath the ice and then you've got polar Cod and you've got seals and you've obviously at the top of the food chain and you've you've got the bowhead whales you've got. Blucas And then you've got you know of course the polar bear at the very top and you see how and bad ice years all these species stand to suffer and so ice is that important and polar bears allow me to talk about ice I think that's why I love them so much have you seen penguins who are dying because of the loss of sea ice. I'm seeing penguins die this year it was a really tragic year to go down in witness it normally when you go down to Antarctica in February at the end of the season there's still a lot of snow on the ground in the penguins are just getting ready to go to sea but what we witnessed this year was this is the most rainfall they've had and all the snow is gone in these places which are normally covered in snow and the penguins when they're in they're very vulnerable down and Fazer got this fluffy down that keeps him warm and that's there until they get there their adult feathers which allow them to do to repulse water and go to sea and that that phase they can't get wet but dry snow can be is very dry it's a safe environment for them but when they get wet and it rains you start to see a lot of dead penguins and another thing that we have to address in Antarctica with penguins is you know krill has become the new latest craze for humans it's the new cool protein it's the a mega 3 that we like to eat and to go down to add Arctic and sea factory ships that are 800 feet long pulling out hundreds of millions of pounds of krill and shipping that off to market there's a huge biomass of krill in this earth but what's important is where they're taking the krill from if they're taking the krill right close to critical feeding habitat of penguins that's a big problem and so you know seeing the Rossi marine protected area created based on the efforts of many people and then to now be working towards a marine protected area around that Arctic peninsula it's sort of the work that we do at sea legacies the work that that fuels us and it's it's exciting and it's urgent Paul Nicklen speaking with Terry Gross recorded in 2017 we'll hear more after a short break this is Fresh Air. The 91.5 k. R.c.c. Community Advisory Board will meet in an open session at 5 30 pm on Thursday August 15th that k or c c 912 North Weber St Colorado Springs more information at k. Or c. C dot org. Happy Trails fundraiser in barbecue to support Al Paso County nature center takes place at Bear Creek nature center on Aug 23rd more information on this and other public service announcements can be found on the community calendar link Keirsey c dot org. This is Fresh Air and we're listening to the interview Terry Gross recorded in 2017 with Paul Nicklen a photographer who documents the effects of climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. So you photographed like many many polar bears and you've seen about 2000 of them and I think it's easy for people in some ways to relate to polar bears because they're just so impressive an attractive looking but you also spend a lot of time photographing creatures that you know aren't going to be like you know huge or impressive like that by people's standards you know so I'm thinking here is like the nor wall which is let me ask you to describe what a normal wall is. It's funny that we're so in love with unicorns you know that the horse with a tusk and all of a sudden there really is a unicorn out there it just happens to be in something so much more amazing to see a 16 foot long whale modeled on mana seris means $11.00 tooth and it has doesn't have any teeth in its mouth but it has 2 teeth that grow out of its upper jaw and they go straight out from their head and so that goes out on the left he looks spiral and that's that's the task of the Narwhal So it's a 16 foot long whale and really big toss can grow up to 11 feet and very very rarely do both teeth actually protruding grow out from the upper jaw and that gets you know they call them double tuskers but sometimes you can you know see this poor whale that has to swim around with probably you know $4050.00 pounds of ivory strapped to its head you know that's 11 feet long it's got a lot to be to carry around in the ice especially to the other like whales with an ivory spear attached to it said it's basically a beluga whale that's got this great speckled color that. Has a long a long ivory tusks you know it's up to up to 11 feet so you've taken a lot of photographs of narwhals but it took you years to find them why was it hard normals are extremely difficult to to photograph very few people you know flip Nicklin who was my original mentor has seen them underwater photograph males it's it's just very rare you know you the big film crews have been working up there the b.b.c. National Geographic and h.k. Have been chasing them for years and you know I just would be up there with you know it for years every season trying to get narwhals and it's just their side they're smart they're elusive You know the inner what are hunting them so when they're being hunted they don't want to be anywhere you know near the ice crack so they're staying out in the open water and it was after years of going up there and trying to find our wells at least have that intimate moment again where I could be alone with this animal so I want to be I a