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‘We’re seeing the system crash before our eyes. I don’t know any other way to see it.’
For Bonnie Baxter, a professor of biology at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, fieldwork means gathering and analysing samples at the Great Salt Lake. Recently, as water levels have plummeted to record lows due to the climate crisis and population growth, it’s also meant sporadic bouts of tears. Confronted with an ecosystem in free fall – and potentially catastrophic consequences for the local human population as well – Baxter has found it increasingly difficult to play the role of dispassionate observer. Baxter’s narration combines with beautiful yet poignant cinematography from the local filmmaker Dane Christensen, whose short documentary Namesake captures both the state of the lake, and the sorrows of being a scientist tasked with documenting its collapse.
Director: Dane Christensen
Website: RadioWest Films
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Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
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Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
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Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
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Cognition and intelligence
A father forgets his child’s name for the first time in this poetic reflection on memory
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
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