A 20 Year Portrait of the Anthropocene
On May 29, 2004, I boarded a Chinook helicopter in Port-au-Prince following one of the most devastating flooding events in Haiti’s history for The New York Times. A day before, U.S. Marines, stationed on the island ostensibly to maintain peace during a time of unrest, were on a routine patrol when one of the sighters noticed something unusual: a lake that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Days earlier, there had been no sign of it. Skeptical, the pilot hesitated to investigate, but the sighter insisted, and as they flew closer, the sight was undeniable—where a village once was a lake had formed overnight after torrential rains inundated the region killing people in their sleep as cascading waters flooded down the barren hillsides. Over 200 lives were lost. At the time, I was unaware of the term Anthropocene, but it was clear we were in it.
Over the past 20 years since descending on the submerged village,I have documented Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Harvey and Sandy in Houston and New York, and the smoke-cloaked skies of wildfire-stricken regions across the United States. However, no single event underscores the fragility of our future more than the meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. Though triggered by a tsunami, the disaster highlighted the broader implications of rising sea levels, which threaten to push future tsunamis and hurricanes farther inland, magnifying the risks to both infrastructure and human life.
If these past decades are any indication, the years to come will bring more profound change. Rising sea levels will redraw coastlines, displacing millions and threatening major cities as they have already done in Fox Beach, erasing an entire New York neighborhood and returning it to nature. The cascading effects of climate change—on food security, water resources, and global migration—will intensify, demanding coordinated action on a scale never before seen.
