3x Yellowstone: Sanjiangyuan
Published with ShanShui Conservation Center, Pengpai News, National Geographic, and more, 2017-2020
The sprawling reaches of the Tibetan plateau and glaciers from which the springs of the Yangtze, the Yellow, and the Mekong bubble to life is known as the Source of the Three Rivers, Sanjiangyuan. Here is also China’s first, and largest national park. Sanjiangyuan National Park covers an area three times the size of Yellowstone in the United States. It includes nomadic Tibetan pastoralists, Tibetan gazelle and their hunters, the elusive snow leopard, and exceedingly rare flowers that only bloom for a few warm weeks a year on remote mountain slopes.
During my time in China, I spent most of every summer on the plateau, sometimes staying even longer until the first of winter’s blizzards coated the wilted grass and mountain glaciers. The relationship of local Tibetans to the mountains and wildlife of their home captivated me, taught me about humanity’s place in nature, and educated me about the systemic ways climate change was beginning to alter the land and life that they had always known - but also life downstream.
The Tibetan Plateau is a thermometer for the world, warming two to three times faster than the global average. What is happening here is a warning of what is to come for the entire planet, but climate change also disproportionally affects Tibetans who have a disproportionally small carbon footprint. My work in Sanjiangyuan explores the nature of this most magnificent land and the locals who are standing up to protect, study, and share its value with the world.
