Summer and Winter | Black and White

Mongolian Snowstorm | Australian Drought
By Natasha Fijn

Climate change is often used synonymously with the term ‘global warming’, yet the climate is changing in different ways throughout different parts of the globe. Mongolia and Australia are extreme opposites, in terms of cold juxtaposed with heat, yet they are both arid as part of large continental landmasses. In the Khangai Mountains of Mongolia, snowstorms are becoming more severe, while cyclical extreme weather conditions in winter, called dzud, are becoming more frequent. On the Australian continent, we have cyclical drought with frequent heat waves, resulting in catastrophic bush fires, such as those we have been experiencing this summer. In the Khangai Mountains, a horse is ridden out in below freezing temperatures, in order to check on the wellbeing of first the yak herd, followed by the horse herd, sheltering in the forest. In contrast, near Braidwood in New South Wales, horses are regularly ridden across the family farm. On this occasion they are riding in the morning, before the heat of the day builds to a scorching 42º Celcius. Both horses and humans observe the fire ravaged trees on the neighbouring land. Such extreme climatic conditions will inevitably change how more than just humans engage with the land in the future.