Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet and the solutions being proposed. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet initiative has partnered with CNN to raise awareness and educate citizens on key sustainability issues and inspire positive action.
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The term “Big Five” was originally used by trophy hunters in Africa to describe the most difficult animals to take down: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros and buffalo. Today, it is used more loosely to refer to some of Africa’s largest and most iconic animals.
British photographer Graeme Green, however, has taken up the torch and created a global “New Big Five” for wildlife photography. In 2021, 50,000 people from around the world voted for the five animals they would most like to photograph, or see photographed, in the wild. Five animals were crowned the winners: the elephant, the polar bear, the lion, the gorilla and the tiger.
This week, the photography book “The New Big 5” is released, featuring images of these and other endangered wildlife by photography legends such as Ami Vitale, Steve McCurry and Paul Nicklen, as well as essays by renowned conservationists and activists including Jane Goodall and Paula Kahumbu.
Green says the book celebrates wildlife and is a global call to action on issues impacting wildlife, including habitat loss, poaching, pollution and climate change.
At least a decade ago, Green was on assignment in Botswana when he came up with the idea for a project to encourage people to “shoot with a camera, not a gun,” he says.
“I thought it would be a way to get people to really focus on wildlife, to think about the wildlife they love, to think about animals that are in danger.”
In total, the book brings together the work of 144 world-renowned wildlife photographers from Ecuador to India. Selecting the images took nearly two years, Green says.
“I think these are some of the most beautiful and creative images I’ve seen put together in one book,” Green says. “These are the species we’re at risk of losing.”
According to the UN, nature is declining at an unprecedented rate, with nearly a million animal and plant species on the planet threatened with extinction. The “New Big Five,” all under threat, act as ambassadors for what’s happening in the natural world, Green explains.
In addition to reminding us forcefully of what we stand to lose, this book also points us toward potential solutions. The essays explore the benefits of reintroducing nature and the importance of indigenous communities in conservation.
A chapter on endangered species, from bees to blue whales, illustrates the alarming threat that climate change poses to animals outside the New Big 5. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. I could have included thousands of photos, because the situation is so dire,” Green says.
Jane Goodall, a prominent environmentalist who also wrote the book’s afterword, said in a press release that “we have a window of time in which we can begin to heal some of the damage we have inflicted on the natural world, but only if we come together and act now.”
“I hope these photos will help people discover the wonderful world of these iconic species. Perhaps others will get involved and help create a world where wildlife can thrive for future generations to enjoy,” she said.
“The New Big 5: A Global Photography Project For Endangered Wildlife” by Graeme Green, published by Earth Aware Editions, is on sale from April 4, 2023.
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