It was our pleasure again to sponsor the Poster Prize at the ESEH conference in Uppsala last week. The worthy winners were Andrei Vinogradov and Alexandra Raeva with their poster ‘Melting Mountains’. The poster was both graphically effective, indeed beautiful, and presented information succinctly and in a way that created an overall sense of design: the judges liked the way the stepped paragraphs of text echoes the mountain slope. Viewing and reading this poster left us wanting to explore the research project in more depth – and with a clear sense of what it is about, through the well-chosen sub-headings and summary diagram.
The authors explain a bit more about their intentions with this poster:
The purpose of this poster is to demonstrate how climate change in high mountain regions increases the dependence of local communities on state authority and the market economy. We examine this process through the concept of the ‘vertical climate frontier’, which is further illustrated in the graph and accompanying texts.
High mountain areas are among the most climate-sensitive regions of the world. The impacts of climate change there are strikingly diverse: it may bring droughts or floods, severe frosts or unusual heat. Yet behind this variety lies a common pattern – local populations, in this case semi-nomadic herders, are losing the ability to sustain their traditional livelihoods. To weather crises and secure a means of survival, they are compelled either to engage in the service economy or to rely on state assistance, which is inseparably tied to state control. At the same time, the people of the Altai are not silent victims of climate change: they actively seek ways to adapt while preserving a degree of autonomy.
By combining artistic illustration with a research-based perspective, we sought to highlight both the contrast between industrial lowland societies and traditional highland ways of life, and the vertical dimension of the climate crisis. We are pleased that the poster drew the audience’s attention and received recognition from colleagues. Many thanks to The White Horse Press for organising the competition and for their support!
For a high resolution PDF of the poster, click ‘download’:
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