In the context of landscape photography, our approach is probably best characterised as "artists with cameras", a somewhat embarrassing admission for any photographer. But we find it impossible to resist bringing an artist's vision to the landscape hereabouts.

Within a twelve mile radius of where we live is a stunning variety, from exhilarating Mendip limestone uplands to broad Bridgewater Bay sand dunes, from lush Vale of Cheddar farmland to dense Vale of Avalon reed marshes.

The open landscape to the West makes for some amazingly dramatic skies, wonderfully clean skylines and some of the best light in the country.

Frequently, at dawn or dusk, a rose-pink hue tracks round the horizon, counterpointing the sun and then finally spreading across the sky either to dissolve into a warm, bright blue sky or to linger in a cool, star-speckled evening.

However, beside the outright pleasure we take in just looking, there is a nagging sense of fin de siécle, this landscape may soon be lost to us ...

"Potentially, the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) could contribute an additional six metres (20 feet) to sea level rise. Although the chances of this are considered low in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Third Assessment report, recent research indicates new evidence of massive ice discharge from the ice sheet." - Greenpeace website, March 22nd 2006.

One cause for concern is the failure of the models used to make predictions about ice sheets and sea level rises. It is not currently possible to make a reliable calculation of the probability (or the improbability) of a catastrophic collapse of the WAIS occurring over a period of a few decades and causing a rapid six metre rise in sea level.

If it doesn't happen then fine, we have some nice local landscapes. If it does happen, we will have some sort of a visual record of a vanished landscape so that future generations can mock our helplessness to prevent this loss from occurring.

Somerset County Council are hoping for no more than a 20cm rise in sea levels by 2030 and even that is likely to compromise sea defenses and threaten parts of the landscape:

"Figures produced by the South West Climate Change Partnership and the Environment Agency suggest that average summer temperatures will rise by 3.5°C by 2050. Summers will become drier with a 10% to 40% decrease in rainfall, and winters will become wetter by up to 20% in the same period. Extreme sea levels are becoming more frequent and could occur 20 times more frequently with a sea level rise up to 76 centimetres by 2080.

A sea level rise of 20 centimetres by 2030 would cause changes to the freshwater habitats in the Somerset Levels, compromise sea defences and increase the frequency of coastal flood events."

Do try an interactive illustration using a Google maps mashup provided by Alex Tingle, you can choose different sea level rises from the menu - the link starts you off at 7m. The black shape is Cheddar reservoir and the smoothly-curving road is the possibly soon-to-be-drowned M5, which on any subsequent given Bank Holiday will most likely be jammed with nose-to-tail submersibles.

Collectively, we need to do something to slow climate change or this is what we may lose ..

Welcome to Landscapes, our third online exhibition. We hope you find it of some interest.