Award-winning photographer Cristina Mittermeier’s new book, HOPE, offers a powerful counterpoint to the growing sense of despair that often surrounds conversations about our planet’s future. As Mittermeier poignantly observes, “Hope may not be a plan or a strategy, but it is vital for our survival.”
For decades, Mittermeier has traveled the globe, documenting both the breathtaking beauty of the natural world and the mounting threats to its biodiversity. Born in Mexico, she earned a degree in biochemical engineering and marine sciences before studying photography at the Corcoran College of the Arts in Washington, D.C. Since then, she has dedicated her career to conservation storytelling, advocating for the preservation of biodiversity and the protection of Indigenous cultures. In 2014, Mittermeier, alongside photographer Paul Nicklen, co-founded SeaLegacy, a nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the world’s oceans.
In HOPE, Mittermeier pairs her stunning imagery with bilingual text — presented in both English and French— that offers insights on building a more sustainable and balanced world. The book’s foreword, written by Robert Redford, underscores its timely message: “As we grapple with an epidemic of sadness and despair for the state of our planet, Cristina Mittermeier’s lens emerges as a clarion call.”
Through her powerful imagery and storytelling both in HOPE and in the interview that follows, Mittermeier reminds us that saving our planet begins with action — and right now, your support can go even further. The Make It Better Foundation is matching all donations to SeaLegacy, up to $10,000, doubling your impact in the fight to protect our planet .
This conversation took place while Mittermeier was between dives, documenting the impact of climate change on coral reefs off the west coast of Papua.
Mark Edward Harris: What was the catalyst for putting such a diverse body of work into a singular cohesive presentation?
Cristina Mittermeier: The idea for HOPE was born out of a deep need to manage my own mental well-being. Like so many others, I was feeling the weight of anxiety about the state of our planet. But beyond that, I also carried the added pressure of being expected to inspire—expected to offer solutions as an artist and storyteller. Yet, I found myself struggling. I felt overwhelmed, even despairing, asking myself, How do we navigate our way out of this crisis?
I realized I needed something to anchor myself emotionally—a thread of hope strong enough to lift me up and, in turn, lift others. Because in this fight, inspiration isn’t just important—it’s essential. It’s what keeps us going.
MEH: How did you press forward on this mission?
CM: I would like to imagine that we are here on our little spaceship, and we’re visited by people from another galaxy. I thought it would be important for them to know that we have a system of values based on Indigenous knowledge going back thousands of years that has guided how humanity was utilizing the resources of this planet until 200 years ago. We should go back to that system if we want to survive on planet Earth. They’re pretty simple. Every CEO and every prime minister and every president should have an Indigenous leader on their right side and a biologist on their left, informing the decisions that we make about our planet.
I also thought if you were hovering over the Earth you’d say, “Oh, this is an ocean planet.” It’s our largest, most important ecosystem. I wanted to focus on the narrative about how it’s the engine of life on Earth.
MEH: What percentage of the earth is water?
CM: Seventy-one percent is ocean. Some of that ocean becomes ice, and it gets subtracted from the amount that’s liquid. When the polar caps melt that sequestered water goes back to liquid form and raises the sea level. Our continents are floating on tectonic plates that are constantly moving and reshaping the way that our planet looks, and the boundaries between land and ocean are very fluid. The ocean is a constant force that evolves and shapes what the terrestrial part looks like. It’s arrogant of us to think that our planet is Earth. Our planet is mostly ocean. Geography is a human construct. The boundaries between countries don’t serve us well.
MEH: We used to study some of this in school. But I’m not sure human history and the environment have been taught in unison.
CM: There’s been an erosion over the last 30, 40 years upon our educational system and our schools. In general our media no longer educates us about the inner workings of our planet. We are very uninformed passengers on this spaceship. But some of us, the ones that are interested in science, who are biologists or who work in other related flelds are paying attention to the fluctuation of the natural cycles on planet Earth. There are processes in nature that are irreversible. AI is not going to rescue us. Can we recreate things like the polar regions or bring back species from extinction? Once we lose them, they are gone forever. And we’re losing so many. It’s like we’re traveling on this spaceship, and we’re losing the nuts and bolts that keep it going.
MEH: How does your beautiful cover photo represent hope?
CM: That was taken in the Omo Valley in Ethiopia. Certain parts of Africa are already experiencing what the rest of the Earth will experience unless we change course, which is a tremendous increase in average daily temperatures. There was a one and a half degree mark that we were not supposed to pass, but there’s agreement that we already have. People in places like the Omo Valley are already experiencing daily temperatures that bring about drought and difficulties getting fresh water, feeding their animals and just being able to sleep at night. Humans are not adapted to withstand huge discrepancies in temperature.
In the markets you see women that make such an effort, despite their difficult circumstances, to beautify themselves. The cover of my book, Hope, is a girl who found flowers for her headdress in the middle of the desert and went to the market to sell whatever she was selling. We have become so ordinary in so many ways, we need to find places that retain traditions, culture and a sense of community to keep hope alive.
MEH: How close are we to the point of no return?
CM: The average daily temperature on planet Earth already reaching that one and a half percent that spells disaster for many communities, species and ecosystems that are pretty much invisible. They’re not in the daily news. Places that used to be lush and green have become dry and arid and very prone to wildfires. This is why we are seeing more firestorms and hurricanes, and the warming of the ocean. Here in Indonesia, the sea temperature is 32 1/2 degrees Celsius. Last night I was diving in a coral reef that just six weeks ago was alive and beautiful and now it’s between 30 and 40% bleached. The corals are dying or dead and the expectation is that in the next 50 to a 100 years, planet Earth will settle on an average of 4 degrees Celsius warmer.
MEH: Is that livable?
CM: That becomes unlivable in many places on Earth. Huge chunks of Africa, South America, and South Asia will become so hot that people just can’t survive. We’re going to see an enormous displacement of people trying to flee to places that are still livable. Whatever chaotic scenarios we’re living in today with refugees and illegal immigration, it’s going to become many times worse. Are we even talking about it? I don’t know why the media shies away from informing the public about the real possibility of all this happening. I think information would compel us to be more cohesive in our actions, and less distracted by the superfluous. We need to focus on the survival of our children and future generations. Paul and I founded SeaLegacy as part of that mission.
MEH: Can we come back if we make the needed changes? Let’s say with the coral reefs for instance?
CM: If temperatures adjust back down some things can start recovering. What we’re seeing though, is the temperature going up and up, so there’s no real scenario for it cooling down. The ocean has already absorbed something like 90% of the excess heat in the atmosphere. When the reef dies, the fish die, the food goes away, and people depending on that food source become poorer and displaced and this creates civil conflict. There’s a huge avalanche of consequences.
MEH: Just like with my work with orangutans and the balancing act in Borneo and Sumatra. Palm oil production is a huge industry but if it’s not more carefully managed the orangutans will continue to lose their native habitat and that will lead to the end of their existence in the wild.
CM: And that goes back to my earlier point about our lack of education. We don’t know the difference between a monkey and an ape. We don’t need to know about them. That’s generally the decision we have made. And yet they’re our fellow passengers and serve a function to keep planet Earth alive. We know very little about how our planetary ecosystem works.
MEH: We have to understand the problems to then find solutions. So in terms of hope…
CM: I draw inspiration from other people like you who have been activists for a cause that’s important and that they are passionate about. Dr. Martin Luther King in his famous speech on Civil Rights didn’t say, “I have a nightmare…” He told us what his dream was. Psychologically, we need to know where we’re going and having an aspiration drives our actions. I wanted to paint a picture for the planet that we should aspire to.
I find so much hope on the front lines where things are happening because you meet people that are taking action with very little money to do whatever they can to solve a problem, one issue at a time. I read a story about a women feeding a couple of birds in her yard. And somebody said, “Well, that doesn’t make any difference for the birds.” And someone responded, “It makes a difference to those two birds.” That is so true. I met a couple that came to Indonesia on one of those volunteering holidays, and they realized there was a massive problem with the reefs. Now they live here and have found a very low cost, low technology way of restoring the reef with a mesh to stabilize and replant it.
In Bali the local news reported massive waves of plastic trash washing up on the beach. Three siblings in their twenties put together a group of volunteers and got the bags to remove, sort and recycle it and then turn it into furniture. They’re of French birth but moved to Bali 15 years ago.
I find hope in these examples of people that are showing up to do their part and not being discouraged by the scale of the problem. We all can do something. People are coming up with solutions everywhere. There’s a lot of innovation. Young people coming up with ingenious ways of dealing with trash. I think everyone is so enamored with the idea that somehow AI or technology is going to solve the problem that biodiversity is being forgotten. Climate is one of the problems, but biodiversity goes hand in hand with it and we’re losing biodiversity faster than ever. It’s more difficult than ever to raise money for biodiversity conservation because it doesn’t have a return on investment some philanthropists expect. Manatees are not going to give you a return on investment, but they still need to be protected. My call to action is we need to get back to philanthropy just for altruistic reasons so people on the front lines working to protect the last rhino or frog, receive funding.
MEH: HOPE serves as a visual reminder of what we have to lose. It’s interesting how you used various themes that act as chapter dividers.
CM: I divided the book into six themes: Indigenous Wisdom, the beauty of humankind lies in the ways of being we have developed; Ocean of Hope, what we know or fail to learn from the ocean will determine our ability to survive on Earth; Icy Realms, the good news is that we actually know why our polar regions are melting and we also know the solutions; The Afterlife, because I’m from Mexico, the Day of the Dead is very present for me. It’s a recognition that grounding yourself on the fact that we have a very short time on this planet and to make the most of it in this life. Do something good for planet Earth while you’re here. Then there’s Heirs to the Earth. I am irresistibly drawn to the joy, sense of wonder and the resilience of children. The final chapter is Interconnected. When a species goes extinct it’s not an isolated event. It’s not something that happens over there. It’s interconnected to every other ecological process on Earth. We think our planet is human-centered, but it isn’t. Animals are not beneath us. They’re not inferior to us. They’re our fellow passengers.
MEH: How did you illustrate Interconnected in the book?
CM: I went with wildlife because a lot of humans think that wildlife is for consumption or conversation or entertainment. But wildlife is critical for our survival. For example, the role that animals like whales play in the carbon cycle of the ocean. If we continue to hunt and kill whales we’re undermining our ability to solve the climate crisis. Phytoplankton needs fertilizer and that fertilizer comes from the poop of whales and other creatures. When a whale dives down to feed in the depths of the ocean, it brings a lot of nutrients and minerals from the bottom of the ocean and it poops near the surface, and all of a sudden you have all these miniature rainforests that are sequestering carbon dioxide. Also, as we’re heating the ocean it’s becoming more acidic and we’re seriously compromising the ability of phytoplankton to survive.
One of the most important creatures on planet Earth is a bacteria called Prochlorococcus that is responsible for 20% of oxygen production in the world. It floats out there in the ocean and produces oxygen through photosynthesis. But how many people study this bacteria? Our life depends on it but very few of us know anything about it.
MEH: Everybody talks about the connection between the Amazon and oxygen. But you’re saying a significant part of oxygen production comes from the ocean.
CM: It’s not just significant. It’s half.
MEH: I think most people don’t know that because we hear about, you know, trees and all that, but we don’t think of the ocean.
CM: We understand trees but when I say phytoplankton, it’s very difficult to form an idea of what it looks like. Yet, we know that we have lost the equivalent of four Amazonian rainforests worth of phytoplankton in the ocean because of warming and acidification. The consequences are serious. I don’t want to scare people, but I’m scared. But the positive take away is that there are heroes out there trying to understand, trying to solve and trying to protect. They need our support. That is the positive. You don’t have to get off your sofa, just support those who are willing to leave their lives behind to go and do something.
MEH: You’re highlighting people, animals and issues that seldom if ever get the limelight, and without that, funding is difficult.
CM: Thanks to National Geographic and my social media I have a huge platform. If I can shine a light on that person doing good work but who’s work is invisible, maybe they can capture enough attention to raise more money for the important work they’re doing.
MEH: We just had major fires in the Los Angeles area. How much of that can be attributed to climate change?
CM: The ocean is getting warmer off the coast of California which is changing the precipitation pattern and the temperature. These fires are becoming exponentially hotter and more prevalent. I can point to every fire and say it’s been made worse because we have changed the track. The same goes for hurricanes. With a warmer ocean to feed energy into these storms they’re becoming bigger, angrier, and more frequent.
MEH: What is the way out of this?
CM: The way out is to wean ourselves away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. If we replaced fossil fuel, coal and oil we would cut cargo shipping by 50%. We’ve known since the 1800s that an excess of carbon from burning fossil fuels was warming the planet.
How to Help
As Cristina says, “You don’t have to get off your sofa, just support those who are willing to leave their lives behind to go and do something.” Donate to support the critical work of SeaLegacy and their fellow eco-warriors on the frontlines of ocean conservation across the globe. You can also help raise awareness and amplify crucial ocean and nature issues by joining SeaLegacy’s social community and sharing solutions with family and friends.
Donate today and double your impact: To help your donation dollars go further, the Make It Better Foundation is matching all donations, up to $10,000.
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- Jane Goodall Shares 3 Reasons She’s Optimistic About the Future of the Environment
Assignments have taken award-winning photographer and Make It Better Foundation Director of Photography Mark Edward Harris to more than 100 countries on all seven continents. His books include Faces of the Twentieth Century: Master Photographers and Their Work, The Way of the Japanese Bath, Wanderlust, North Korea, South Korea, Inside Iran, The Travel Photo Essay: Describing A Journey Through Images and his latest, The People of the Forest — a book about orangutans. He proudly supports the Center for Great Apes, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, and the Search Dog Foundation. You can find him on Instagram or at his website.
