Over summer 2024, five project teams from Blue Lab conducted original research and fieldwork for environmental storytelling projects in California, Nevada, Colorado, New Jersey, Norway and Svalbard.
"Now in our third consecutive year of producing original environmental media projects that aim to tell hyperlocal, human-centered stories about large-scale environmental questions and crises, our team covered a lot of ground this summer—both thematically and geographically," said Blue Lab co-founder and PI Allison Carruth, who is Professor of American studies and the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) at Princeton and the current faculty director of Princeton's Program in Environmental Studies. "These projects include a documentary film series, three podcasts and a multimedia essay. I'm so proud of the work we are doing together, including our lab members who are HMEI postdoctoral fellows and student interns."
Flagship Blue Lab projects include California on the Edge (documentary film series), Archival Ecologies (podcast series), Carried by Water (podcast series) and Mining for the Climate (podcast series and mapping project). You can read up on the breadth of summer fieldwork for active Blue Lab projects below.
Project Title California on the edge
Project type Documentary film series
Project Leads Barron Bixler + Allison Carruth
Production team Asela Perez-Ortiz
Currently in production, California on the Edge is a documentary film series that explores how communities and individuals are living with, adapting to, and working to protect or repair a climate-changed California. The project interweaves place-based stories that foreground the lived experiences of people who are working to imagine—and build—more resilient and just coastal communities.
California on the Edge was created by the filmmaking team Barron Bixler (director/writer/DP) and Allison Carruth (producer/writer), who co-founded Blue Lab at Princeton. This summer, Bixler and Carruth traveled as far south as Laguna Beach and as far north as San Francisco, documenting the work and lives of a range of interlocutors—from free divers in Orange County to kelp scientists on Catalina Island, from an LA Times environment reporter to a group of coastal access advocates in Malibu, from environmental justice activists to Chumash tribal leaders on the Central Coast, from marine conservationists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to an oyster farmer in Bodega Bay. Their visions of California's storied coastlines are rooted in generative ideals of collaboration, organization, repair, ingenuity and the profound meaning of work, often alongside impassioned feelings of grief, defiance, anger, worry and futility. It is their small-scale acts of world-salvaging and world-building—which cumulatively are a force to reckon with—that give the project its gravitational center, and through which the project hopes to make a meaningful contribution to the unfinished story that is California.
Barron Bixler dives with and films kelp scientists on Catalina Island. Photo by Allison Carruth.
(Film still) Kelp scientists work on a giant kelp restoration experiment off Catalina Island. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) Families from Highland Park in Los Angeles visit a beach in Malibu for the first time. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) An environmental equity activist works to dismantle historically underrepresented communities’ barriers to accessing open space. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) Violet Sage Walker, Chair of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, sits for an interview about the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) An aquaculture farmer in San Pedro sits for an interview. Footage by Barron Bixler.
Allison Carruth talks with scientists studying the temperature threshold at which giant kelp gametophytes begin to die: 20 degrees Celsius. Photo by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) A UCSB scientist conducts experiments on how marine heat waves off the coast of California affect reproduction in sea urchins. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) Kelp scientists work on a giant kelp restoration experiment off Catalina Island. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) Allison Carruth interviews LA Times coast environment reporter Rosanna Xia. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) An ocean swimmer at Point Dume in Malibu swims to recall the feeling of home in Argentina. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) An oyster farmer in Morro Bay works to keep his farm afloat in the aftermath of 2023's storms. Footage by Barron Bixler.
Barron Bixler films oyster farmers in the Morro Bay Estuary. Photo by Allison Carruth.
(Film still) Freedivers at Shaw’s Cove in Laguna Beach dive as a way to release the stress of workaday life while witnessing ecosystems change at an intimate scale.
(Film still) A teenage subsistence fisherman from Long Beach casts lines off the Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) An intergenerational family of Eritrean-American women gathers on the beach in Santa Cruz. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) Rodney works on his soccer skills during a pickup game of mostly Latino soccer players on Santa Barbara’s East Beach. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) A precarious stretch of the PCH threatened by surf and rising seas from the west and wildfires and erosion from the east. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) An overview of Morro Bay. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) Morro rock. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) The Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) A harbor seal swims through an endangered forest of native eelgrass. Footage by Barron Bixler.
(Film still) A map showing a dizzying number of intersecting climate crises. Footage by Barron Bixler.
Project Title Archival ecologies
Project type Podcast
Project Lead Jayme Collins
Production team Farah Arnaout '26 + Hannah Riggins '27
This summer, Archival Ecologies traveled to both Colorado and Norway to conduct fieldwork and interviews toward the production of a second season of the podcast. In July, Jayme Collins, the creator of Archival Ecologies, went to Denver to join a group of scientists from COLDEX (a research consortium focused on finding and studying very old ice) at the NSF Ice Core Facility (ICF) who were working on a “core processing line." The ICF is a national facility that stores, archives and makes available cores of ice drilled from Greenland and Antarctica and from small glaciers around North America. Scientists use this ice to tell stories about Earth’s ancient climate history. During the week, scientists cut, sampled and packed for shipping pieces of ice for distribution to different COLDEX institutions for distinct research projects. Collins spent 3 days with scientists, curators and technicians at the facility—which is located in a warehouse at the Denver Federal Center—photographing them at work and interviewing them during their “warm up” time. Some of the people Collins talked with include: OSU graduate student Julia Marks Peterson, OSU faculty member Christo Buizert, ICF Curator Curt La Bombard and ICF Assistant Curator Richard Nunn. Collins also had firsthand experience with the two freezers where the scientists work—one kept -38 degrees Celsius for ice core storage and the other kept at approximately -25 degrees Celsius for working with the ice. During the days Collins was there, several small pieces of ice broke off during sampling. A highlight for Collins was getting to record pieces of this ancient bubbled-filled ice as it melted, which sounded like a forest of chirping birds.
The second portion of Archival Ecologies fieldwork took place in Norway and on the Arctic island of Svalbard. Collins first traveled to the Norwegian towns of Hamar and Løm to meet with and interview people who work on “glacier archaeology,” gathering objects that have been stored in ice for hundreds of years and are now being released as glacier ice melts due to a warming climate. These range from clothing and shoes to arrows and even a perfectly preserved dog complete with collar. Collins spent several days in Svalbard visiting two archives that are embedded in former coal mines near the town of Longyearbyen: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the Arctic World Archive. While there, she also visited other archives in Longyearbyen and met scientists and locals to learn more about what life on Svalbard is like. Collins wrapped up her fieldwork in Oslo speaking with people who oversee the Svalbard archives as well as to conservators who are responsible for preserving objects that are coming out of the melting ice.
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
Jayme Collins at the USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF).
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
The USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
Foothills above the USGS U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF), Denver, CO. Photo by Jayme Collins.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Jayme Collins at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Artist Lena von Goedeke holding a glass sculpture of an ice core. Photo by Jayme Collins.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Photo by Jayme Collins.
Project Title Carried by water
Project type Podcast
Project Lead Mario Soriano
Production team Farah Arnaout '26, Jayme Collins, Asela Perez-Ortiz + Hannah Riggins '27
What does it mean to call somewhere home in the face of increasing climate-related disasters? Released on the ten-year anniversary of Super Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda), the first season of Carried by Water traveled to Tacloban and in the Philippines to hear and learn from coastal communities displaced to inland areas after the typhoon under a government-mandated relocation scheme that was legitimized by a discourse of safety from hazards. For the second season of Carried by Water, the project—created by Mario Soriano—is focusing on New Jersey to explore conversations about "managed retreat" for communities that are grappling with real-time and anticipated risks of flooding and sea level rise. Over the summer of 2024, Soriano led a Blue Lab team to conduct research on New Jersey's Blue Acres flood mitigation and home buyout program and to begin interviewing researchers, policymakers, elected officials and community members who have been involved with this and other managed retreat programs. The questions that have emerged in the team's research and interviews will shape the second season of the podcast: What is lost when people sell their home to a state-run buyout program for flood-prone properties, and what can be gained? How are scientists on a coastal field station navigating the reality of observing first-hand the water claiming the land around them? What would abandoning the station mean for both their research and the ecosystem? Who ultimately manages managed retreat, and is it possible to imagine forms of just relocation that attenuate the trauma of displacement?
Signage for Woodbridge Township Open Space Conservation/ Resiliency Zone. This area was once occupied by homes, which the state acquired through the New Jersey Blue Acres program. The homes were demolished and the land is being kept open for flood mitigation and promoted as a walking trail.
Mario Soriano at the Woodbridge River Passage. The passage runs across homes formerly occupying Watson and Crampton avenues that were acquired by the state through Blue Acres.
Asela Perez-Ortiz interviews Tom Flynn, floodplain administrator for Woodbridge Township.
Hannah Riggins and Farah Arnaout speak with Andrea Habeck and Amanda Archer at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve in Tuckerton, New Jersey.
Mario Soriano and Hannah Riggins interview Lisa Auermuller at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station.
Jayme Collins lowers a hydrophone to record the underwater soundscape at the Rutgers University Marine Field Station.
Project Title Mining for the climate
Project type Podcast
Project Leads Jessica Ng + Nate Otjen
Production team Christopher Bao '27 + Jose Santacruz '27
The Mining for the Climate team traveled to northern Nevada in June with the project leads, HMEI postdoctoral fellows Jessica Ng and Nate Otjen, and HMEI interns Christopher Bao ‘27 and Jose Santacruz ‘27. The team expanded the scope of the Mining for the Climate project, which in 2023 produced and released an inaugural podcast season about a proposed lithium mine in Gaston County, North Carolina. Over 8 days filled with muddy off-road stream crossings, the smell of crushed crickets baking on the highway, unexpectedly lush and diverse habitats, and generous people, the team interviewed 18 people—including community members, scholars and advocates—to understand how lithium mining is affecting ecosystems and ways of life in the McDermitt Caldera in Nevada. With the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine now under construction, some are advocating for community involvement, while others are focusing on cultural regeneration and raising the next generation of land protectors. Those who shared their stories and voices underscored how existing laws and policies advance mining and conveyed skepticism about lithium mining for personal electric vehicles as a primary climate solution. The second season of the Mining for the Climate podcast and a multimedia map showing life in the caldera are expected to be released in early 2025.
View of the McDermitt Caldera from the north end. Sagebrush cover the gentle slopes, and green wetlands accompany the creek that flows from Disaster Peak and the snowy Trout Creek Mountains in the distance. Photo by Jessica Ng.
The team interviews geographer and anthropologist Paul White at the University of Nevada Reno. Photo by Jessica Ng.
Blue Lab undergraduate intern Jose Santacruz '27 monitors audio input during our interview of Daniel Rothberg, an independent journalist based in Reno. Photo by Jessica Ng.
John Hadder, Director of Great Basin Resource Watch, emphasizes a point while Blue Lab undergraduate intern Christopher Bao '27 adjusts audio input. Photo by Nate Otjen.
Susan Frey, media spokesperson for the Thacker Pass Working Group, shows us the location of a new school planned for Orovada, a small agricultural community near the caldera. The current school is located on the main road that mine construction and operation will use. Photo by Jose Santacruz '27.
The team rests in the shade of an aspen grove with Paiute Shoshone community members Council Vice Chair Justina Paradise, Myron Smart and Day Hinkey. Photo by Jose Santacruz '27.
Day and Myron unearth a medicinal root. They emphasized that lithium mining threatens their cultural and spiritual connection to land in the caldera. Photo by Nate Otjen.
Construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in the southern end of the McDermitt Caldera has begun. Photo by Jose Santacruz '27.
Katie Fite, Director of Public Lands at Wildlands Defense, describes the wildlife in the caldera and how ranching, invasive species and fire have already stressed the landscape. Photo by Nate Otjen.
Katie Fite, Director of Public Lands at Wildlands Defense, breaks open a sage grouse dropping. The color indicates that the sage grouse was eating yellow wildflowers, while the moisture indicates that the dropping is fresh. Photo by Christopher Bao '27.
