Dust storms hit New South Wales, Australia, January 2020, Jason Davies
Photo: Jason Davies/Severe Weather Australia This drone footage shows a monstrous dust storm that engulfed central New South Wales in Australia in January 2020. One local resident described the scene as ‘like an apocalypse movie’. Drier conditions caused by climate change have been linked to an increase in the frequency and severity of sand and dust storms around the world. In addition to affecting agriculture, industry and the climate itself, airborne dust can cause serious health problems.
A family clings to life in a bushfire, Tasmania, January 2013, Tim Holmes
Photo: Tim Holmes/AP Considered the defining image of the 2013 bushfires in Australia, this photo shows a woman and her five grandchildren taking refuge in the water under a jetty. A fire had engulfed their home in a small fishing town in Tasmania. The picture was taken by the children’s grandfather, Tim Holmes, before he could retrieve a boat in which the family could evacuate. “The atmosphere was so incredibly toxic,” Holmes told an interviewer soon after. “We were all just heads, water up to our chins, just trying to breathe.”
China’s Heat Record August 2022 Thomas Peter
Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters The worst heat wave on record has hit China this summer. High temperatures, drought and wildfires led to crop failures, power shortages and factory shutdowns. In this dramatic image, the pagodas of Luoxingdun Island can be seen rising above the dried-up bed of the country’s largest freshwater lake in southeastern Jiangxi Province.
A man pushes children in a satellite dish through floods in Jaffarabad district, Pakistan, August 2022, Fida Hussain
Photo: Fida Hussain/AFP/Getty Images Devastating floods in Pakistan this summer submerged a third of the country, destroying homes, communities and livestock. An estimated 33 million people – that’s one in seven of the population – are affected. At least 1,700 have died. Waterborne diseases and malnutrition are among the main ongoing threats to health. The long-term economic impact will be enormous. Scientists believe climate change is likely to have supercharged the heavy rainfall that led to the flood. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it a “monsoon on steroids.” And it is worrying that such extreme flooding events are likely to become more frequent around the world. Pakistan’s climate minister, Sherry Rehman, called for “compensations” from richer, higher-emitting countries. As he said in September, “global warming is the existential crisis facing the world and Pakistan is at zero – yet we have contributed less than 1% to emissions”. British-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie agrees. “The world’s richest countries are the ones most responsible for the climate catastrophe and the poorest nations are the ones paying the heaviest price. We need urgent and binding commitments from G20 nations to net zero,” he says. “When it comes to poorer nations like Pakistan, where disaster has already occurred, ‘financial aid’ is not what’s needed – we need to stop using that phrase and replace it with words like: ‘climate justice,’ “redress”, “obligation”.
Giraffes die of thirst in Kenya, December 2021, Ed Ram
Photo: Ed Ram/Getty Images Over the past two years, the Horn of Africa has experienced its worst drought in more than four decades, leading to millions of human and animal deaths. The devastation is captured in this aerial shot by photojournalist Ed Rahm, showing the carcasses of six giraffes strewn across arid ground on the outskirts of a village in Kenya’s Wajir County. The animals died after getting stuck in the mud when they tried to drink from a tank that was almost dry.
SOS sign in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, September 2017, Angelina Ruiz-Lambides
Photo: Angelina Ruiz-Lambides This photo of an SOS sign etched into the pavement in the coastal town of Punta Santiago in Puerto Rico became the defining image of Hurricane Maria, the deadly storm that swept through the northern Caribbean in September 2017. About 3,000 people died and the devastation caused 90 billions of dollars (£80bn) in damage. All over Puerto Rico, power went out. an aid worker spotted this distress signal during an aerial assessment of the aftermath. The footage went viral on social media and brought help to Punta Santiago soon after. The picture left no doubt that we are already in a climate emergency. Massive storms routinely devastate coastal and island populations, with marginalized communities – which typically have weaker infrastructure, fewer resources for evacuation and inadequate insurance coverage – disproportionately affected. And so-called “natural disasters” are supercharged by a warming planet. Kerry Emanuel, a meteorologist who has spent more than 40 years studying the relationship between hurricanes and climate change, explains: “Hurricanes are fueled by the flow of heat from the ocean into the atmosphere when seawater evaporates. Theory, models, and observations show that hurricane wind speeds and rainfall are increasing as a consequence of global warming.” How does it feel to be on the front lines of a hurricane disaster? “Being on the island and completely disconnected, we didn’t realize how far our picture had traveled,” resident Janet Gonzalez said a year after Maria hit Puerto Rico. “We are grateful that it happened. But now, we’re ready to turn the page.”
A minister addresses Cop26 while standing in seawater, Tuvalu, 2021, Tuvalu Ministry of Justice, Communications and Foreign Affairs
Photo: Tuvalu Ministry of Justice, Communications and Foreign Affairs/Reuters In one of the most memorable moments of last November’s Cop26, the foreign minister of Tuvalu, an island nation in the South Pacific, addressed the summit while standing knee-deep in the Pacific. “Climate change and sea level rise are both lethal and existential threats to Tuvalu and the low-lying atoll countries,” said Simon Kofe. “We’re sinking.” “We need to convey these images to people who don’t understand the context of low-lying island states,” the politician now says in his video, “so they can appreciate our reality when we say we might lose everything.” In countries like Tuvalu, where “you live on thin strips of island and you can see the lagoon on one side and the ocean on the other,” the effects of warming and the ocean are already many and varied, Kofe explains. They include droughts, coastal erosion, increased salinity (which affects crops) and “much stronger tropical cyclones, which have wiped out parts of the islands”. Many Pacific island nations may become uninhabitable within decades. You could argue that this is particularly unfair given that they collectively contribute less than 0.03% of global carbon emissions. However, Kofe says recent extreme weather events show that “every person is now affected” by climate change. “That’s why we must come together to fight this threat, no matter where we live.” Regarding the response to his speech at Cop26, Kofe says: “I was very optimistic when I saw the massive popularity of the footage and the interest in the effects of climate change we are facing from around the world. However, interest and action are different things. We need to continue to get our message across to the big broadcasters.”
Earthrise, December 1968, William Anders
Photo: Bill Anders/Nasa/EPA This famous image of Earth emerging beyond the lunar horizon has been credited with starting the modern environmental movement. Landscape photographer Galen Rowell called it “the most important environmental photograph ever taken.” Earthrise was recorded by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission – the first manned mission to orbit the moon. “People realized that we lived on this fragile planet and we had to take care of it,” Anders later remarked of the photo’s impact. “This is the only home we have.”
Wildfires in Greece, August 2021, Konstantinos Tsakalidis
Photo: Konstantinos Tsakalides/World Press Photo/Cover images In the summer of 2021, wildfires were raging across the Mediterranean. This image of an old woman bathed in the orange light of the flames has become an unforgettable symbol of the disaster. Taken on August 8, 2021, it depicts 81-year-old Panagiota Kritsiopi leaving her home on the Greek island of Evia. “At that moment I was shouting, not only for me, but for the whole village,” Kritsiopi later said. Photo: Mayke Toscano/Mato Grosso State Communication/AFP/Getty Images
