From dust storm to drought, we share the climate photographs that could not be ignored<\/p>\n
There are certain photographs that have changed the course of history. Usually, they are political: Tank Man in Tiananmen Square, Iraqi soldier on the Highway of Death, Napalm Girl in Vietnam. These photos are chilling but powerful.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Climate photographs are less celebrated but often just as powerful. Below, we chart 10 climate photographs that have brought the crisis of our times into sharp relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n Photographer: <\/strong>William Anders On Christmas Eve 1968, Nasa astronauts aboard Apollo 8 captured what would become one of the most iconic photographs of all time: an illuminated Earth seen above a moonscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was the first colour photograph of Earth taken from space and became known as \u2018Earthrise\u2019. The image went viral and kickstarted a global environmental movement. In the US<\/a>, 20 million people took to the streets to protest environmental destruction on the first ever Earth Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace were founded in 1969 and 1971 respectively and the US government established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Today, Earthrise remains one of the most iconic climate photographs in history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Chris Jordan When photographer Chris Jordan heard about a tiny island in the North Pacific Ocean covered with thousands of dead birds, he became determined to photograph it. He set off to Midway Island some 1,300 miles (2,100km) northwest of Honolulu.<\/p>\n There, he shot the now iconic photo of a dead albatross chick with its stomach full of plastic. The image appeared in magazines and newspapers all over the world. It highlighted the devastating impact of plastic waste and made millions confront their personal role in the plastics crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Brett Monroe Garner In 2014, The Guardian newspaper published an obituary<\/a> for the Great Barrier Reef in Australia<\/a>. Another followed in Outside<\/a> magazine, this time going viral. Some scientists met this with disdain. They reasoned that if something is already declared dead, efforts to save it will cease.\u00a0<\/p>\n In reality, the Great Barrier Reef is not dead, but it is<\/em> dying. Healthy coral reefs are vibrant in colour thanks to microscopic algae which live on the coral. The coral and algae provide nutrients to each other, but when ocean temperatures increase, the algae overproduce oxygen and become a pathogen. The coral expels the algae and subsequently starves to death \u2013 as illustrated in this stark image.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Cristina Mittermeier This image and the accompanying video of an emaciated polar bear foraging for food on Baffin Island in Canada<\/a> was a stark reminder of human impact on the planet. The heartbreaking footage shows the polar bear searching for food in a steel bin and barely able to move across the iceless terrain.<\/p>\n While we can\u2019t be certain why this bear was so sick, photographer Cristina Mittermeier highlighted that the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, melting the sea ice that polar bears need to survive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Washington state, USA On seeing this image, David Simon, creator of The Wire, tweeted: \u201cIn the pantheon of visual metaphors for America today, this is the money shot.\u201d<\/p>\n The photograph shows a group of golfers calmly playing on as a wildfire rages behind them. Amateur photographer Kristi McCluer captured the photo on the third day of a fire that burnt 50,000 acres of land across the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and Washington.<\/p>\n The image may be bleak, but McCluer added context<\/a>: \u201c[The golfers] might look as if they\u2019re oblivious to this huge thing going on behind them, but the picture is just 1\/800th of a second in time. They were very concerned and talking about how terrible it was.\u201d\u00a0She added, \u201cTo me, the scene sums up how life goes on regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Magnus Kristensen In 2018, the world watched with suspense as a 100m-tall (330ft) iceberg towered over the tiny village of Innaarsuit on the west coast of Greenland<\/a>. Authorities worried that if the iceberg calved, it would cause a tsunami and destroy the settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Villagers were evacuated and the wait lasted a week. Eventually, the iceberg drifted away, but as glaciers continue to melt, this type of peril will likely become more common.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Steffen M Olsen In June 2019, Steffen Olsen, a scientist with the Danish Meteorological Institute, set out to retrieve his team\u2019s scientific instruments before the ice melted. During the failed attempt, he snapped this photo of seven huskies pulling his sledge through water.<\/p>\n Olsen\u2019s team had never before seen water on the ice so early in the summer. They shared the photo on Twitter to illustrate the alarming pace at which sea ice is melting. The photo went viral and helped alert millions to the extreme events in the Arctic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Brad Fleet This distressing picture shows the brutal reality of Australia\u2019s bushfire crisis. In January 2020, photographer Brad Fleet set out to capture the aftermath of the Cudlee Creek fire in Adelaide Hills, South Australia.<\/p>\n As he cased the devastation, he came upon this shocking scene: a baby kangaroo burnt to death after getting caught in a wire fence. The photo is especially poignant as it illustrates a double human threat: we created the fire that caused the joey to flee and<\/em> the fence that trapped him.<\/p>\n Experts estimate<\/a> that the fires killed over one billion animals in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Jason Davies This striking image of a giant dust storm looks like a still from a disaster movie. Alas, it is entirely real. In January 2020, the skies turned orange in New South Wales as an enormous dust storm swept across the region.<\/p>\n While dust storms are relatively common in Australia, storms of this size are not. In this case, the storm followed a period of unusually dry weather which parched large swathes of soil. As a result, it was easier for strong winds to lift clay-, silt- and sand-sized dust particles high into the air and create these apocalyptic scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Photographer:<\/strong> Ed Ram1. Earthrise<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> December 1968
Location:<\/strong> Space<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.atlasandboots.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/climate-photographs-earthrise.jpg\")
<\/a>2. Dead albatross<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> September 2009
Location:<\/strong> Midway Island (USA), North Pacific Ocean<\/p>\n<\/a>3. Coral bleaching\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> March 2017\u00a0
Location:<\/strong> Great Barrier Reef, Australia<\/p>\n<\/a>4. Emaciated polar bear<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> July 2017
Location:<\/strong> Baffin Island, Canada<\/p>\n<\/a>5. Golfers in a wildfire<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> September 2017
Location:<\/strong> Kristi McCluer<\/p>\n<\/a>6. Looming iceberg<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> July 2018
Location:<\/strong> Greenland<\/p>\n<\/a>7. Huskies in water<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> June 2019
Location:<\/strong> Greenland<\/p>\n<\/a>8. Burnt baby kangaroo<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> January 2020
Location:<\/strong> Adelaide Hills, Australia<\/p>\n<\/a>9. Dust storm<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> January 2020
Location:<\/strong> New South Wales, Australia<\/p>\n<\/a>10. Giraffes die of thirst<\/h2>\n
Date:<\/strong> December 2021
Location:<\/strong> Kenya<\/p>\n<\/a>