Global climate change is evident and has noticeable effects on the environment. It affects all regions of the world. The polar ice caps are melting and the level of the oceans is rising. In some regions, extreme weather events and precipitation are becoming more frequent, while others are facing increasingly extreme heat waves and droughts.
Many plants and animal species are endangered. Some terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have already moved to new territories. Plants and animals will be in serious danger of extinction if the average temperature of the planet continues to rise uncontrollably.
These effects are expected to intensify in the coming decades. Scientists agree that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
According to the IPCC, the extent of climate change effects on individual regions will vary over time and with the ability of different societal and environmental systems to mitigate or adapt to change.
With these facts in mind, All About Photo has selected photographers who are documenting the consequences of climate change on our beautiful planet and its inhabitants.
Thanks to their dedication and courage, we can observe the effects of climate change on all four corners of the world. We believe that their work is key to help climate skeptics open their eyes and minds.
Skepticism is a significant barrier to public engagement when we should all act as one. But if facts and words don't curve their little trust in what they are told, can an image make a difference?
We asked renowned and committed photographers the same simple question:
"Do you think that photography can help raise awareness about Climate Change?"
Here are their personal and heartfelt answers as well as their astounding images to convey their message.
Nick Brandt
A qualified yes. More and more of us are turning our very necessary urgent attention to showing the impact of climate change.However, the irrational denial of man-made climate change in certain countries like America and Australia is so fervently ingrained among many, largely thanks to the shameless right-wing press, that I sometimes feel that our audience is made up of those who are already aware and converted.
But that should never ever stop us from doing everything we can to further raise awareness in whatever way we can. Just look at how much just one 17-year-old Swedish girl has achieved in the space of one year.
My previous work - about the disappearance and destruction of the natural world in East Africa- has only tangentially touched upon climate change, but with my next project, about climate change in America, I will be very much addressing it directly. - Nick Brandt
The themes of Nick Brandt (British, b. 1964) relate to the disappearing natural world, rapidly changing and vanishing at the hands of mankind.
From 2001 to 2018, he has photographed in Africa. In his celebrated trilogy, On This Earth, A Shadow Falls Across The Ravaged Land (2001-2012), he established a style of portrait photography of animals in the wild similar to that of the photography of humans in studio settings. Shot on medium format film, these series portray animals as sentient creatures not so different from us.
In Inherit the Dust (2016), a series of epic panoramas, Brandt recorded the impact of man in places where animals used to roam but no longer do. In each location, Brandt erected a life-size panel of one of his unreleased animal portrait photographs, placing the displaced animals on sites of explosive urban development, new factories, wastelands, and quarries.
This Empty World (2019) addresses the escalating destruction of the natural world at the hands of humans, showing a world where overwhelmed by runaway development, there is no longer space for animals to survive. Working in color for the first time, in visually complex tableaux populated by both humans and animals, This Empty World is both a technical tour de force of contemporary image-making and an ambitiously scaled project that uses constructed sets on a scale typically seen in major film productions.
Brandt has had solo gallery and museum shows around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris and Los Angeles. Inherit the Dust most recently has been exhibited at Multimedia Museum of Art in Moscow and the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki. Born and raised in England, Brandt now lives in the southern Californian mountains. He is co-founder of Big Life Foundation, fighting to protect the animals of a large area of Kenya and Tanzania.
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Both animals and humans are victims of environmental degradation and climate change. Environmental degradation will almost always affect poor rural people the most, due to the exhausted natural resources upon which they rely. (In the photos with the humans and elephants, both were photographed from the exact same camera position, first the (wild) elephants, and then people from the local community in Kenya.)



Mette Lampcov
This question keeps me awake at night. I question this all the time and I do think it can raise our awareness. Photography has a way of connecting with people and it draws them in, as in “now I see.” When we see an image with stories it helps emphasize the reality that at times can be hard to comprehend or visualize. This is where images can be very powerful: to help bring forward compassion and a greater understanding of what we are witnessing- especially with climate change, as it is altering our daily lives and the environment around us in very extreme and very subtle ways are nevertheless equally important.I do have one worry that the imagery we often choose to show the climate emergency is typically showing the most extreme of its effects and that then becomes the stereotype of climate change. Climate change has many faces and they are not all visually dramatic and if we leave out more nuanced and real everyday stories we are yet again avoiding reality. I believe as a photographer it is our responsibility to see deeper and further and listen and look carefully to everyone and everywhere - in reality, once you have started working on climate change it becomes so obvious to you what you are seeing.
Working on a project about climate change for the past 5 years in California has been eye-opening to the changes we are already seeing in the State: you feel the rising temperatures, 149 million trees have died in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, there are larger and more aggressive wildfires and drought is affecting water supply and agriculture.
What has stuck with me more than anything was while documenting the aftermath of the Woosley fire in Malibu CA, a family was going through the burnt-out remains of their home and one of them who is a college professor said ''I always thought climate change would happen to someone else, somewhere over there, not here to my family''
As frustrating and depressing it can be working on the Climate Emergency, I believe it is not my job to try and convince people, it's my job to show reality. - Mette Lampcov
Mette Lampcov is a freelance documentary photographer from Denmark, based in Los Angeles. She studied fine art in London, England and after moving to the United States 13 years ago. Her personal work includes projects about gender-based violence and undocumented migrant workers in California. She is currently concentrating on a long term project "Water to Dust" documenting how climate change is affecting people and the environment around them in California.
Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, Open Society Foundation, BuzzFeed News, The Guardian, The Phoblographer She is a regular contributor to @everydayclimatechange and @everydaycalifornia
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In the last year, California has seen the largest number of fires in succession. These fires are driven and helped by climate change conditions such as extreme heat, ongoing drought, and low humidity high winds, essentially creating the perfect conditions for more aggressive, fast-moving fires. The ferocious heat helps generate its own wind and sparks embers that fly hundred of meters ahead, and the homes that are in the way are just more fuel for the fires to consume and then adding to that, are decades of fire suppression that creates overgrown underbrush and dry vegetation ready to combust.
The aftermath is thousands of people who have lost their homes and all their belongings, memories turned to dust and ashes, with only a few objects that withstand the heat of the fires, that people can salvage. This is what climate change affects looks like, affecting us directly and right now.




Ragnar Axelsson
I would say that photography is more important than ever before in raising awareness about climate change. Photographs have changed things before, like the legendary photographs that had a significant impact on opinion on the Vietnam war. Photos played a vital role in stopping the war. Photography has been fighting for its life for the past years in the changing media world, and the respect for it is not as high as it used to be. It is up to photographers now to do things that matter to the world and hold their heads up high. We have a mirror in our hands, which is our camera. We should mirror the world, not our self. That is what documentary photography is about, show the world how things are changing. - Ragnar AxelssonFor over 40 years, Ragnar Axelsson, Rax, has been photographing the people, animals, and landscape of the most remote regions of the Arctic, including Iceland, Siberia, and Greenland. In stark black-and-white images, he captures the elemental, human experience of nature at the edge of the liveable world, making visible the extraordinary relationships between the people of the Arctic and their extreme environment – relationships now being altered in profound and complex ways by the unprecedented changes in climate.
A photojournalist at Morgunbladid since 1976, Ragnar has also worked on freelance assignments in Latvia, Lithuania, Mozambique, South Africa, China, and Ukraine. His photographs have been featured in LIFE, Newsweek, Stern, GEO, National Geographic, Time, and Polka, and have been exhibited widely.
Ragnar has published 7 books in various international editions. His most recent, Jökull (Glacier) was published in 2018, with a foreword by Olafur Eliasson. Andlit Nordursins (The Face of The North), was published in 2016, with a foreword by Mary Ellen Mark, and won the 2016 Icelandic Literary Prize for non-fiction.
Other awards for Ragnar's work include numerous Icelandic Photojournalist Awards; The Leica Oskar Barnack Award (Honorable Mention); The Grand Prize, Photo de Mer, Vannes; and Iceland's highest honor, the Order of the Falcon, Knight's Cross.
Ragnar is currently working on a 3-year project documenting people's lives in all 8 countries of the Arctic. At this pivotal time, as climate change irrevocably disrupts the physical and traditional realities of their world, Ragnar is bearing witness to the immediate and direct threat global warming poses to their survival.
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Daniel Beltrá
I absolutely believe that photography can help raise awareness of climate change. I think this view is a natural outgrowth of the journalist's creed of "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted." For nearly the past three decades I've spent covering stories and topics related to this, and it would be hard to imagine devoting my professional life to this work if I didn't think it was making a positive impact on conservation and environmental awareness.My method for doing this, especially in the past 15-20 years, has been to do this via aerial photography of threatened, and more often it seems now damaged landscapes and ecosystems. The aerial perspective allows me to juxtapose nature with the destruction wrought by an unsustainable appetite for resources, a view that has more empathy and context than that of a satellite. The message that (I hope) these photographs convey is that the Earth and its seemingly endless abundance is, in fact, finite. I think only good things can happen when people see photos and coverage of climate change, gaining a deeper appreciation of nature and the precarious balance our lifestyle has placed upon the planet.
Once people are inspired there is an opportunity for them to take action. This can be done in a variety of ways, but I think most directly it is by voting with both our ballots and our wallets. What nearly everyone wants is for future generations to inherit a world that can sustain life for all, not just those fortunate few. The challenge to accomplish this is getting more people on a more environmentalist and conscientious path. Photography and images of climate change can help get people to take those first steps down that path. - Daniel Beltrá
Born in Madrid, Spain, Daniel Beltrá is a photographer based in Seattle, Washington. His passion for conservation is evident in images of our environment that are evocatively poignant. The most striking large-scale photographs by Beltrá are images shot from the air. This perspective gives the viewer a wider context to the beauty and destruction he witnesses, as well as revealing a delicate sense of scale. After two months of photographing the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, he produced many visually arresting images of the man-made disaster.
Over the past two decades, Beltrá's work has taken him to all seven continents, including several expeditions to the Brazilian Amazon, the Arctic, the Southern Oceans and the Patagonian ice fields. For his work on the Gulf Oil Spill, in 2011 he received the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award and the Lucie Award for the International Photographer of the Year - Deeper Perspective. His SPILL photos toured the world independently and as part of the Prix Pictet exhibitions. In 2009, Beltrá received the prestigious Prince's Rainforest Project award granted by Prince Charles. Other highlights include the BBVA Foundation award in 2013 and the inaugural "Global Vision Award" from the Pictures of the Year International in 2008. In 2006, 2007, and 2018 he received awards for his work in the Amazon from World Press Photo. Daniel's work has been published by the most prominent international publications including The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Le Monde, and El Pais, amongst many others.
Daniel Beltrá is a fellow of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers.
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Ami Vitale
Photography is a powerful tool to make sense of this world we share. It has the ability to connect us to one another, create empathy and be a catalyst for action. Images have helped shape our understanding of the planet and environmental changes too but often in the recent past, we framed the camera to leave humanity out of these stories or present it as a phenomenon that primarily impacts people in remote places. By focusing on these far away places and often leaving humanity out of the story, it created the perception that climate change is distant or an abstract concept. It is difficult to motivate people to act on abstract issues and by leaving people out of these stories, it creates an emotional distance. If we are ever going to change behavior and perception it always starts through an emotional connection.Today, we are seeing more diverse stories where individuals are a part of the natural world. By giving examples of how humanity is being impacted and adapting to the changes, it helps us see ourselves as a part of the story. Climate change is deeply personal and by making images personal, we recognize that we are all connected to it. Our destiny will be determined not necessarily by rising sea levels, but by our collective behavior.-- Ami Vitale
Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic magazine photographer Ami Vitale has traveled to more than 100 countries, bearing witness not only to violence and conflict, but also to surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit. Throughout the years, Ami has lived in mud huts and war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit - keeping true to her belief in the importance of “living the story.” In 2009, after shooting a powerful story on the transport and release of one of the world's last white rhinos, Ami shifted her focus to today's most compelling wildlife and environmental stories. Her photographs have been commissioned by nearly every international publication and exhibited around the world in museums and galleries. She has been named Magazine photographer of the year in the International Photographer of the Year prize, received the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, and named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association, among others. She is a five-time recipient of World Press Photos and recently published a best-selling book, Panda Love; the secret lives of pandas. She is a speaker for the National Geographic LIVE series and frequently gives talks and workshops throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She is a founding member of Ripple Effect Images, an organization of renowned female scientists, writers, photographers, and filmmakers working together to create powerful and persuasive stories that shed light on the hardships women in developing countries face as the climate changes and the programs that can help them.
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Georgina Goodwin
In a world where we 'consume' literally millions if not billions of images a day globally (just on instagram alone over 95 million photos are uploaded each day according to Brandwatch) how can photography really still make a difference, especially for critical issues such as climate change? For me, as a documentary photographer covering issues relating to the environment and society I see photography still as a vital platform to go places and cover stories that people wouldn't otherwise hear about. Without photography I would not have visited the far flung beaches at the Kenya-Somali border, to cover the issues of turtle conservation, affected not only by fishing nets but by climate change. This work has helped the local communities understand the need to protect marine life for the overall health and biodiversity of the ocean on which they depend. In Kenya's arid southern Rift Valley my personal work looking at the diminishing and more erratic rainfall together with increased population and overgrazing, in particular, has increased awareness and sensitized the local community to look at what changes need to be made for increased sustainability. There are many people out there making and sharing images on the state of our planet. Photography allows us to visually experience climate change, it shows us how individuals and communities are being impacted by climate change all around the world. Photography offers us a way to see the gravity and the scale of climate change, and with this seeing we have a chance to change what we see, to find solutions.- Georgina GoodwinGeorgina Goodwin is a documentary photographer and Canon Ambassador born and based in Kenya with a focus on women, refugees, social issues, and the environment. Known for her award-winning work on Kenya’s post-election violence, cancer in Kenya and Westgate terror attack, and most recently refugee children in Tanzania, Georgina is a contributor to Getty Images and Everyday Climate Change and a member of Women Photograph and African Photojournalism Database, a collaboration of World Press Photo and Everyday Africa. Her work has been published by NY Times, Elle, Vogue, AFP, and many others, and has been exhibited in Times Square NYC, Tokyo Japan, and The Louvre Paris amongst others. Georgina was a speaker at TEDxKakumaCamp, the first TED talks to be held at a refugee camp, and one of 19 finalist speakers at TEDx Nairobi in 2017.
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