EARTH鈥橲 fragility is laid bare in this selection of images holding a聽lens up to the issues affecting our聽planet. They form some of the聽shortlists for the , judged by a panel that included 快猫短视频鈥檚 picture editor Tim Boddy and head of editorial video David Stock.
The main image is a shot of the Damodar river in West Bengal, India, by Sandipani Chattopadhyay, showing how algae are thriving in these increasingly warm waters. The growth is proving disastrous for locals, who are struggling to maintain their livelihoods, and for the wildlife and plants that are being starved of light and oxygen.
Below is Neil White鈥檚 rendition of the Himalayas, evoking the impact of climate change on the mountains. It is followed by a photo of a burning olive tree, taken by Filippo Ferraro in southern Salento, Italy, underscoring the fiery destruction that has taken place in the country due to abandoned fields combined with high temperatures.
Advertisement
White also made the shortlists for his alarming depiction of the wearing away of the Holderness coast in east Yorkshire, UK, below, in what is one of the highest rates of coastal erosion in Europe.
Finally, below is shown Polyides rotundus, a species of small marine algae 鈥� intriguingly, this image was created not with a camera lens, but with AI. Craig Ames was inspired by 19th-century botanist Anna Atkins and her cyanotype prints of algae to produce 鈥淎I impressions鈥� of Atkins鈥檚 original specimens.
The winners will be announced on 22 June and the will run at the Royal Geographical Society, London, until 23 August.
