One woman shared this picture of her young son wearing a mask and life jacket as the family fled on to a boat to escape the bushfires at Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia on 30 December 2019. Photo: ABC News (Australia)
A boy wearing a mask and life jacket steers the boat as his family flees bushfires at Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia on 30 December 2019. Photo: ABC News (Australia)

31 December 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – Australia is on the front line of global warming, so it’s perhaps no surprise that many of the doomiest images of 2019 capture climate catastrophes in Australia, from flooding to bushfires.

But 2019 was also the year that educated young people mobilized to push back against inaction on climate policy. Dr Doreen Stabinsky, professor of global environmental politics at the College of the Atlantic, remarked:

“It is no wonder youth around the world are taking to the streets to demand that we write a different story towards a better future – a story where we take urgent and immediate actions now to stop the emissions that are leading to these devastating disasters.”

If any photo captures the zeitgeist of 2019, it’s this one: a boy wearing a mask and a life jacket steers the boat as his family flees to escape the bushfires in Australia.

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, youth must grab the tiller and steer society through the global catastrophe wrought by their short-sighted, greedy ancestors.

One woman shared this picture of her young son wearing a mask and life jacket as the family fled on to a boat to escape the bushfires at Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia on 30 December 2019. Photo: ABC News (Australia)

Raging wildfires trap 4,000 at Australian town’s waterfront – Military deployed to help rescue effort – “It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring”

This before-and-after image shows satellite images of Lake Kariba, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, in December 2018 and December 2019. The lake has dropped to critically low levels. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory

Drought threatens millions in Southern Africa – “This year’s drought is unprecedented, causing food shortages on a scale we have never seen here before”

This is all the snow there is in Moscow on 28 December 2019. The snow was trucked in and is being guarded in the Red Square. Photo: mariksa_10 / Instagram

Moscow resorts to fake snow in warmest December since 1886 – “It’s not normal at all”

Victoria Falls before and after a prolonged drought, on 17 January 2019 and 4 December 2019. Photo: REUTERS

Victoria Falls shrink to a trickle, feeding climate change fears – “This is our first experience of seeing it like this”

Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid, Spain on 11 December 2019. Photo: Cristina Quicler

Five reasons the COP25 climate talks failed – “The world is screaming out for climate action but this summit has responded with a whisper”

The tail of a male grey whale that stranded near Victoria, B.C. in April 2019, with skin eaten by an infestation of cyamids, or whale lice. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

In 2019, 214 grey whales washed up dead on the West Coast of North America – “They get eaten alive”

Orthodox Jewish women mourn during the funeral service of Mindel Ferencz who was killed in a kosher market that was the site of a gun battle in Jersey City, N.J., Wednesday, 11 December 2019. Ferencz, 31, and her husband owned the grocery store. The Ferencz family had moved to Jersey City from Brooklyn. Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP Photo

Number of U.S. mass killings hit new high in 2019, most were shootings – “This seems to be the age of mass shootings”

The water at Balmoral beach in New South Wales has turned black after Australia's recent deadly bushfires, 9 December 2019. Local woman Imogen Brennan shared videos of the beach on social media. Video: Imogen Brennan / BBC

Video: Bushfire ash washes up on Australian beach

Study skins of the extinct Lana’i and Kaua’i ‘akiaola. Photo: Paul Sweet / AMNH

All of the species declared extinct in the 2010-2019 decade – “The trends that connect these 160 extinctions are true of the biodiversity crisis more generally”

Tree buds in the Apothecary Garden, also known as the Botanic Garden of Moscow State University, in Moscow, Russia, 18 December 2019. Photo: Shamil Zhumatov / REUTERS

Moscow wonders where winter has gone as temperatures hit 133-year high – “This is not our winter. It came from somewhere else.”

Aerial view of the Kasulo neighborhood of Kolwezi, DRC. In the first picture, taken May 2016, there are just residential houses. By May 2019, Congo DongFang International Mining (a subsidiary of chinese company Huayou Cobalt) have built a mining site, with a walled perimeter and processing buildings (in blue). The pink tarps cover tunnels used for mining. Photo: CNES / Airbus DS / Earthrise / The Guardian

Apple and Google named in U.S. lawsuit over Congolese child cobalt mining deaths

Alaska’s Columbia glacier began rapidly retreating around 1980, and its leading edge has moved more than 20 kilometers inland. These images, captured by the joint NASA / U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites, were stitched together into a video to show the glacier’s dynamic evolution from 1972 to 2019. Video: Mark Fahnestock / University of Alaska Fairbanks

Video: 47 years of satellite images show retreat of Alaskan’s Columbia glacier

RFS volunteers and NSW Fire and Rescue officers fight a bushfire encroaching on properties near Termeil, New South Wales, Australia, on Tuesday, 3 December 2019. Photo: Reuters

“Mega fire” near Sydney may burn for weeks as people struggle to breathe – “We cannot stop these fires, they will just keep burning until conditions ease”

Firefighters are overwhelmed by flames at a bushfire in Orangeville, west of Campbelltown, 6 December 2019. Photo: Nick Moir / The Sydney Morning Herald

Video: Australia firefighters flee “explosion of fire” in Sydney’s south-west – “There will be no relief, not in the immediate future”

Toni Doherty rescues a koala from a bushfire in New South Wales, 19 November 2019. Video: Guardian News

Video: Woman risks life to save burnt koala from Australia bushfire – “I knew if we didn’t get him down from the tree, then he would have been up there amongst the flames”

Animation showing deforestation in Brazil’s Mato Grasso state, 1984-2018. Graphic: William Neff / The Washington Post

Brazil’s Bolsonaro calls Amazon deforestation “cultural”, says it “will never end”

People walk on catwalk set up on the occasion of a high tide, in a flooded Venice, Italy, 12 November 2019. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP Photo

Venice is drowning. It’s a warning of what’s to come.

This animation depicts the abundance and direction of black carbon blowing through the atmosphere from 1 November 2019 to 18 November 2019. The data for the animation come from the GEOS forward processing (GEOS-FP) model, which assimilates information from satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observing systems. Video: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

Smoke plumes from Australia bushfires crossing oceans

A woman is silhouetted as she walks toward a flooded St. Mark’s Square, during historic flooding in Venice, Italy, 12 November 2019. Photo: Luca Bruno / AP Photo

Venice sees record third exceptional tide – Priceless artwork threatened – “It is a long-term issue. It is not the issue of one flood, we restore, and we go back to normal.”

Aerial view of smoke from bushfires blanketing mountain ranges, as seen during a commercial flight over northern New South Wales, 16 November 2019. Photo: Tracy Nearmy / Reuters

Devastating bushfire conditions to worsen in Australia – “Until we get significant rainfall, the fires will not go out”

The council chamber in Ferro Fini Palace in Venice, which is located on Venice’s Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night, 12 November 2019 – just after the Veneto regional council rejected measures to combat climate change. Photo: Andrea Zanoni

Italian council is flooded immediately after rejecting measures on climate change

Satellite view of smoke from wildfires in New South Wales, Australia, 6 November 2019 - 14 November 2019. Photo: NASA EISDIS Worldview

Another total fire ban in place for Sydney as death toll rises to four – “You haven’t had bushfires like these bushfires before”

Firefighters drive through bushfires in New South Wales, 8 November 2019. Authorities in Australia say an "unprecedented" number of emergency-level bushfires are threatening the state of New South Wales (NSW). Video: NSWRFS / BBC

Australia bushfires: Record number of emergencies in New South Wales – “We are in uncharted territory. We have never seen this many fires concurrently at emergency warning level.”

Smoke rises from the Darwank fires near Forster-Tuncurry on the New South Wales mid north coast, 30 October 2019. Photo: Martin Von Stroll

Hundreds of koalas perish as Australia bushfires rage – “This is just a national tragedy”

A car drives through the Kincade fire, 27 October 2019. Photo: Los Angeles Times

California’s governor declares statewide emergency – Kincade fire has wine country under siege as winds gust up to 96 mph

Aerial views of glaciers in Iceland taken in 1989 and 2019 showing how much ice has been lost over this 30-year period. Photo: National Land Survey of Iceland / Kieran Baxter

Images reveal Iceland’s glacier melt – “We saw a staggering difference in a very short amount of time”

Satellite view of Super Typhoon Hagibis as a Category 5-equivalent storm on 7 October 2019. Photo: NOAA / RAMMB

Deadly Typhoon Hagibis packed devastating punch in Japan with record rainfall totals – 2,667 bags of Fukushima waste leaked

Drone video showing hundreds of blindfolded men being led from a train in China, posted anonymously on 17 September 2019. The video raises new concerns over the ongoing crackdown on Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang. Video: War on Fear (战斗恐惧) / YouTube

Authoritarian advance: How authoritarian regimes upended assumptions about democratic expansion – “These regimes are turning the tools of coercion outward to push back on democracy”

The sun shines orange through through smoke from wildfires in Bolivia in September 2019. Photo: Adolfo Lino / Mongabay

Fires still being set in blazing Bolivia – Up to 18 million wild animals killed, including 500 rare jaguars – “Bolivia needs to rethink its agricultural strategy, as the future of its immeasurable biodiversity is at stake”

A montage of photos that were submitted to the Environmental Photographer of the Year 2019 award. “Journey by Launch” by Azim Khan Ronnie; “Polluted New Year” by Eliud Gil Samaniego, “Remains of the Forest” by J Henry Fair, “Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide” by Sean Gallagher, “My Climate Future” by Souray Karmakar, “Looking Beyond What is There” by Graham Earnshaw, “Where the City Ends and the Ships Begin” by Azim Khan Ronnie, and “Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide” by Sean Gallagher (second entry). Photo: CIWEM

Photo gallery: Striking images from the 2019 Environmental Photographer of the Year competition – “Climate change is the defining issue of our time and now is the time to act”

Satellite view of Humboldt glacier Venezuela in 1985, 2008, and 2019. Photo: Maxar Technologies

Hardy scientists trek to Venezuela’s last glacier amid chaos – “More than 50 million people in South America rely on water provision from the Andes”

Satellite view of the Valdecañas Reservoir in Spain, on 24 July 2013 and 25 July 2019. The record heatwave and extreme drought of 2019 revealed the lost “Spanish Stonehenge”, the Dolmen of Guadalperal. Photo: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Record heatwave and extreme drought reveal lost “Spanish Stonehenge”

Satellite view of Gondwana rainforest fires, 4-15 September 2019. Photo: NASA Worldview

Drought exacerbates wildfires in Australia rainforest

Satellite view of smoke from forest fires in Indonesia, from 3 September 2019 to 12 September 2019. Photo: NASA Worldview

Thousands pray for rain in Indonesia as forests go up in smoke – “We’re doing everything we can, now we pray to Allah for the rain”

Closeup of the map Trump presented to the media in the White House in Washington on 4 September 2019, showing the projected path of Hurricane Dorian. The projected path of Hurricane Dorian has been extended into Alabama by amateurish drawing with a Sharpie, Trump’s favorite type of pen. When asked by reporters whether the map had been altered, Trump said he didn’t know how it had been amended. Photo: Tom Brenner / Bloomberg

NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump – “This is the first time I’ve felt pressure from above to not say what truly is the forecast”

Satellite view of Hurricane Dorian over the Bahamas, 2 September 2019. Video: Matt Reagan / The Weather Channel

Hurricane Dorian triggers massive flooding across Bahamas – “Water is about to reach the roof”

Map showing active fire detections in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil as observed by Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites between 15 August 2019 and 22 August 2019. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

NASA satellites confirm Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate

Satellite view of Hurricane Dorian making landfall on the Bahamas, 1 September 2019. This view is one of the strongest landfalls ever captured on satellite. Photo: Dakota Smith / NCAR

Hurricane Dorian strikes Bahamas with record fury as Category 5 storm – “The winds are howling like we’ve never, ever experienced before”

Timelapse satellite view of deforestation since 2015 of a plot of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, from 21 October 2015 to 21 August 2019. Photo: Pierre Markuse / ESA / Copernicus

Here’s how the Amazon wildfires and deforestation look from space

Donald Trump’s empty chair at the G7 talks on the climate emergency on Monday, 26 August 2019. Photo: POOL / Reuters

Trump skips G7 talks on climate crisis and Amazon wildfires – Trump team calls global warming a “niche issue”

Dead fish lie on the parched bed of the Chembarambakkam reservoir in India, 19 May 2019. Photo: The News Minute

Amid drought, plants in Chennai guzzle 21 million liters of groundwater per day – “We are moving towards a groundwater disaster. On one hand, the surface water resources are being destroyed, and on the other groundwater resources are being over-exploited.”

Flames consume a tree as wildfires rage in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, 1 August 2019 Photo: The Siberian Times

Massive wildlife tragedy in Siberia as bears and foxes flee taiga, while smaller animals suffocate in smoke – “The climatic situation will deteriorate in Siberia”

Animation showing the concentration of black carbon particulates — commonly called soot — around the Arctic from 1 July 2019 to 29 July 2019. Graphic: Lauren Dauphin / NASA Earth Observatory

Arctic fires fill Northern Hemisphere skies with soot

Satellite views of the Okjökull glacier in Iceland in 1986 and 2019. Data: Landsat / U.S. Geological Survey. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

Okjökull glacier remembered

Targets of violent extremists in the U.S. in 2018. The largest percentage of attacks was against African Americans (“Black People”). Graphic: New Jersey Office of Homeland Security Preparedness (NJOHSP)

Here’s the data on U.S. white supremacist terrorism the Trump administration has been “unable or unwilling” to give to Congress

Land surface temperature over Europe, 25 July 2019, measured by the Copernicus Sentinel3 satellite. Graphic: ESA

WMO: July 2019 equaled or surpassed hottest month globally – World is on track for the 2015-2019 period “to be the five hottest years on record”

An artist, moved by what was left behind of his friend's home after a wild fire, used the site as a canvas. Shane Grammer said he was devastated to find out how many people he knows were left homeless by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California. His friend, Shane Edwards, agreed to let him create a mural on what remained of his burned-down home. After three hours, Grammer had created a striking image of a beautiful woman that is giving people hope on 4 January 2019. Photo: Inside Edition

“Sticker shock” for California wildfire areas as insurance rates double, and policies are dropped – “It’s time to address the impact that more severe weather is having on Americans instead of fighting about climate change”

Breakup of sea ice on the north coast of Greenland, 14-29 July 2019. Photo: Nick Humphrey / NASA Worldview

Siberia forest fires spark potential “disaster” for Arctic – 12 million hectares have burned in Russia this year – “The most important event on the planet right now? Arctic climate chaos.”

Wildfire at about 64°N in the Mirninsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, 22 July 2019. Photo: Copernicus Sentinel-2 / Pierre Markuse

More than 100 Arctic wildfires burn in worst-ever fire season – Smoke plumes from huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska visible from space – “These are some of the biggest fires on the planet, with a few appearing to be larger than 100,000 hectares”

Remote sensing imagery of discolored water and algal blooms in the Florida Bay and the Florida Keys region between 1992 and 2013 showing connectivity of the mainland and the lower Florida Keys, all outlined in red. (a) Landsat true color image on 29 May 1992 shows turbid water in western Florida Bay and discolored, black water in central Florida Bay that extends southward to the lower Florida Keys; (b) AVHRR reflectance image on 12 March 1996 shows high turbidity from the Shark River Slough plume extending beyond the lower Florida Keys towards Dry Tortugas; (c, d) VIIRS chlorophyll a anomaly images show phytoplankton blooms off Shark River Slough reaching the lower Florida Keys that were partially composed of the cyanobacterium, Synechococcus, on (c) 24 November 2013 and (d) 27 January 2014. Graphic: Lapointe, et al., 2019 / Marine Biology

Nutrient loading lowers resistance to thermal stress in Florida Keys corals – “These data make clear that this is not an ‘either temperature or nutrients’ situation, but rather a ‘both/and’ combination of multiple stressors”

A woman walks past a window reflecting a thermometer showing a temperature of 41 degrees Celsius on 25 July 2019, in Paris, as a new heatwave hits the French capital. Photo: Dominique Faget / AFP / Getty Images

All-time heat records melt in Europe – Paris warmer than Singapore at 42.6°C (108.7°F) – National records broken on Wednesday fell again on Thursday – “‘If you’d have said five years ago we’d see temperature records fall this frequently, I wouldn’t have believed you”

Satellite view of a wildfire in Qeqqata Kommunia, Greenland, 13 July 2019. Photo: Pierre Markuse / Copernicus EU

Photo gallery: Satellite view of “unprecedented” Arctic wildfires, July 2019

A kangaroo is seen stuck in drying mud in the drainage canal of lake Cawndilla, one of the four main lakes of the Menindee Lakes in New South Wales, Australia, 10 January 2019. Photo: Getty

Australia towns close to reaching “day zero” as drought dries up water supplies – “We could be looking at anything from $500,000 to $1.5 million per month to transport the water”

Hurtigruten’s cruise ship MS Roald Amundsen is seen in the sea near Ulsteinvik, Norway, on 1 July 2019. The Roald Amundsen is the world’s first cruise ship propelled partially by battery power and is set to head out from northern Norway on its maiden voyage, cruise operator Hurtigruten said on Monday. The hybrid expedition cruise ship can take 500 passengers and is designed to sail in harsh climate waters. Named after the Norwegian explorer who navigated the Northwest Passage in 1903-1906 and was first to reach the South Pole in 1911, the ship heads for the Arctic from Tromsø this week and will sail the Northwest Passage to Alaska before heading south, reaching Antarctica in October 2019. Photo: Hurtigruten / Reuters

First hybrid electric cruise ship sails for the Arctic

A policeman stands next to vehicles buried in hail in the eastern area of Guadalajara, Mexico, on 30 June 2019. Photo: Ulises Ruiz / AFP / Getty Images

Guadalajara, Mexico, covered in ice after a freakish summer hailstorm – “Hail more than a meter high, and then we wonder if climate change exists”

An emaciated polar bear wanders far from its natural habitat up north to the industrial city of Norilsk, Russia, scavenging for food, 17 June 2019. Photo: Putoranatour / Reuters

Video: Starving polar bear wanders into Russian city of Norilsk, hundreds of miles from home

Aerial view of Ghazipur landfill in New Delhi, 21 May 2019 Photo: AFPTV

Expected to rise higher than Taj Mahal in 2020, Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill is slowly poisoning residents – “The poisonous smell has made our lives hell. People fall sick all the time.”

Aerial view of tree pollen in Durham, North Carolina, on 8 April 2019. Photo Jeremy Gilchrist

It’s not your imagination: Allergy season gets worse every year – Pollen allergy seasons continue to get longer and more intense as temperatures rise

Satellite view of forest loss in the Madre de Dios region of southeastern Peru, on 6 September 2018 NASA. Photo: Earth Observatory

Image of the Day: Satellite view of deforestation in Peru’s Madre de Dios region

Aerial view of sea ice in the Bering Sea in 2014 (left) and 2019 (right). In March 2019, the Bering Sea had much less ice than usual. Photo: NOAA

Abnormal high temperatures in Alaska disrupt isolated communities, upset subsistence hunting patterns, and cause deaths – “It’s hard to characterize this anomaly, it’s just pretty darn remarkable for that part of the world”

A mother elephant and her baby are attacked by villagers with fire in India. Photo: Biplab Hazra / The Independent

Image of the Day: Mother elephant and her calf attacked with firebombs as deforestation drives them into the paths of humans

Number of reported measles cases in the U.S., from 2010 to 24 May 2019. From 1 January 2019 to 24 May 2019, 940 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 26 states. This is an increase of 60 cases from the previous week. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. Graphic: CDC

Graph of the Day: U.S. measles cases, 2010 to 24 May 2019

Screenshot from a video showing a plastic bag on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, taken during a record-breaking submersible dive on 13 May 2019. Photo: Atlantic Productions / Discovery Channel

Deepest-ever sub dive in Mariana Trench finds plastic bag and candy wrappers

China’s research icebreaker Xuelong arrives at the roadstead off the Zhongshan station in Antarctica, 1 December 2018. Photo: Xinhua News Agency / Getty Images

Pentagon warns about China’s increased activity in the Arctic, growing ambition to expand its presence

An Indian fisherman runs between the docked fishing boats amid strong winds at Chandrabhaga beach in Puri district of eastern Odisha state, India, Thursday, 2 May 2019. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated along India's eastern coast on Thursday as authorities braced for a cyclone moving through the Bay of Bengal that was forecast to bring extremely severe wind and rain. Photo: AP Photo

“Extremely severe” Cyclone Fani prompts largest evacuation in India’s history – 880,000 people moved to more than 800 shelters

Community members look at rubble and other items washed close to their doorstep when Cyclone Kenneth struck in Pemba city on the northeastern coast of Mozambique, Saturday, 27 April 2019. Cyclone Kenneth arrived late Thursday, just six weeks after Cyclone Idai ripped into central Mozambique and killed more than 600 people.At least four deaths have been reported in the city and another in hard hit Macomia district, while residents on Ibo Island say two people have died there. Photo: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP Photo

We’re losing the war on climate change – “The scale of the outrage in no way matches the magnitude of this disaster”

Satellite view of the decline of the Emperor penguin colony at Halley Bay, Antarctica. This satellite imagery shows the reduction in size of the Halley Bay colony in 2018 compared with 2015. The dark markings show penguin guano, and the very dense patches are the penguins themselves. The colony at Halley Bay has now all but disappeared, after three consecutive years of sea-ice break-up and the “catastrophic” loss of penguin chicks. Photo: BAS

“Catastrophic” breeding failure at one of world’s largest emperor penguin colonies after three consecutive years of sea-ice collapse – “Such a complete failure to breed successfully is unprecedented at this site”

Infrared satellite view of Tropical Cyclone Kenneth bearing down on the coast of Mozambique on 25 April 2019 at 11Z (7 am EDT). Photo: Scott Bachmeier / CIMSS_Satellite

Category 4 Cyclone Kenneth crashes ashore in Mozambique – Thousands evacuated as Mozambique is hit with the strongest storm in its history

Projected California hydroclimate in the 21st century. Annual California spatial means of (a) precipitation, (b) soil moisture, (c) near-surface air temperature, and (d) percentage of total precipitation occurring as snow, simulated by the MPI-ESM-P model, and driven by two scenarios of atmospheric concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases according to two Representative Concentration Paths (RCPs) (21): RCP4.5 (blue) and RPC8.5 (red). Graphic: Wahl, et al., 2019 / PNAS

Jet stream change driving California’s floods and wildfires – “Recent California fires during wet North Pacific Jet extremes may be early evidence of this change”

Pope Francis encourages teen climate campaigner Greta Thunberg after she scolds EU leaders: “Continue, continue”

Pope Francis encourages teen climate campaigner Greta Thunberg after she scolds EU leaders: “Continue, continue”

Women wait to receive aid at a camp for the people displaced in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai in John Segredo near Beira, Mozambique, 31 March 2019. Zohra Bensemra / Reuters

After Cyclone Idai, thousands in Mozambique still cut off, many more in need – “They risk becoming utterly forgotten”

Estimated Sand Temperatures for Moulter Cay/Raine Island Rookeries, 1960-2016. Estimated mean monthly sand temperatures for the middle of the nesting season (December–March) from 1960 to 2016. Bars show temperature above (red) and below (blue) the pivotal temperature of 29.3°C calculated for green turtles at Raine Island. Also shown are the years in which adults, subadults, and juveniles were likely born at nGBR rookeries. Graphic: Jensen, et al., 2018 / Current Biology

Sea turtles are being born mostly female due to warming – “I can’t deny it: seeing those results scared the crap out of me”

Roger Ideker at the road to his farm in Holt County, Missouri in March 2019. Mr. Ideker was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers that claimed the repeated floods amounted to a seizure of their property. Photo: Tim Gruber / The New York Times

More than 1 million acres of U.S. cropland ravaged by record floods and dozens of levee breaks – “There’s thousands of acres that won’t be able to be planted”

Power plant chimneys stand behind a coal burning neighborhood covered in a thick haze on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 19 January 2017. Photo: B. Rentsendorj / REUTERS

Children suffer most from deadly coal pollution in one of Earth’s most polluted cities – “I no longer know what a healthy lung sounds like”

Student protesters demanding action on climate change gather at Te Ngakau Civic Square in Wellington, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019. One protestor holds a sign that reads, “Climate change is worse than Voldemort”. Photo: Charlotte Greenfield / REUTERS

The terror of climate change is transforming young people’s identity

1,529 live turtles, including Star Tortoise, Redfoot Tortoise, Sulcata Tortoise, and Red-eared Slider species, were found inside duct-taped suitcases abandoned in an airport in Manila. Photo: Philippines Bureau of Customs NAIA / Facebook

1,500 live turtles found wrapped in duct tape at Manila airport

Examples of plastic fibers found in Mariana trench amphipods. Photo: Lauren Brooks / Newcastle University

Plastic pollution found in every tiny animal tested in the Mariana Trench, the lowest point in any ocean – “What you put in the trench stays in the trench”

Moorland fire in West Yorkshire on 26 February 2019. Photo: bradnclaire and Sara Sykes / Dave Throup / Twitter

Saddleworth Moor burns again after days of dry weather – “These kind of temperatures, 18C or 19C, are what you would normally see in early June”

Coastal erosion has exposed an old landfill site in Northumberland County, which is leaking waste onto Lynemouth Beach and into the sea. There are more than 1,200 coastal landfill sites in England. Photo: ITV News

Coastal erosion causes once-buried waste to re-emerge on an English beach – “A massive decline in the numbers of fish”

Sheep farmer Wayne Smith stands in the dry river bed of the Darling River on his property near Pooncarie, Australia in February 2019. Photo: Dean Lewins / EPA / REX / Shutterstock

Photo gallery: Aerial views of Australia’s brutal drought

These aerial photos show the murky floodwater spreading across the Great Barrier Reef, 15 February 2019. Run-off from the recent floods in Australia is spreading out from the coast, with the potential to smother the fragile reef. Dr. Frederieke Koon from the Australian Institute of Marine Science however, told the BBC that the floodwater contains nutrients that have boosted algae growth in some areas, turning the water 'a thick blanket of green'. Photo: Matt Curnock / Reuters

Great Barrier Reef threatened by dirty water from recent floods – Floodwaters thought to contain dangerous chemicals are triggering algal blooms

Total marginal effect of Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) on conflict for the 2010–2012 period. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change

New study establishes link between climate change, conflict, and migration – “In a context of poor governance and a medium level of democracy, severe climate conditions can create conflict over scarce resources”

Crocodile warning issued as Australia city faces “unprecedented areas of flooding” – Authorities deliberately flood 2,000 Queensland homes after record downpours

Crocodile warning issued as Australia city faces “unprecedented areas of flooding” – Authorities deliberately flood 2,000 Queensland homes after record downpours

Youth climate protests spread through Belgium in fourth week – “It’s you who decided … it’s us who will suffer”

Youth climate protests spread through Belgium in fourth week – “It’s you who decided … it’s us who will suffer”

On 24 January 2019, sixteen year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses a panel in Davos for the World Economic Forum. On the panel are Bono, Christiana Figueres, Jane Goodall, Will.i.am, and Kengo Sakurada. She said, “Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to make unimaginable amounts of money, and I think many of you here today belong to that group of people.” Photo: Greta Thunberg / Twitter

“To their faces,” 16-year-old Greta Thunberg tells Davos elite that climate crisis their fault – “I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”

Photo showing the mass death of feral horses near Santa Teresa, Central Australia, 22 January 2019. The record-breaking heat wave and drought dried up their waterhole. Photo: Ralph Turner / Facebook

Image of the Day: Mass death of feral horses at dried-up waterhole in record Australia heatwave – “I just couldn’t believe something like that happened out here, first time it happened like that”

Maximum Temperatures globally, 17 January 2019. The top 15 temperatures are all in Australia. Graphic: El Dorado Weather

The hottest 15 places in the world today are all in Australia as record heatwave rages on – Thousands of flying foxes dead – “One of the worst things is in the aftermath and you hear the mums calling out for their pups”

Menindee resident Dick Arnold and Rob stand in the Darling river above weir 32 each holding a hundred year old fish, 7 January 2019. These Murray cod have lived through the highs and lows of this system however could not survive this human-made disaster. Up to a million local fish have perished in the smothering conditions caused by the blue-green algae event. Photo: Tolarno Station

Massive fish kill in Australia – Up to a million fish in Murray-Darling Basin have perished in algae bloom – “It’s a devastating ecological event”

A Joshua Tree at Joshua Tree National Park pulled down by vandals in January 2019, during the U.S. partial government shutdown. Photo: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Visitors chainsaw iconic Joshua trees in U.S. national park – “What’s going on at Joshua Tree National Park is a travesty to this nation”

A record $3.1m (£2.4m) has been paid for a giant bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year. It was paid by sushi tycoon Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. on 5 January 2019. Photo: The Guardian

Sushi king pays record $3.1m for endangered bluefin tuna in Japan, more than double the price five years ago

In this 29 September 2017 file photo, then Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks on the Trump Administration's energy policy at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. As former U.S. Interior Secretary Zinke departs Trump’s Cabinet amid a cloud of investigations, he says he’s lived up to the conservation ideals of Teddy Roosevelt and insists the myriad allegations against him are unfounded. Zinke told The Associated Press that he quit President Donald Trump’s Cabinet on his own terms, despite indications he was pressured by the White House to resign effective Wednesday, 2 January 2019. Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP Photo

Former U.S. Interior Secretary says national park visitors should “grab a trash bag”