In 2024 Climate Visuals passed the milestone of 10,000 registered users (and now over 12,000 as we end the year), images from the library were downloaded over 4,500 times and more than 600 new images were added to the library, including our extensive new collection of air pollution photographs created in partnership with Clean Air Fund.
As we reach the end of 2024, here’s a look at some of the most downloaded images from the library this year:
Women are seen queueing up to plant mangrove saplings along the riverbanks of the Matla river in Sundarbans, India. Sundarbans the world's largest mangrove delta and the only mangrove habitat for the tiger at the confluence of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers in the Bay of Bengal. Constant floods and severe cyclones are becoming common events on these islands. Mangrove forest, which protects the islands of Sundarbans, is disappearing either due to high saline water caused by sea-level rise or by illegal fisheries. Experts suggest that mangrove plantations along the riverbank can at least reduce the drastic impacts of these natural calamities and also put a natural barrier for tigers from entering into villages. This village at the gateway of Sundarbans is one of the few examples where locals, mostly women at the forefront, are putting all their effort to protect the coastal environment. Photo credit: Avijit Ghosh / Climate Visuals
Olive trees burn during a wildfire in Greece. Several hundred year old olive tree burns from inside and that is why it is extremely hard for firefighters to control and extinguish the fire in olive trees fields. Photo credit: Milos Bicanski / Climate Visuals Countdown
An aerial view of a deforested zone in "Ñembi Guasu" conservation area. In Guarani language, Ñembi Guasu means “the great refuge.” Unfortunately, the newest Bolivian National Park is being threatened by hundreds of looters or "colonos" who invade the protected areas in the Chaco to expand expand farming land in eastern Bolivia, including Ñembi Guasu in recent years. Photo credit: Marcelo Perez del Carpio / Climate Visuals Countdown
Every winter the National Capital Region of India is covered in a cloud of thick smog. Air quality index monitors max out with ratings of 999 and pollution reaches 50 times the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization, making breathing Delhi’s air as bad as smoking 50 cigarettes. Some of the biggest emitters are Delhi’s more than 10 million vehicles, like cars and trucks. Dust from the city’s construction boom is also a contributor to the city’s smog. Brick kilns that burn solid fuels are another factor. So is coal-fired power generation. Photo credit: Raunaq Chopra / Climate Visuals Countdown
Amazonian women during the mobilization for International Women's Day, March 8, 2020. One of the strongest demands of Amazonian women has to do with the sovereignty of their ancestral lands, which are constantly violated in favor of mining and oil companies, ignoring the rights of nature and the people who inhabit these territories. Photo credit: Karen Toro / Climate Visuals Countdown
Crop Burning and its current scale can be traced to agricultural practices adopted during the green revolution of the 70s. It fostered a high dependence on rice and wheat, introducing high yield varieties which were slow to mature. Reducing the time between summer and winter crops leaving small farmers with no access to machinery with no choice but to burn their crop residue. Photo credit: Ishan Tankha / Climate Visuals Countdown
Shaban Mwinji, a community scout ranger, in Ukunda, Kenya. Standing in a restored Mangrove Forest by Mikoko Pamoja. Mikoko Pamoja is a community-led mangrove conservation and restoration project based in southern Kenya and the world's first blue carbon project. It aims to provide long-term incentives for mangrove protection and restoration through community involvement and benefit. Photo Credit: Anthony Ochieng / Climate Visual Countdown
Until 2020, no packing list for a winter's journey to Venice was complete without gumboots. Built atop small lagoon islets, the fabled 1600 year old city of Venice has been a victim of both subsidence and, more significantly, global sea level rise fuelled by climate change. The Italian government has funded construction a series of floodgates to close the lagoon entrance before exceptionally high tide phenomena known as acqua alta. After 17 years marked by delays and drama the MOSE barriers first rose to protect the city from flood on 3 October 2020. But only after the city was hit by floodwaters of 187cm in November 2019. Photo credit:Adam Sébire / Climate Visuals
“We are grateful to the ocean “says Jazaa, she has been working as a seaweed farmer for almost 10 years. She carefully attaches little seaweed seedlings to the rope that she will harvest after 2 months. When the water goes out with the low tide, the coast of Zanzibar transforms into the desert. White sandbanks stretch for miles with shallow pools, rows of sticks and hundreds of seaweed farms. Zanzibar is the world's 3rd largest exporter of seaweed in the world. Seaweed is mainly exported to Asia and Europe and used as a base for cosmetics, toothpaste, medicine and food. 90% of seaweed farmers in Zanzibar are women. In traditionally patriarchal communities in Zanzibar, women tend to stay at home, cook and look after their children. Seaweed farming had created a significant shift in gender relations, helping women to leave homes, earn money and depend on their income. Researchers have found that seaweed can play a huge role in fighting climate change by absorbing carbon emissions, greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere and regenerating marine ecosystems. Large-scale seaweed farms could clean up oceans, restoring biodiversity and increasing the productivity of aquaculture. But in recent years in Zanzibar, the rising temperatures of the Indian Ocean have been killing seaweed due to bacteria called “ice-ice” growing on seaweed causing it to die. To tackle this problem marine biologists suggested moving seaweed farms to deeper much cooler waters. Deepwater seaweed farming will mean that women farmers in Zanzibar need to learn how to swim and adapt to ever-changing seas. Photo credit: Natalija Gormalova / Climate Visuals Countdown