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BEHIND THE LENS: Chronicling a warming world

Associated Press

Tags: Science
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A train passes a railroad crossing surrounded by floodwaters from rain and melting snow in Nidderau near Frankfurt, Germany, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
A man climbs a steep ridge with a basket of coal scavenged from a mine near Dhanbad, India, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, on Sept. 24, 2021. A 2021 Indian government study found that Jharkhand state, among the poorest in India and the state with the nation's largest coal reserves, is also the most vulnerable Indian state to climate change. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Climbing assistant Lawrence Schultz ascends the Three Sisters sequoia tree during an Archangel Ancient Tree Archive expedition to plant sequoia seedlings, on Oct. 26, 2021, in Sequoia Crest, Calif. The group hopes to preserve the genetics of giant sequoias, once considered nearly fire-proof and now in jeopardy of being wiped out by increasingly intense wildfires. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A man watches as a wildfire approaches Kochyli beach near the village of Limni, Greece, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Athens, on Aug. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Thodoris Nikolaou)
Cracked mud stretches out across a vast area once covered by the waters of the Suesca lagoon, in Suesca, Colombia, on Feb. 17, 2021. The lake, once teeming with fish, is drying up due to the effects of climate change. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

A train passes a railroad crossing surrounded by floodwaters from rain and melting snow in Nidderau near Frankfurt, Germany, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

DATE: Various times in 2021

PLACES: Nidderau, Germany; Dhanbad, India; Sequoia Crest, Calif.; Limni, Greece; Suesca, Colombia

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PHOTOGRAPHERS: Michael Probst; Altaf Qadri; Noah Berger; Thodoris Nikolaou; Fernando Vergara.

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Scenes from a warming world:

In Germany, a train passes a railroad crossing surrounded by floodwaters. In one of India’s poorest states — and one of its most vulnerable to climate change — a man climbs a ridge with a scavenged basket of coal against a color-drenched backdrop. In California, a dreamlike tableau unfolds as a man climbs a giant sequoia in an effort to preserve sequoia DNA in the face of encroaching wildfires.

In Greece, a man stands off a beach, his legs submerged, and watches a wildfire burn across the water. And in Colombia, a landscape of cracked mud to the horizon evokes a sci-fi world in a far-off galaxy even as it tells the story of a drying lagoon parched by climate change right here on Earth.

As the world’s climate changes, AP photographers challenged themselves in 2021 to chronicle it in visual ways that will make an impact and get people thinking. Apart, these images do that. Together, they represent a scrapbook of a planet hurtling toward a destiny that, some say, it is simply unwilling to prevent.

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QUOTED

MICHAEL PROBST, Associated Press photographer:

“AP photographers around the world covered floods, fires, droughts and starvation last year. And it is clear that climate change and global warming are contributing to some of those catastrophes.”

For the dramatic photo here: “Following a tip of from a colleague, I went to the region near Frankfurt that was flooded since a couple of days due to heavy rainfalls. I started my drone, flew about 500 meters over flooded fields and reached the railroad crossing. I waited for a train to come, shot exactly one frame and flew back because the battery was low.”

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For a full overview of the events that shaped 2021, “A Year That Changed Us: 12 Months in 150 Photos,” a collection of AP photos and journalists’ recollections, is available now: https://www.ap.org/books/a-year-that-changed-us

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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