The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 179 million tonnes of seafood were captured in 2018, sustenance for much of the world’s population. There is however a hidden cost. Sometimes fishing gear is lost at sea or possibly intentionally discarded. Such ghost nets and lines can become entangled and form large rafts, floating death traps for many sea birds, fish, reptiles like this turtle, dolphins, whales and more.

Photographer Tony Wu came across this olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) caught in one such mass of entwined rope, net and hooks that was many metres across. This female turtle was helpless, her left rear flipper entangled, line wrapped tight and no doubt pulled taught from her efforts to break free. She was exhausted, parched and overheated from continual exposure to the equatorial sun.

Wu did his best to calm the turtle, while another friend slowly cut fishing lines, one by one, taking care to avoid injuring her. After a painstaking 15 minutes or so, she was free. When she gathered the strength, the turtle swam toward Wu, directly into him a few times, then under him, then alongside. He says: “I stroked her shell as she regained her composure until she was finally able to summon enough strength to dive. She was weak, particularly the flipper that had been most entangled, but she was able to descend beyond visible depth (very slowly), which was a positive sign.”

There are no easy fixes or answers to this issue, as is true with many other complex situations. One thing is certain though. Understanding and acknowledging the hidden costs of our activities is vital if we are ever to have a hope of finding workable solutions. ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ as the saying goes, means that all too often, the plight of olive ridley turtles and other collateral damage is not considered.

With nearly 3500 species of plants, 500 species of birds, and 1,000 species of bees, the Sonoran is the most biodiverse desert on earth. Its two rainy seasons provide enough moisture for an astonishing array of plants – wildflowers and grasses, cacti, shrubs and even trees – to thrive here. Saguaro and Organ pipe cactus are unique to the region, and several small trees in the bean family, the mesquite, ironwood and palo verde, are particularly important to wildlife.

The impacts of climate change are already being felt in the Southwestern United States, including in the Sonoran Desert region. Average temperatures have risen about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the mid-twentieth century. By the end of the century, temperatures are poised to rise at least another 2.5 degrees, and possibly more if we fail to check emissions. The area is already in the grip of a major drought and much of the Sonoran Desert has seen a 25 to 40% drop in rainfall over the past 50 years.

Austfonna glacier on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago is Europe’s third-largest glacier by area and volume, and with a glacier wall of around 200 kilometres, it is an impressive sight.

During the last decades, every month has brought new record high temperatures in the Arctic, and the ice cap on Nordaustlandet is melting at high speed. The meltwater starts as small streams but eventually gathers in larger, almost river-like systems, that finally pour off the steep wall. Meltwater also finds its way down under the ice cap and makes the foundation weak. This results in a collapse which pushes the ice out into the Arctic Ocean. This so-called surge has already been happening over several years.

The current situation in Svalbard is that the average glacier retracts by 80 metres a year, with some of them by up to 300 metres. Climate change has an enormous impact on the Arctic and it is happening now.

Marine biologists off Koh Tao Island, Thailand, have been attaching fragments of damaged corals onto an electrified metal structure. This has been reported to improve skeletal growth, resilience and resistance to bleaching of these recovered coral fragments.

In the past three decades, the Earth has lost 50% of its coral reefs. It was estimated that if the temperature increases by just 1.5ºC, up to 90% of the remaining reefs could be lost. If the temperature increases by 2ºC, virtually all coral (more than 99 percent) will be lost forever.

Every year, tens of thousands of zebra trek further than their more famous counterparts in East Africa, moving between the river systems of the north and the vast pans of the interior. When the rains fail and drought hits, as it did in 2019, the death toll amongst the exhausted animals can be staggering.

Climate change is driving more extreme weather events and wildlife, livestock and people all suffer when these already arid regions become even dryer. Historically, Botswana has blocked wildlife movement with vast fences and restricted the rights of its indigenous bushman communities to use ancestral lands. Yet, in the warmer climate of the years ahead, caused by our actions, it is expected that freedom of movement will be key to survival for the wildlife and people living in these remote regions of our planet.

Of all man’s efforts to exploit fossil fuels, the Canadian tar sands are by far the most environmentally destructive. The tar sands are a mix of bitumen, sands, clays and gravels. They are only economically viable to exploit when oil prices are at the higher end of their range. They can be turned into synthetic oil, but only by separating out the bitumen from the sands and gravels.

At this site, deposits close to the surface are strip-mined. This involves clear-felling the boreal forest leading to a rate of deforestation second only to the rates in the Amazon rain forest. Each 2.5 square km of boreal forest supports 500 breeding pairs of migrant birds, as well as being home to Wolf, Lynx, Cougar, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Wolverine, Bison, Moose, Caribou, and Beaver. It is also an important carbon sink. In order to be able to separate the bitumen from the sands and gravels, the tar sand needs to be melted. This is achieved by forcing steam through the mix. The amount of gas used to make the steam means that the resulting oil has a carbon footprint up to three times that of conventional oil, making it a climate change disaster and when the steam condenses back to water, it contains many toxic pollutants from the bitumen. The wastewater is discharged into unlined tailings ponds that leach toxins out into the Athabasca River. These flow downstream and seriously impact the health of native Canadians living downstream. Rates of skin disease and rare cancers in these communities have risen steeply since the tar sands mining started.

 

Three galleries, each comprising 26 nature photos and stories from 26 different nature photographers, will be released in the run up to COP26, starting 16^th Sept 2021. Voting is open for a week following the release of each gallery.

Gallery 3 will open on 26 October. Vote here.

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