They give a beautiful but bleak view of the world around us – revealing in unflinching detail the impact that we are having on the environment.
The images have been selected from more than 10,000 submissions to the Environmental Photographer of the Year competition to be shown in a new exhibition.
They reveal how climate change, population growth, poverty and natural disasters are all impacting the world around us.
This picture of Mount Kenya, taken in 2014, shows the extent of melting of the Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya. the line of fire shows the tip of the glacier in 1987 and since then it has receeded 120 metres. Photographer Simon Norfolk used petrol to create the fire as a way of illustrating how the burning of fossil fuels is behind much of man’s impact on climate change that is causing glaciers worldwide to melt
But they also show how innovation, sustainable development and biodiversity can help to improve our world.
One bleak image shows the receding glaciers on Mount Kenya, while another reveals toxic sulphur fumes coming from a gold mine in Indonesia.
They range from a simple but striking photograph showing a plastic bag snagged on a tree, to the scene inside an abandoned supermarket in Namie City, which lies inside the Fukushima no-go zone following the nuclear power plant disaster and tsunami in 2011.
Launched in 2007 by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), the competition aims to demonstrate the link between the environment and social issues.
Nigel Hendley, interim chief executive at the CIWEM said: ‘The Environmental Photographer of the Year competition provides a platform to raise awareness of environmental issues fundamental to our organisation – climate change, environmental pollution, water resource management, wastewater and flood risk management.
Titled ‘The Devil’s gold’, this picture from the Ijen Kawah volcano, in Eastern Java, Indonesia, shows how miners brave the toxic fumes to venture to search for sulphur, known as Devil’s gold. lpan, 27, a sulfur miner for ten years, is seen emerging from the fumes with sulphur
A former resident Namie City is shown standing in an abandoned supermarket in the Fukushima no-go zone. Fresh produce, now several years out of date, still sits on the shelves just as it was left when the city was evacuated after the nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011
‘Entries for the 2015 award were of the highest standard ever. They engage with thought-provoking topics and challenge us to question the impact we are having on the planet, both as individuals and human society.’
The exhibition is to go on show at the Royal Geographical Society in London from 22 June before beginning a tour of forest venues around Britain.
Although strangely simple, this plastic bag snagged on a tree in the Bolivian Altiplano delivers a powerful message about the accumulation of plastic bags in the environment. The world consumes over one million plastic bags every minute
This dramatic image shows what remains of the abandoned village of Geamana in the Apuseni Mountains of Romania. The village was deliberately flooded to form a tailings pond for a vast copper mine and 400 families were evacuated to give the toxic waste somewhere to go. The top of a church tower and a few isolated houses are all that remain sticking out of the contaminated sludge
In a swirling mass of orange, a sandstorm suddenly enveloped parts of Kuwait in the image above. The storm in 2011 shut down Kuwait’s International Airport and the dust reduced visibility to less than 500 metres while in some areas, there was reportedly no visibility at all
Hayley Skipper, curator of arts development for Forestry Commission England and a member of the selection panel, said: ‘It was an extraordinary experience to look at the ten thousand images.
‘An intense focus is required to absorb the quantity, and quality, of the imagery and the context of each photograph.
‘There is an extraordinary sense of resilience in many of the images selected this year, as we all adapt to the challenges and conditions of our environment across the globe.’
Two women, dressed in purple and holding hair weaves, stand in the doorway of a waterside hair and beauty salon in Makoko, Nigeria
A fisherman checks his nets in Vietnam, where fishing is one of the major economic sectors. The marine economy is expected to account for 53 to 55 percent of GDP by 2020 and to comprise more than 60 percent of the country’s export turnover
A lone barber shop stands in Konya, Turkey, with its electricity supply still working while all around it is crumbling and dark. Konya is best known as a busy university city and an economic boom town but this photograph tells a somewhat different story
A family watching television waits for flood water to recede in Chittagong, Bangladesh. In the past few years, rising sea levels have become an increasing problem in the city, resulting in frequent flooding of residential and business areas
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