example of photo essay about climate change

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Photo Essay, Snap Shot 3 – Climate Change and Food #Connected2

November 10, 2021 • 3 min read

Why a Photo Essay?  

This Photo Essay are the result of small groups of young people coming together and asking themselves what it meant to be #Connected2 to the bigger system. 

Why Snap Shots?   

If the Photo Essay was a book, each Snap Shop is  a chapter telling stories from around the world.

Welcome to our third   Snap Shot!  Explore with us the impact of climate change on global food systems and how these are felt  across different countries and communities. Even though each environment is unique and so different, we are all impacted by them equally. Global challenges such as climate change and our actions have Global consequences.

Sara Dada & Telma Sibanda’s Photos

credit: Sara Dada

credit: Telma Sibanda

Our daily activities have a deep impact not only on our immediate surroundings but on the wider planet. Litter, noise and CO2 emissions are eroding the natural beauty of our world, threatening the diversity of wildlife, and impacting the wellbeing of humans. As global citizens, we recognize that the earth’s air, land, and oceans are polluted by landfills in Uganda, traffic in Zimbabwe, and industrial air pollution in Ireland. We see the potentially irreversible effects of climate change in our communities every day.  

Emmanuel Dusabimana & Catherine Finn ‘s Photos

credit: Catherine Finn

credit: Emmanuel Dusabimana

These high levels of pollution affect our fields, rivers, and sources of food and water. As pollution continues to contribute to climate change, the effects often present themselves unequally: the areas which contribute the least are impacted the most. Water is an essential resource to all human life, and has the power to shape our lands and the food that we eat. Unchecked, pollution and climate change threaten access to drinking water, and rising sea levels may permanently flood settled land. We are connected as global citizens through these impacts, whether we are already living with climate change or have yet to experience it.  

Catherine Finn & Telma Sibanda’s Photos

Like dominos falling, our actions and behaviours have consequences in our own communities and around the globe. The manner in which we produce and access food demonstrates that each of us are deeply connected to one another and to the planet. The marketplace gives an insight into this relationship –  imported produce in Ireland, locally sourced food in Uganda, and empty stalls in Zimbabwe. While some communities will be unable to produce enough food or may face empty shelves at the market, others will throw away unused excess. This reality can be a catalyst for a more sustainable future, but it is the collective effort of our global community that will determine the direction we follow.  

Follow @GOALNextGen and @goal_global and make sure you don’t miss the rest of the Snap Shots!

Interested in joining the  #Connected2  campaign or our  GOAL Global Youth Program?   Check out our Global Citizenship page or contact the team at  [email protected]  for more info.

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Climate Change

Photo Essay: Climate Change in the Central Valley

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Photographer Jonno Rattman spent a week photographing the Central Valley for Bay Nature’s summer 2019 cover story, “A Time of Reckoning”. He was struck, as he traveled, by the near total absence of people — it was, he says, one of the brightest, emptiest landscapes he’s ever worked in.

Reckoning in the Central Valley

“Reckoning in the Central Valley” is a collaboration between Bay Nature and KQED Science examining how climate change is laying bare the vulnerabilities of California agriculture.

“Centers of Insurrection”: Central Valley Farmers Reckon With Climate Change

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A Time of Reckoning: Climate change is upending agriculture and land use in California’s Central Valley

About the Author

Jonno Rattman is a photographer and master printer. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine , The New Yorker , and The Atlantic , among other publications. Rattman was recognized as one of Photo District News' 30 Emerging Photographer to Watch in 2015. jonnorattman.com

Every story from Bay Nature magazine is the product of a team dedicated to connecting our readers to the world around them and increasing environmental literacy. Please help us keep this unique regional magazine thriving, and support the ecosystem we’ve built around it, by subscribing today—you’ll get Bay Nature four times a year in your mailbox!

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Documenting the Swift Change Wrought by Global Warming

Photographer Peter Essick has traveled the world documenting the causes and consequences of climate change. In a Yale Environment 360 photo essay, we present a gallery of images Essick took while on assignment in Antarctica, Greenland, and other far-flung locales.

By Peter Essick • December 18, 2013

Photo Essay

For 25 years, photographer Peter Essick has traveled the world for National Geographic magazine, with many of his recent assignments focusing on the causes and consequences of climate change. In a Yale Environment 360 photo essay, we present a gallery of images Essick took while on assignment in Antarctica, Greenland, and other far-flung locales. The photographer says that what most struck him was the dedication of the scientists who have committed themselves to documenting the effects of global warming.

“Everyone I talked to felt that they were uncovering evidence for climate change and that the threat for the future was increasing,” says Essick.

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Climate change is a women’s issue

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Video: Sky News/Film Image Partner

We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all. Wangari Maathai Environmental activist

The planet is under threat

From human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to the overexploitation of the earth’s natural resources, unsustainable production and consumption patterns pose a risk to all of humanity.

Photo: Yuyao city, Zhejiang province, 2013. Credit: Xinhua / eyevine/Redux

The world’s poorest are often hardest hit

A changing climate affects everyone – but it’s the world’s poorest and those in vulnerable situations, especially women and girls, who bear the brunt of environmental, economic and social shocks.

Photo: Bangladesh, 2011. Credit: Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR/Redux

Climate-induced disasters exacerbate entrenched gender inequalities

Often, women and girls are the last to eat or be rescued; face greater health and safety risks as water and sanitation systems become compromised; and take on increased domestic and care work as resources disappear.

Photo: Haiti, 2016. Credit: UN/MINUSTAH/Logan Abassi

Climate's impact

In many developing countries, women and girls often carry the burden of water and fuel collection and food provision.

Let’s look closer at an example

Photo: Jammu, Kashmir, India, 2016. Credit: Jaipal Singh/EPA

Combined hours spent fetching water every day in 25 sub-Saharan African countries

Data: Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation , 2012 Update, UNICEF, WHO

This is my routine three times a day…I have to fetch water for our use and for the goats and sheep too, as they are too weak to walk

Paulina Epung’u

Mother of seven in Kenya’s drought-stricken District Turkana

Photo: Kenya, 2017. Credit: UN Women/Kennedy Okoth

Climate change increases the risk of droughts

Droughts can destroy crops, soils, flora and fauna, intensify food scarcity, and worsen the situation of women and girls, particularly in already fragile places.

Photo: Llapallapani, Bolivia, 2016. Credit: Josh Haner/The New York Times/Redux

The various consequences of drought

• Violence against women
• Maternal deaths
• Child Marriage
• Malnutrition
• Illegal land grabbing
• Sanitation & hygiene
• Living conditions
• Food security
• Fuel supplies
• School attendance

We have no other spare or replacement planet. We have only this one, and we have to take action. Berta Cáceres Honduran indigenous and environmental rights activist

Implementing change

The time to act is now.

As early adopters of new agricultural techniques, first responders in crises, entrepreneurs of green energy, or decision-makers at home, women are agents of change who must equally be part of the solution towards a sustainable future.

Here’s how UN Women and its partners are paving the way

Photo: Mali, 2013. Credit: World Bank/Dominic Chavez

Sustainable solutions

The situation

Today, greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels remain primary energy sources. Women disproportionately bear the burden of energy poverty.

1 . 1  billion

People lacking access to electricity.

3  billion

People still cooking and heating their homes with solid fuels.

4 . 3  million

Deaths linked to household air pollution generated by solid fuels in 2012.

Data: Access to electricity , The World Bank; World Health Statistics 2017, Monitoring Health for the SDGs , World Health Organization. Photo: Vietnam, 2011. Credit: UN Photo/Kibae Park

The response

UN Women and UN Environment have joined forces under a global programme to promote women’s entrepreneurship for sustainable energy. The programme will initially roll out in Senegal, Morocco, Myanmar, India, Indonesia and Bolivia.

Women in India estimated to gain access to clean, renewable energy as part of current programme efforts

Photo: Liberia, 2015. Credit: Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos for UN Women

Gender-responsive action

Parts of Africa and Western Asia are confronting a humanitarian crisis brought on by drought.

3 . 4  million

People lacking food security out of the 5.6 million affected by drought.

3 6 , 9 8 8

Pregnant and lactating women requiring treatment for malnutrition.

Data: 2017 Flash Appeal, September-December 2017 , ReliefWeb;  Kenya: US$106 million needed to step up drought response in the critical months ahead , UN OCHA. Photo: Yemen, 2016. Credit: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times/Redux

UN agencies have mobilized to provide shelter, water, food, sanitation, emergency relief and protection services. In Kenya, for instance, UN Women is working with the government’s drought agency to address women’s unique needs.

$ 1 0 6  million

2017 flash appeal by 46 humanitarian agencies to reach 1.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of drought in Kenya

Data: 2017 Flash Appeal, September-December 2017 , ReliefWeb;  Kenya: US$106 million needed to step up drought response in the critical months ahead , UN OCHA. Photo: Kenya, 2015. Credit: Dai Kurokawa/EPA

Climate resilience

Global warming, rising temperatures and sea levels, and extreme weather events are threatening island nations and coastal communities, putting the livelihoods of millions at risk.

Additional climate-related deaths per year expected between 2030 and 2050 from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.

Data: Climate change and health , World Health Organization. Photo: Texas, USA, 2017. Credit: Andrew Burton/The New York Times/Redux

In Seychelles, women-led Wildlife Clubs, supported by a UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme, are teaching future generations about mangrove conservation and ocean sustainability. In Bangladesh, UN Women has strengthened disaster response systems across the country’s 10 most climate-vulnerable districts.

Bangladeshi women trained under UN Women- supported efforts to respond to disasters.

Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown

Together, we can achieve a sustainable future for all.

Step it up for gender equality..