gaza water scarcity

After two Intifadas and a blockade that has lasted for more then two years now, the 1.6 million people of Gaza feel abandoned. There is a lack of everything, and everyone struggles. Despite all the media coverage, however, one critical aspect of the Gaza’s’ struggle to survive has been overlooked: water. ‘If nothing changes, Gaza will have NO drinkable water in ten years time. Already today, only 10% of Gaza’s groundwater meets the WHO standards and is drinkable’, says Monther Shablak, the director of the ‘Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility’.
© Kadir Van Lohuizen

dzerzhinsk

Dzerzhinsk is a large centre of the Russian chemicals production industry. In the past, the city was also among Russia's principal production sites for chemical weapons. Dzerzhinsk made up to 500 chemical products (including pesticides and herbicides containing mercury), explosives, rocket fuels, plastic and chlorine products. High levels of dioxins were emitted into the water and the highly porous soil. The dumped chemicals made their way into the ground waters.
© Yuri Kozyrev

mountain pine beetle

Mountain pine beetles have decimated more than 14.5 hectares of pine forests in British Columbia. Experts predict that by 2014 at least 80 percent of the mature lodgepole pines in the region will be dead. Warming trends have permitted the beetle larvae to survive the winter and proliferate.
© Nina Berman

the blackest spot on earth

One of the most polluted cities in the world, Karabash, is burdened with the dirty legacy of copper mining, chemical and heavy metal emissions. The smokestack of the Karabash Copper Smelting Works has annually been spewing 180 tons of sulfur dioxide and metal particulates into the air for almost a century.
© Yuri Kozyrev

in the oil sands

The oil sands of Alberta, Canada, are the second largest source of crude oil in the world, behind Saudi Arabia. Oil sand mining degrades the landscape, pollutes the water and with its associated refining industries accounts for 5 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions.
© Jon Lowenstein
 

war and climate refugees

The world’s largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, is bursting at its seams with more than 300,000 occupants. While some flee war, others escape the severe climate situation in the Horn of Africa. The UN estimated that by 2012 there will be more than 50 million climate refugees in Africa alone.
© Jan Grarup

the burning coal in jharia

Under Jharia’s crust, lies one of the largest coal deposits in India. But for the people who live above an inferno, Jharia is a condemned place. For almost a century, fires have burned uncontrolled in the mines beneath Jharia, polluting the air with poisonous fumes and splitting the ground with dangerous fissures.
© Philip Blenkinsop

shadow of change: greenland

"This weather does not belong to us. It belongs to someone else. If we don't have ice, we are going to die." With this prediction, an Inuit hunter sums up the dire situation for the indigenous peoples who live in northern and eastern Greenland. Nearly nowhere on earth is the evidence of climate change more apparent.
© Stanley Greene

a paradise in peril: the maldives

The Maldives is the lowest lying country in the world. As the oceans fill with water from melting glaciers, this tropical paradise will be the first country on the planet to slip below the waves. Experts predict that within the next 15 years, rising sea levels will force the island's 396,000 residents to migrate elsewhere.
© Francesco Zizola

yamal peninsula

In the language of the indigenous Nenet, "Yamal" means "world's end". This peninsula in Siberia is home to both 42,000 Nenet and the largest natural gas reserve in the world. Nowadays, the Nenet's traditional way of life is threatened by warming temperatures and by the world's rapacious appetite for natural gas.
© Yuri Kozyrev

blackfields: poland's coal industry

Poland is one of the largest producers of coal in Europe. Its Upper Silesian Coal Basin, where coal has been mined for more than 150 years, is full of mines, steel mills, coke ovens and chemical plants. Waste from these industries fills dumps across the region. In Poland, 93 percent of the energy comes from burning coal.
© Pep Bonet

brazil's range war

The Brazilian rainforest is shrinking by tens of thousands of square kilometers a year. About 60 to 70 percent of the deforestation occurs as rancher cut trees to create pastures for the country's burgeoning cattle industry. In recent years, Brazil has become the largest exporter of beef and, not coincidentally, the third largest polluter in the world.
© Kadir van Lohuizen