The Ice Stupas by Ciril Jazbec: One way to fight climate change: Make your own glaciers. As snows dwindle and glaciers recede, people in the mountains of northern India are building huge ice cones called Ice Stupas that provide water into summer. This 33,5m high Ice Stupa near the village of Shara Phuktsey won first prize for the largest Ice Stupa in a 2019 competition. Its nearly two million gallons of stored water which helped irrigate fields in four villages. The stupa also drew tourists: Ice climbers came to scale its steep flanks. © Ciril Jazbec
Farm Dam, Cape Town - "Day Zero” by Joel Redman: A farm dam sits on the outskirts of Cape Town. In early 2018 after years of sustained drought, the city faced a freshwater crisis. Severe water restrictions had been enacted, though with time paramount the city imposed the very real threat of “Day Zero” – May 11th, 2018. A date when potentially water to local communities’ homes in the area may be turned off, and at which point people would need to queue for water at designated standpoints to collect their supplies. Fortunately, due to the city and the local populations resolve, response, as well as welcome rains this situation was narrowly avoided, though it serves as an important reminder to how we treat and respect our natural world, as these severe climactic events become more frequent. Image from a wider story titled – Day Zero. © Joel Redman
Conservation status: Vulnerable (part of Humanature project, 2018 by Natalia Poniatowska: In the age of constant questioning of the connection between us, humans, and the nature that surrounds us, the Humanature project, including this photograph, came to being as a subconscious selection of images that represent the current mood of such conversations. The picture was taken at Copenhagen Zoo. Humanature does not deliver an answer or points towards a certain issue, but rather stays ambiguous in its outlook and leaves the interpretation to the spectator. © Natalia Poniatowska
FireBerg'08 Hot|as|ice #S3-6 by Patrizia Dottori: It is the beginning of a research through the opposite view of reality. Actually, I used the negative as a point of view to transmit heat through ice: the cracks of glaciers become the cracks of a volcano, the expanses of water become red-hot lands. The photographic inversion from positive to negative does not change the state of things: water remains water and ice remains ice. In these images there is no solution to the environmental problem, but the relationship between the daily experience with the fundamental element, water, and the concept of change through its transformation so that the thread of our thoughts creates the energy necessary for mankind so that everyone makes a small effort to be involved in supporting scientific solution. © Patrizia Dottori
Sumaj Orck'o ("Beautiful Hill"). Potosí, since 1545 by Javier Clemente Martinez: The Potosi mines were first plundered and exploited by the Spanish Empire, which began 475 years ago; with more than 4000 meters high and bordered by miles of tunnels of the inexhaustible mines of Potosí, which contributed to the Spanish Empire and all of Europe during the time of the conquest of America, more silver than any other place in the world, at the cost of the forced labour of indigenous slaves and countless corpses throughout the centuries. The city of Potosí still lives in the shadow of Cerro Rico. Mining is still the basis of the local economy; few things have changed for centuries. Potosi is currently an open hurt of colonialism in America. The mountains also cry: Potosi. © Javier Clemente Martinez
Men in a Pond by Yuyang Liu: Guangzhou, China. 2015. Two men were fishing in the pond of Xian Village which is in the center of Guangzhou city. There was a conflict between locals and real estate developers for more than 7 years because of the uneven compensation and the corruption of Xian village leaders. Xian village is an epitome of China's urbanization. © Yuyang Liu
