A Year in Pictures: Our Angry Planet

Scorched Earth

An Indian labourer splashes water on his face to beat the heat during a hot afternoon in Kolkata, eastern India, on 30 April 2024. The summer or pre-monsoon season lasts from March to July in eastern India with the highest day temperatures ranging from 38 to 45℃. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Piyal Adhikary)

Young Afghans cool off in a canal on 31 May 2024 during a heatwave in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Qudratullah Razwan)

Sick brown pelicans recuperate at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California on 14 May 2024, California. The centre was caring for over 100 brown pelicans which had been discovered starving, anaemic and suffering from hypothermia in recent weeks. Brown pelicans were only recently removed from the endangered species list, in 2009. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Young people cool off in a swimming pool during high temperatures in the Al Dewika district of Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday, 8 June 2024. Global warming is a particularly severe problem for Egypt, a desert country heating up at one of the world’s fastest rates. (Photographer: Islam Safwat / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A man enjoys the warm temperatures and sunshine on the promenade on 26 June 2024 in Blackpool, United Kingdom. Britons are enjoying warmer temperatures this week, with highs reaching the low 30s in parts of the UK, peaking on Wednesday. (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A man covers his head in a wet towel during a heatwave in Karachi, Pakistan, 26 June 2024. The heatwave led to the hospitalisation of 1,592 people at Jinnah Hospital within the past 24 hours, resulting in 49 fatalities. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Shahzaib Akber)

A person suffering from a heatwave receives treatment at the ‘heat stroke emergency ward’ at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, 25 June 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Shahzaib Akber)

A man cools off in a weir on the Ostravice River in Frydek-Mistek, Czech Republic, on 19 June 2024. A heatwave brought temperatures up to 33℃ across the Czech Republic. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Martin Divisek)

A Ukrainian and his dog in Kyiv cool themselves at a park with water sprayed from a pipe hanging over a sidewalk during a heatwave on 18 July 2024. Temperatures in the Ukrainian capital reached 40℃. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Sergey Dolzhenko)

A farmworker wears protective clothing while working in a field in the morning heat on 3 July 2024 near Coachella, California. An excessive heat warning was in effect for all of the Coachella Valley until 8 July with highs forecast of up to 49.4 ℃. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

A visitor looks out at icebergs jammed in the Ilulissat Icefjord on 15 July 2024 near Ilulissat, Greenland. The Ilulissat Icefjord is about 60km long and is a conduit for icebergs calving from the massive Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, also called the Jakobshavn Glacier, of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Since 1850 Sermeq Kujalleq has retreated bout 40km, a process that has accelerated in recent decades, with the period from 2002 accounting for 22km of glacier retreat. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the Greenland Ice Sheet has been losing mass continuously since 1996, with an accumulated loss since 1986 approaching 6,000 metric gigatons, or six trillion tons. (Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

A tiger receives frozen food distributed for the animals of the Rome Bioparco during a heatwave on 18 July 2024. Temperatures were forecast to go as high as 40℃ in areas of southern Italy. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Fabio Cimaglia)

A boy pours water on his head during high heat in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 August 2024. After months of rain, the country is bracing for its first summer heatwave. The year was the rainiest on record. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Frederic Sierakowski)

People crowd a beach during a hot day in Valencia, Spain, on 11 August 2024. High temperatures, exceeding 40℃ in some parts of Spain, were recorded in the fourth heatwave of the summer. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Manuel Bruque)

A swan on a beach of Lake Yamanakako in front of Mount Fuji in Japan on 31 October 2024. The iconic Mount Fuji was yet to receive any snowfall in autumn 2024, marking the latest date without snow since records began 130 years ago. Typically, the mountain’s snowcap forms by early October, but unusually high summer temperatures delayed its arrival, raising concerns about climate change’s impact on weather patterns. (Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty Images)

The sun rises over Bondi Beach on 27 November 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Australians are at risk of enduring rolling blackouts this week, amid a heatwave sweeping through New South Wales and unexpected power outages across the state. Some areas reached a maximum temperature of 37℃, with Richmond and Perth in Sydney’s west also clocking in at 35℃. (Photo: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

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A planet submerged

A sunken yacht is on 26 January 2024 in Townsville, Australia. A cyclone watch zone has been issued for large parts of north Queensland, as tropical Cyclone Kirrily made landfall near Townsville on Thursday. The cyclone was downgraded after it crossed the coast, but still left behind significant flooding. (Photo: Ian Hitchcock / Getty Images)

People carry an unconscious woman (centre) who nearly drowned after being trapped in her flooded home after a night of heavy rainfall. The Gitathuru River broke its banks, damaging surrounding neighbourhoods, in the Ngondo village, in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya, on 24 April 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Daniel Irungu)

A displaced person takes shelter at a local school in mud-soaked footwear in Ngondo village in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya, 25 April 2024, a day after the Gitathuru River overflowed and broke its banks due to heavy rainfall damaging their surrounding neighbourhoods. The Kenya Red Cross Society said the floodings left at least 32 dead, 15 injured and affected at least 103,485 people amid the long March-May rains. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Daniel Irungu)

An aerial drone photo of the Arena do Gremio stadium and its flooded surroundings in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 5 May 2024. At least 180 people died in Brazil's worst floods in more than 80 years. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Isaac Fontana)

Heavy rains caused havoc in the Lwandle informal settlement in Strand, Cape Town on 6 June 2024. Multiple roads were closed in and around informal settlements around the Western Cape due to flooding following heavy rains. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

A resident holds on to a street sign on a road flooded by Typhoon Gaemi and monsoon rains on 24 July 2024 in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines. Monsoon rains, intensified by Typhoon Gaemi, caused flooding and landslides throughout the Philippines. At least eight people died and more than 600,000 people were displaced. (Photo: Ezra Acayan / Getty Images)

Severe flooding at Oasis Farm in Philippi, Cape Town, on 11 July 2024. Formal and informal housing structures, electrical and communication infrastructure and roads were severely damaged by storms and winds that swept through the region. (Photo: Gallo Images / Ziyaad Douglas)

A person wades through a flooded street caused by the swollen Bagmati River after torrential rains in Kathmandu, Nepal, 6 July 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Narendra Shrestha)

Huge waves that smashed against the breakwater in Three Anchor Bay caused heavy foam on 8 July 2024 in Cape Town. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

A destroyed house in Fontana, in Val Bavona in the Maggia Valley, southern Switzerland, on 4 July 2024. Severe storms and torrential rain left five people dead in Switzerland’s Val Maggia and its side valleys in Ticino. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Michael Buholzer)

A man passes a flooded house during heavy rain on 14 September 2024 in Mikulovice, Czech Republic. Heavy rainfall swept the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia. (Photo: Gabriel Kuchta / Getty Images)

Emergency service personnel help evacuate residents from the flooded town of Lewin Brzeski, southwestern Poland, on Tuesday, 17 September 2024. (Photo: Bartek Sadowski / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Filipino villagers evacuate the coastal municipality of Santa Ana, Cagayan province, Philippines, on 14 November 2024. After the onslaught of typhoons Toraji, Trami, Yinxing and Kong-rey, the Philippines braced for the landfall of Typhoon Usagi, the fifth major storm to hit the country in three weeks. Government officials warned residents of possible landslides due to ground saturation from successive typhoons impacting the Luzon island. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Francis R. Malasig)

A villager wades through floodwater in the flood-hit municipality of San Pablo, Isabela province, Philippines on 12 November 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Francis R. Malasig)

The swollen Matarranya River flows through the town of Valderrobres, in the province of Teruel, Spain, on 31 October 2024. Mayor Carlos Bone said that the ravines began to overflow, flooding some homes, as the river’s water levels rose. Landslides cut off the access road to the town. More than 100 people died in the province of Valencia and neighbouring provinces following floods caused by the Dana (high-altitude isolated depression) phenomenon, affecting the eastern part of the country. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Antonio Garcia)

Villagers carry a coffin to bury a relative ahead of the All Saints Day observance in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Trami in the town of Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines, on 30 October 2024. The weather disturbance Trami hit across several provinces in the Philippines and killed at least 125 people due to landslides and massive flooding. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Francis R. Malasig)

Villagers inspect a damaged bridge in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Trami, in the town of Laurel, Batangas province, Philippines, on 27 October 2024. At least 82 people were killed and more than 250,000 villagers were forced to flee their homes, officials said. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Francis R. Malasig)

Beached boats as Hurricane Milton hits in St Petersburg, Florida, US, on Wednesday, 9 October 2024. (Photo: Tristan Wheelock / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A toppled wind turbine after tornadoes tore through an area near Prescott, Iowa, US on 22 May 2024. Multiple deaths and injuries were reported from a series of tornadoes and powerful storms that hit several Midwestern states. (Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images)

Homes surrounded by floodwaters after Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Sargent, Texas, US, on Monday, 8 July 8 2024. Hurricane Beryl brought heavy rains and a life-threatening storm surge after churning across the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. (Photographer: Eddie Seal / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Residents stand at an apartment building behind a wall of sandbags against the rising Oder River on 24 September 2024 in Eisenhuttenstadt, Germany. Communities all along the Oder and Neisse rivers were bracing for water levels expected to peak later that day after catastrophic flooding upriver in Poland. (Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

An abandoned Tesla electric vehicle at a company supercharging station at the Bonaire Shopping Center following flash floods in Aldaia, Spain, on Monday, 4 November 2024. Storms on 29 October caught authorities in Valencia unprepared. The main cellphone alert system wasn’t activated until after the storms began, leaving thousands of people unaware. (Photo: Angel Garcia / Bloomberg via Getty Images

An aerial view of oil slick from the sunken tanker MT Terra Nova in the waters of Manila Bay on 29 July 2024 near the coastal village of Santa Cruz, Paombong, Bulacan province, Philippines. Industrial fuel oil from the capsized MT Terra Nova tanker leaked into Manila Bay. The tanker, carrying 1.4 million litres of fuel, sank during Typhoon Gaemi, resulting in an oil slick stretching 12-14 km. (Photo: Ezra Acayan / Getty Images)

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The Earth gives way

A section of the northern tailings dam wall of the Cadia Gold Mine, which collapsed in 2018, photographed from the air on 8 November 2024 in Orange, Australia. In the central west of New South Wales, residents near the mine are worried about potential contamination from mining operations.  (Photo: Brook Mitchell / Getty Images)

Workers move fresh sand delivered via barge on 21 May 2024 to the main public beach during a sand replenishment project along an eroding shoreline in San Clemente, California. The project aims to reduce coastal erosion, storm damage and coastal bluff failures while improving beach access along a vital Amtrak rail corridor. According to the US Geological Survey, up to 75% of California's beaches could become completely eroded by 2100 without intervention due to climate change-related sea level rise. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In this aerial view on 8 April 2024 in Trimingham, United Kingdom, a house partially hangs over a cliff edge following rapid coastal erosion. Coastal erosion has endangered an 18th-century farmhouse in north Norfolk, with the cliffs at Trimingham shrinking over the past decade due to insufficient absorption of rain by the ground. (Photo: Carl Court / Getty Images)

People gather at a collapsed bridge on 30 September 2024 in the resort of Acapulco in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, after the passage of Hurricane John. (Photo: EPA-EFE / David Guzman)

A Kia Picanto in a sinkhole at the intersection of Nelson Street and Chapel Street in Cape Town on 29 February 2024. The driver managed to get out of the car when she realised it was sinking. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)

Children collect washed-up items at a coastal village in Bacoor city, Cavite province, about 30km southeast of Manila, Philippines, on 19 September 2024 after the passage of three tropical storms. Tropical cyclones Bebinca, Gener, and Pulasan intensified the southwest monsoon, tore off roofs, uprooted trees, and turned streets into rivers in several parts of the country. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Francis R. Malasig)

Damage after a landslide on the Cantonal road and the Bodenbruecke in the Saastal, Eisten, in southern Valais, Switzerland, on 6 September 2024. Severe storms resulted in landslides and floods, cutting off the valley from the outside world. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Andrea Soltermann)

Search and rescue operations after landslides in Mundakai, Chooralmala area, Wayanad district in Kerala, southern India, on 31 July 2024. The death toll on 30 July had risen to 158, according to the State Revenue Department. A two-day statewide mourning period was announced on 30 July. (Photo: EPA-EFE / TP Binu)

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The burning world

Fire-damaged powerlines at dawn on 11 September 2024 during the Bridge Fire which had then burnt more than 19,000 hectares in Angeles National Forest in Wrightwood, California in the US. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

An exhausted woman during efforts to extinguish wildfires near her home in Covelo, Gondomar, northern Portugal, on 17 September 2024. (Photos: EPA-EFE / Jose Coelho)

Firefighters battle a wildfire in Du Toit’s Kloof on 17 April 2024 in Paarl, Western Cape. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)

Firefighter Matt Carazolez uses a drip torch while conducting a burn operation on State Road 172 as the Park Fire burns on 7 August 2024 in Mill Creek, California, US. Park Fire had burnt more than 162,000 hectares and the dry weather conditions made it hard to contain. (Photo: Ethan Swope / Getty Images)

A firefighting aircraft drops Phos-Chek fire retardant ahead of the Thompson Fire on 3 July 2024 in Oroville, California. At least 12,000 Butte County residents had been evacuated as they fled the Thompson Fire that had burnt more than 1.200 hectares and destroyed multiple homes. (Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Horses at a fire-damaged stables during the Bridge Fire which has now burned more than 19,000 hectares in Angeles National Forest on 11 September 2024 in Wrightwood, California, US. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

An aerial view of homes destroyed in the Mountain Fire on 22 November 2024 in Camarillo, California. The Mountain Fire ignited in powerful winds on 6 November, destroying more than 200 buildings, many of them homes. The blaze was the third most destructive wildfire to occur in Southern California in at least a decade. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

People watch the Airport Fire burning on a hill above homes on 9 September 2024 in Trabuco Canyon, California. The fast-moving Orange County brush fire prompted evacuations in the area while scorching 770 hectares and injuring three people amid a heatwave in Southern California. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Firefighters and residents try to extinguish a fire in a residential district of Las Pinas City, Metro Manila, Philippines, on 1 April 2024. According to a report by the Philippines Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), fire incidents between January and March were higher by 24% over the same period in 2023. Firefighters experienced a sharp increase in calls from households due to power overload and overheating of electric fans from non-stop usage, leading to fires. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Francis R. Malasig)

A smoke plume from the Park Fire, which had then burnt almost 69,000 hectares, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in Butte County, California, US, on 26 July 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / John G. Mabanglo)

Lava spews from the Sundhnúkur volcano on 2 June 2024 on the Reykjanes peninsula near Grindavik, Iceland. The volcano, which had erupted five times since December 2023, forced the evacuation of the southwestern fishing town of Grindavik as well as the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. (Photo: John Moore / Getty Images)

Lava flows from the Sundhnúkur volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula on 30 May 2024 near Grindavik, Iceland. The volcano, located in southwestern Iceland, erupted anew the day before, cutting electricity to Grindavik and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of guests at the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. (Photo: John Moore / Getty Images) DM