Earth Alert: A Photographic Response To Climate Change

The glow of sunlight barely permeates the fog to illuminate this view from Clingman’s Dome. Dead fir trees, the result of aphid infestation due to air pollution, are fast becoming a common part of the landscape. The Smoky Mountains, on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, are at the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. Known for its perennial blanket of smoky-blue mist – a natural effect of oily residues and water vapour from its richly diverse forests – it has become America’s most visited national park, attracting more than 9 million visitors annually. Today, the Great Smoky’s signature blue fog is being replaced by a toxic yellow haze caused by airborne pollutants which are trapped by the mountains Photograph: Gerd Ludwig/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Children play in the inky pools of runoff from leaking oil pumps in Balaxani, Azerbaijan, 1993 Photograph: Gerd Ludwig/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

A forgotten house in a Chernobyl contaminated zone, Glinka, Ukraine, 2005 Photograph: Gerd Ludwig/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Ka Ma Mi beach, Korea, 2005. A man throws a fishing net on the beach adjacent to the Young Kwang power station, which has made the sea temperature 2-3 C higher than other areas Photograph: Chung Chu Ha/Korean Cultural Centre

Ul Jin-kun, Korea, 2007. A mountain village overlooking the beach and in the background the nuclear power plant at Pu Ku-ri Photograph: Chung Chu Ha/Korean Cultural Centre

Children at Nauti primary school may be the most climate change aware in the world. The tiny Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu is already experiencing the devastating effects of global warming. Due to sea level rise, erosion, and extreme weather events it is shrinking and may eventually disappear. Pictured from left to right in the front row are 11-year-olds Jala Apisai, Maumau Seti, Polau Falaima, Saravina Tui, Esela Ofati, back row: Toaki kokea, Nisha Tusitala, Tolotea Sami, Niiti Teauoki Photograph: Robin Hammond/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

The meteorological forecaster Niko Iona stands on the destroyed islet of Tipuku Savilivili – the first of Tuvalus Islands to be washed away and a harbinger of much greater destruction that could await the nation. February 2009 Photograph: Robin Hammond/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Encroaching sea, shifting glaciers: Baltoro glacier, Balistan, Pakistan 2000 Photograph: Park Jong Woo/Korean Cultural Centre

Baltoro glacier, Balistan, Pakistan 2000 Photograph: Park Jong Woo/Korean Cultural Centre

Coal coking plant in Benxi, Liaoning province, China, 2007 Photograph: Ian Teh/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Industrial workers amid the fumes at a coal coking plant, Benxi, Liaoning province, China, 2007. The workers in these industrial plants are often directly exposed to the highly toxic (and carcinogenic) fumes that are emitted from the industrial processes involved in coke production. China is one of the world's largest producers and consumers of coke fuel Photograph: Ian Teh/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Swallows spend their summers north of the Yangtze river and the winters in the south, Yuannan province, China, 2007. However, it is difficult to see swallows near the Yangtze these days. Climate change is transforming them from being migratory birds to resident ones Photograph: Lee Sang Youp/Korean Cultural Centre

A giant yellow sand wind in the Kashgar city, Xinjiang province, China, approaches the Mao statue in the people's square, 2002 Photograph: Lee Sang Youp/Korean Cultural Centre

A series of standing stones, Sae Man Geum, Tae Hang-ri, Korea, 2004. They are an expression of people's struggle to protect the Saemangeum foreshore Photograph: Choi Young Jin/Korean Cultural Centre

The foreshore, Sae Man Geum, Korea Photograph: Choi Young Jin/Korean Cultural Centre

The foreshore has been deprived of sea water for so long that it has become a half man-made and half natural motorway. Korea, 2007 Photograph: Choi Young Jin/Korean Cultural Centre

Waterless lake, Bo Moon Lake, Kyeong Ju, Korea, 1997 Photograph: Joo Myung-Duck/Korean Cultural Centre

This coral reef bleached and died in 1998 due to a rise in water temperature, believed to be caused by global warming in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka. When inspected a year later by marine biologists, no recovery was detected Photograph: Frederik Naumann/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Glacial landscape on the south-east coast of Greenland, showing broken and melting ice Photograph: Nick Cobbing/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Debendra Das has already lost his house twice to the rising sea. His first house was located past the furthest pictured palm tree. Islanders of the Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal can only stand by and watch as rising sea levels consume their homes and livelihoods Photograph: Robin Hammond/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

A couple watch from the beach as smoke rises from the nearby village of Zacharo as wildfires spread through South Peloponnese. Half a million acres were destroyed and 64 people died in five days of fires, described by Greece's president as a 'national catastrophe' Photograph: Yannis Kontos/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

An area of deforestation on the border of the Amazon rainforest burned down to produce charcoal and to grow soybeans or raise cattle Photograph: Eduardo Martino/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

The Luiter family, who finished third in a solar-powered cooking competition, carry home a solar cooker and several insulated food-storage boxes, Jhapa Damak, Nepal, 2007. With the financial help of the Dutch Council for Refugees, a total of 6,300 solar cookers will be distributed amongst the Bhutanese refugees living in the region. The solar cookers consist of a reflective, aluminium, parabolic-shaped device that concentrates the sun's rays on to cooking pots placed on a frame in the centre of the dish. The dish has to be adjusted to the new position of the sun around every 10 minutes. It takes about 55 minutes to prepare a cooked meal on a sunny day and it is hoped that using the solar cookers will alleviate pressure on resources and reduce kerosene consumption by 75% Photograph: Chris de Bode/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre

Cleaning a solar cooker at a Bhutanese refugee settlement, Jhapa Damak, Nepal, 2007. The cooker has to be cleaned after every meal in order to keep the surface working as effectively as possible Photograph: Chris de Bode/Panos/Korean Cultural Centre