<p>A house sits partially submerged by the sea in El Bosque, the first Mexican community officially recognized as displaced by climate change. Tabasco, Mexico</p>
<br />
&nbsp;
2026 Photo Contest - North and Central America - Long-Term Projects

Mexico, A Changing Climate

Photographer

César Rodríguez

Norwegian Red Cross, SNCA, The New York Times
05 December, 2023

A house sits partially submerged by the sea in El Bosque, the first Mexican community officially recognized as displaced by climate change. Tabasco, Mexico


 

Mexico is especially vulnerable to climate extremes, with 52% of its territory situated in arid or semi-arid zones. Over the last two decades, environmental disasters have internally displaced approximately 2.7 million people, a figure projected to reach up to 8 million by 2050. This project documents the enormous cost of these changes on a human scale: from the rapid erosion of Tabasco’s coastlines, where sea levels are rising three times faster than the global average, to the systemic water scarcities in Monterrey and the State of Mexico, where renewable water availability has plummeted by 81% since 1950.


The photographs that shape how we see the world don’t appear by chance. They are the result of persistence, courage, and careful work. Support World Press Photo with a donation, so we can continue to be a platform for these stories.

César Rodríguez
About the photographer

César Rodríguez (b. 1983) is a photographer from Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, whose work focuses on migration, human rights and climate change. He is based in Xalisco, Mexico. His work has been published in Time Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, National Geographic, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, El Pais Semanal,...

Read the full biography
Technical information
Camera

ILCE-7M4

Jury comment

This project provides an informed, local perspective on the effects of climate change in Mexico; highlighting floods, drought, water shortages, and the displacement of entire communities. Through poetic and well-composed images, the photographer conveys the compounded impacts of environmental pressures, political decisions, and a lack of social support. By focusing on fishing communities and vulnerable populations in urban areas, the work offers a nuanced portrayal of how climate change is reshaping culture and daily life in the region.