World Press Photo, in partnership with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, presents Down to Earth, its first exhibition dedicated to visualizing climate change and climate futures, focusing on 21st-century stories from the World Press Photo Contest archive.
Neighbors play Animal Lotto under a sky lit by one of the world’s largest gas flares (the flaming chimneys used to burn off excess natural gas at oil wells), in Punta de Mata, Venezuela, on 5 November 2022. © Adriana Loureiro Fernandez
A man carries PET plastic bottles for recycling at Olusosun landfill, Africa’s largest, which covers 10 acres (40 hectares) in Lagos, Nigeria. While still operational as of March 2025, the site is being transformed into a waste-to-biogas energy facility, with closure and redevelopment efforts underway since December 2024. 27 January 2017. © Kadir van Lohuizen
Every year, the world’s population generates over 2 billion metric tons of municipal solid waste. The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) projects this will increase 56% to 3.8 billion metric tons by 2050. Countries across the Majority World (where the majority of the world’s population lives) face a growing crisis as increasing waste volumes overwhelm existing disposal infrastructure. Beyond landfill capacity concerns, waste disposal significantly impacts climate change through methane emissions and black carbon from burning trash. The UNEP also identifies waste-related pollution as a leading cause of biodiversity loss due to hazardous chemicals from improper disposal contaminating soil and water.
A bucket-wheel excavator digs through a field where corn used to be grown, near the village of Lützerath, in Germany, on 10 February 2021. The machine is enlarging the Garzweiler II open-cast mine, which stretches over more than five kilometers. © Daniel Chatard
Germany positions itself as a leader in the transition to renewable energy by 2030, but remains among Europe's highest greenhouse gas emitters, accounting for 23% of EU coal consumption in 2023. The Hambach and Garzweiler open-cast mines in North Rhine-Westphalia extract lignite coal, which produces about 30% more CO2 than hard coal. Since the 1940s, these mines have destroyed some 50 villages, forests, and farmland. Despite planning a 2030 coal phase-out, Germany's 2022 Energy Security Act reactivated coal plants to offset Russian gas imports, reduced by the war in Ukraine.
A kangaroo tries to escape a wildfire near a burning house in Lake Conjola, New South Wales, Australia, on 31 December 2019. © Matthew Abbott
The 2019-2020 Australian bushfires were exceptionally severe, burning 18 million hectares, killing over 30 people, and destroying 3,000 homes. Scientists estimate one billion animals perished in the fires, with attribution studies confirming climate change made them 30% more likely. Research shows fire seasons are lengthening globally as rising temperatures create ideal conditions of heat, drought, and wind. Australia, western North America, southern Europe, and northern Eurasia all show clear increases in fire probability. Recent studies link over 4 million hectares of the 2025 fires in Los Angeles, USA, directly to climate change.
Once endangered, the giant panda is now considered vulnerable, meaning at a lower risk of extinction. Wild panda populations have increased since the 1980s, with the majority living in nature reserves across southwestern China. The species initially declined as forests were converted to farmland, eliminating bamboo, their principal food source. Since 2003, Chinese officials have reintroduced 12 captive pandas to the wild, with 10 surviving. In 2024, experts at Sichuan's Hetaoping Base confirmed plans to release five more. Pandas living in captivity undergo training to learn how to cope in the wild.
Small and densely populated, the Netherlands lacks conventional opportunities for large-scale agriculture but, mainly through innovative agricultural practice, has become the world's second-largest exporter of food after the USA. Wageningen University and Research (WUR), widely regarded as the world's top agricultural research institution, serves as the nodal point of ‘Food Valley’, a cluster of agricultural technology startups and experimental farms developing solutions to global hunger. Since 2000, Dutch farmers have decreased dependency on water for key crops, as well as substantially cut the use of chemical pesticides and antibiotics.
Students from around the world at Wageningen University in the Netherlands learn to solve critical climate problems affecting their home countries through research in controlled greenhouse laboratory environments. 24 February 2017. © Luca Locatelli
Bob the flamingo accompanies veterinarian Odette Doest on a visit to the Dr Albert Schweitzer School in Willemstad, Curaçao, on 3 July 2018, to educate children about flamingos and their habitat. © Jasper Doest
Bob, a rescued flamingo, lives among humans on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. The bird was badly injured when he flew into a hotel window and was cared for by Odette Doest, who runs Fundashon Dier en Onderwijs Cariben (FDOC), a wildlife rehabilitation center and conservation charity. Odette discovered that Bob was too habituated to humans to survive if returned to the wild. Instead, he serves as an 'ambassador' for FDOC, visiting schools and companies to educate local people about the importance of protecting the island’s wildlife at a time when Earth’s biodiversity is rapidly diminishing.
