Abstract
In recent years, the society has become increasingly aware of the importance of climate change. The media in general have made a decisive contribution to this. Particularly decisive has been the diffusion of images on the impacts of climate change. This chapter analyzes the images on this issue present in the latest editions of the main world photographic competitions (multiple case study), such as World Press Photo, Sony World Photography Awards, or Pulitzer Prizes, with the aim of making a visual review of the subject, as well as to try to establish a thematic typology of the images and to determine if there has been any evolution in recent times. The images found show that the subject matter is diverse and that there is a certain evolution from shocking and striking images of impacts to other more complex ones in which more elements and new themes, sometimes not so obvious, are included.
TopBackground
Climate Change Awareness
Currently climate change is understood, and it has been recognized that action to mitigate it must be taken, but this has not always been the case. In fact, even today, there are many people who, although they have heard certain concepts such as “climate change”, “global warming”, “greenhouse effect” or simpler terms such as “deforestation” or “desertification”, do not really know what each of these concepts means.
Although sometimes this lack of interest in everything related to climate change has been blamed on a lack of literacy in the public and in some cases, it has been so (Weber & Stern, 2011), however, it has been shown that this is not entirely accurate (Kahan et al., 2012), but that it also related to the individual personal attitude and can even be blamed on the individual's capacity to adapt to this phenomenon (Grothmann & Patt, 2005).
It has also been seen as a handicap for awareness that governments do not know how to explain the challenge to their citizens (Lorenzoni et al., 2007).
In any case, human perception of the obvious risk posed by climate change is growing, especially if citizens have had any negative personal experiences related to adverse natural phenomena associated with climate change (Frondel et al., 2017).
The increased perception of the problem has also been aided by the media (Boykoff, 2011), whether traditional media such as newspapers (Sampei & Aoyagi-Usuai, 2009; Schmidt et al., 2017) or digital media such as social media (Mavrodieva et al., 2019).
Similarly, it has been observed that images have a significant influence on society's awareness of climate change (Liu et al., 2021) and it is in this context of increasing assimilation of the problem and the importance of communicating the issue, especially through images, where this research is framed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Stories: A World Press Photo contest modality where authors present a group of photographs. It is the same that a photo series.
Photo Series: A group of images illustrating a theme. Although each of these images has value on its own, it is only through the group of images as a whole that one can fully understand what the authors want to convey with their work.
Climate Change: Variations in the planet's climate that are occurring faster than usual due to global warming and other factors (almost all of which are human induced).
Endangered Species: Threatened flora or fauna at moderate risk of extinction that is usually protected and under conservation programs.
Greenhouse Effect: It is in principle a positive effect, since it regulates the Earth's temperature and makes it habitable. In relation to climate change, it refers to the potentiation of this effect derived from the excessive emission of gases by human action, which has led to global warming.
Global Warming: A global temperature rise on the planet resulting from widespread harmful human actions, such as the emission of greenhouse gases.
Species Conservation Status: Depending on the degree of danger or threat of extinction that a given species suffers, it can be said to have a certain conservation status. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its Red List of Threatened Species distinguishes nine categories in three groups: extinct, threatened (critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable) and lower risk.
Desertification: Lands that were fertile that become very arid or desert due to extreme drought or deforestation.
Deforestation: Elimination of forest extensions for other uses (mainly agricultural, livestock or urban) derived from human actions. It can also be a consequence of natural actions such as large fires (not caused by humans).