images

Stunning images of climate change protests from North and South America, Europe and Asia make up the core of this month's contributions. It's been a busy time for reminding governments what they should already know by now - that we have to wean ourselves of climate-wrecking fossil fuels as soon as possible, and the business as usual is not an option.

Greenpeace China projects a climate change message onto Yong Ding Gate: Beijing, March 23 2009

The latest monthly slideshow of Greenpeace activities around the world has just been published, and it's been a busy time. Lots of action around climate change, as you'd expect, with big events in the US and Brazil, and a symbolic projection onto the Yong Ding gate in Beijing, China. 

Eucalyptus plantations surround an area of rainforest in the Amazon: one of Daniel's winning images ©Greenpeace/Beltrá

Photographs illustrating the environmental problems we're facing provide one of the most powerful tools we have for our campaign work. Whether it's an image of the beauty that still remains or one of the havoc we humans so often create, sometimes one photo really can explain it all.

Lanterns carrying the image of Toru Suzuki at Japanese Embassy vigil in support of the Tokyo Two, Washington DC, Feb 17 2009

My very wonderful Greenpeace International colleague Elaine has just published the February edition of the month in pictures series, highlighting a range of Greenpeace actions around the world. February's top shots range from locations in Mexico, Nigeria and Russia and cover campaign issues including e-waste, the upcoming trial of the Tokyo Two, forest fires and, of course, climate change - all in a handy slideshow format.

For more images and slideshows from our campaigns around the world, check out the photos, audio and videos section of our international website.

Some rather grim images were sent out from our picture desk yesterday. Taken on Sunday by Ardiles Rante, they show the devastation caused by fire in the peatland forests outside Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province in Sumatra. So that's another few thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide sent up into the atmosphere, and seeing photos like these make me realise our ongoing campaign to protect these forests from the ever-expanding palm oil industry is even more essential.

I've mentioned before about how I love wandering through the Greenpeace photo library (it's on a big server, so any wandering is purely figurative) - there's always just one more enticing folder to explore. And it's hardly surprising, when our campaign work takes photographers to some stunning locations and places them at the heart of the action. Some have even won major international awards for their work, both with Greenpeace and independently.

One of the pleasures of working at Greenpeace is having access to a truly incredible photo library and there's been more than one occasion when, looking for images to accompany a blog story, I've become lost in the wealth of powerful and affecting images.

The photographers who supply us with these photos are rewarded for their work with the occasional trophy and Daniel Beltra, who has accompanied Greenpeace campaigners on expeditions all over the world, was last week presented with the Global Vision Award for photos he took in the Amazon as part of Pictures of the Year International. He also received an Award of Excellence in the Science/Nature category for a collection from the Antarctic, taken during last year's Southern Ocean expedition on the Esperanza.

A few pictures from today's plane-top protest at Heathrow:

Hanging the banner on the tailfin
© Greenpeace

An iceberg made of hard, dense ice reflects late evening light
© Greenpeace/Cobbing

Oooh, this is gorgeous. I know some of Nick Cobbing's photographs pretty well (he's done a fair bit of work for Greenpeace in the past) but, on the advice of our picture editor, I went to have a nose around his website where he's organised some of his photos into stories.