slideshows

As climate change causes the Arctic sea ice to recede, our ship Esperanza has sailed north of Svalbard to survey the poorly understood Arctic Ocean seabed. On the surface, the crew are observing and recording the diverse wildlife that has adapted to survive in this unique and harsh environment. Beneath the waves we are using a remote operated vehicle built and operated by top cameraman Gavin Newman to record the life on the sea bed in fine detail.

Greenpeace is calling for the area of the Arctic Ocean historically protected year round by sea ice to be closed to all industrial activity, including destructive fishing. Read more about the Arctic Under Pressure expedition.

The battle over a 3rd runway for Heathrow became an iconic struggle between those of us who know the climate change threat is deadly serious, and those who preferred to gamble our collective future in search of short-term profit. And when that latter group includes such heavyweights as the Department for Transport and the British Airports Authority, you know you're in for a fight - even when the science is on your side.

In the event it took three years of hard campaigning, and the building of a huge coalition of civil society (including residents' groups Hacan and NoTRAG, local councils, Climate Camp, WWF and RSPB) to bring the runway plans down.

At the mouth of the Ganges River lies the Sundarbans - 20,000 square kilometres of Unesco protected mangrove forest stretching between India and Bangladesh. It is home to 500 endangered Bengali tigers, countless crocodiles and around 4.3 million people.

Climate change is a global problem - one which demands cooperation and action from the world's heads of government. And for that to happen, we need world leaders to attend the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen next month.

A large chunk of northern Russia is tundra where the ground is hardened by the arctic conditions into permafrost. Yet even in these harsh climes humans manage to thrive - like the Nenet people, whose nomadic reindeer-herding way of life takes them across north-west Siberia.

But as climate change takes hold, the permafrost is melting, releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane. It's causing problems for the Nenet, altering the availability of their reindeers' food as well as prompting other changes in the local eco-system.

The Arctic Sunrise is still in Greenland where the crew (including leading climate scientists and other ice experts) have been monitoring the ongoing disintegration of the Petermann glacier.

Photographer Nick Cobbing is on board, and we've all been oohing and aahing over his stunning images as they come in to the office. They're all the more poignant as the portion of the glacier they depict may soon cease to exist. 

You can view a larger version of this slideshow, and follow updates from the Arctic Sunrise on the Climate Rescue blog.

There are a lot of tired but very happy (not to mention sun-kissed) people around the office today. Those who manned the Greenpeace field at Glastonbury are reappearing and they have such tales to tell. (I would have asked one of them to write this update, but they're all worn out.)

May's round up of images from around the Greenpeace world come from as far afield as Australia, where activists shut down a giant digger at the most polluting power station in the developed world; India, where we've been installing solar panels in schools; and Thailand, where volunteers canoed 350km to document the toxic damage being done to the Chao Praya, the country's most iconic river.

In a new photo essay, rice farming in southern China is put under the spotlight to show how traditional methods are still working well without any tinkering from the GM industry.

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.