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Tropical storms lash the land and destroy ecosystems. Flood water filled the roads and cars got stuck in the mud. And the fire scorched the trees and destroyed the houses.
As climate change, caused primarily by the use of oil, gas and coal as energy sources, hits people hard in 2025, Associated Press photographers around the world capture their suffering and heartache. Extreme weather events that harm people also harm many other living things, such as pigs, fish, and cows. Lives were changed and many lives were taken.
However, amidst much suffering, there was bravery and determination, as people fought to restore ecosystems and protect lands and forests.
People experienced effects
In 2025, there were some who sought extremes, like a family enjoying a sunset on a scorching August day in California valley of deathhottest place EarthBut for most people, it was the other way around: climate change extremes were imposed on them, and with devastating consequences,
In the Philippines, as Typhoon Fung-Wong approached, a couple took shelter in a tent at an evacuation center, the wife gently feeding her husband in a wheelchair. Children were washed away in the sudden floods in Pakistan, after which their recovered bodies remained lying at home. In Ghana, a woman stood amid the debris of her family’s home after it was swept away by ocean waves.
In Greece, a man cradled a sheep while riding his motorcycle to escape a forest fire. In Los Angeles, firefighters battled flames that spread across neighborhoods in January, the heart of winter, when large wildfires are rare. A couple holding each other in front of their destroyed home created a scene of disbelief that played out on repeat for weeks.
In Jamaica, a man rides his bike on a flooded road after Hurricane Melissa struck the Caribbean Sea. The same storm caused landslides and deaths in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events.
In Mexico, weeks of heavy rains led to major flooding, a disaster inspired by the image of a naval officer helping a woman cross a road filled with mud, debris and cars scattered in the mud.
animals were also hit hard
People weren’t the only creatures injured or killed during extreme weather events, or facing existential threats. AP photographers also captured animals in the storm and flooding and the aftermath of the fires. Other animals were seen thriving in their natural habitats, with scenes of natural beauty threatened by climate shocks.
In Ladakh, India, a couple collected the dung of their yaks and milked them in what seemed like a routine herding task, though perhaps not for long, as rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and changing vegetation, all effects of climate change, are threatening the yaks’ husbandry.
In Mexico, after heavy rains and flooding, a farmworker prepares to remove dead pigs from his barn. A woman in the US state of Kentucky rescued a cat trapped in her verandah during floods.
In Texas, baby ostriches hid in a barn after flooding. In Argentina, cows floated in water after floods. And in Sudan, a farmer waded through flood waters carrying livestock in both his hands.
While too much water brought destruction in some places, lack of water due to drought or fire caused damage in other places. In France, a dead fish head was found lying in the almost dry Oum River, badly hit by drought. In Türkiye, a farmer was crying while holding one of his black cattle that had died in a forest fire.
In Ghana, women cooked oysters plucked from coastal mangroves, a source of livelihood in the face of rising temperatures and coastal erosion.
Human actions also harm animals. In the Amazon River in Colombia, scientists captured a pink river dolphin to test for mercury, a toxic liquid metal used in illegal gold mining that contaminates the ecosystem.
The images of animals in the midst of extreme weather were a stark contrast to others that inspired awe, such as baby turtles in a reserve in the Brazilian Amazon. The baby turtles, full of life, only temporarily masked the reality that this species, along with many other species in the Amazon, is being affected by global warming.
Resilience and land conservation amid destruction
While many of the photos depict a deteriorating climate and the dismal state of ecosystems, there are also examples of people who are determined to protect the land, even if it means risking their lives.
In Southern California, members of the Navajo Scouts firefighter team remove debris while battling a massive wildfire. In the US state of South Carolina, a woman made shadow puppets with a young girl near a wetland that many in the community have worked to help preserve and thrive.
In Colombia, indigenous children training to become guards to protect the land played on the walls of an old military defense barrier, showing that even serious work can have moments of carelessness. there was no such smile senegalWhere members of a brigade combating lion poaching were seen through the trees while patrolling Niokolo Koba National Park.
During the UN Climate Summit in Brazil, a group of indigenous peoples participated in the opening ceremony of the People’s Summit, a parallel gathering to demand land rights for indigenous peoples, who suffer some of the deepest harms from climate change but also have some of the solutions. A woman from the Wayuu indigenous community, a semi-nomadic group struggling amid irregular rainfall, crop failure and development pressures, poses with her child, in Colombia.
In Mexico City, a woman works to clean a canal in her chinampa, one of many island farms built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago that are being reclaimed for sustainable farming today. Revival was also the goal in and around BengaluruIndia, where fishermen cast a huge net to remove weeds and help restore a lake choked with trash and scarred by a degraded ecosystem.
Security of land and livelihoods may have to be paid at a cost. In Senegal, a few years ago a farmer lost his left arm in a fight with herders as they passed through his farm. Climate change has deepened tensions between herders and farmers, as declining rainfall and rising temperatures have dried up grazing lands.
Some people went beyond simply working to protect the land and demanded that the environment be treated better. This was the case with women of the Gadaba indigenous communities in India. The women, who are giving the government maps of the areas they want to protect, were chatting while collecting tendu leaves to sell.
Members of the Mura indigenous community in Brazil were seen sailing boats near an Amazon village, facing the question of whether to support or oppose a major potash mining project on their land.
This question, along with global impacts on people and animals and efforts to stem the tide of climate change and protect land, will continue into 2026.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropy, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas on AP.org.