Communities coping with climate change – in pictures

This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release a special report, which the WWF has contributed to, laying out in stark detail the impact of the melting of frozen regions on oceans and coastal areas. People around the world are already living with the effects of vanishing ice caps, coastal erosion and rising sea levels, which are destroying communities, forcing people out of their homes and damaging traditional lifestyles.

The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate report outlines the impact of climate change on the earth’s oceans and frozen places – or cryosphere – and our options to respond

Main image: Schoolchildren wade through water on a flooded street in Chaktai, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Photograph: Jashim Salam/WWF

  • Greenland

    Åge Hammeken Danielsen, a commercial hunter from Ittoqqortoormiit, drives his sled dogs through Walrus Bay. His village has a quota of 35 polar bears to kill each year, which he says is too low. He says there are too many polar bears coming into his village. In Greenland, the sea freezes later now as a result of climate change. The lack of ice makes it harder for polar bears to find food so they are spending longer on land, leading to more encounters with humans
    Åge Hammeken Danielsen, a commercial hunter from Ittoqqortoormiit, drives his sled dogs

  • Johan Aaqqii hunts for seals in the semi-frozen ocean around Ittoqqortoormiit. Seals are the only main hunting species without quota restrictions
    Johan Aaqqii hunts for seals in the semi-frozen ocean around Ittoqqortoormiit

  • Kaare Winther Hansen and Torben Klose respond to a potential polar bear sighting near the weather station in Ittoqqortoormiit
    Kaare Winther Hansen and Torben Klose respond to a potential polar bear sighting in Ittoqqortoormiit

  • Bangladesh

    Eight-year-old Saraf, whose home was flooded by a tidal surge in Chittagong, Bangladesh, sits on a submerged car. In the coastal area of Chittagong tidal surges – water levels rising significantly above the predicted tide levels – are affecting the city as often as twice a day, resulting in frequent flooding of homes and businesses, forcing people to relocate. If things continue to worsen, most of the area could become completely submerged in the near future
    Eight-year-old Saraf sits on a submerged car in Chittagong, Bangladesh

  • Schoolchildren wade through flood water on a street in Chaktai, Chittagong. A World Bank study released on 19 June 2013 forecast a 2C rise in the world’s average temperature in the next decades. Considering the present warming trends, the report warns that even 20 to 30 years from now shifting rain patterns could leave some areas of Bangladesh underwater and some others without enough water for power generation, irrigation or even drinking
    Schoolchildren wade through flood water on a street in Chaktai, Chittagong, Bangladesh

  • A man celebrating Eid wades through a tidal flood in Chaktai, Chittagong. If the sea level rises 65cm in 2080, about 40% of arable land will be lost in southern Bangladesh. About 20 million people in the coastal areas are affected by salinity in drinking water and rising sea levels. Chittagong is often regarded as the commercial and industrial capital of Bangladesh, with an estimated population of more than 6.5 million. The effects of climate change have made their lives and livelihoods more vulnerable
    A man celebrating Eid wades through tidal flood in Chaktai, Chittagong, Bangladesh

  • Fiji

    Josateki Manatua stands in front of the coastline in Raviravi village. He predicts the seawater will reach where he is standing within the next few years. Manatua has been living in the village all his life and has witnessed the shoreline’s progression. In his lifetime the ocean has advanced more than 30 metres towards his village
    Josateki Manatua stands in front of the advancing coastline in Raviravi village, Fiji

  • Josateki sits in front of a house in Raviravi. The kitchen of the closest house to the sea is now regularly flooded during high tide. The community is deeply worried about their future. They have planted mangroves in the hope of slowing the water’s advance
    Josateki sits in front of a house in Raviravi, Fiji

  • Binesh Chand in his tractor. The farmers in the Korovatu area have traditionally farmed mostly sugar cane. The seawall, once built by the government to protect the farmland, is not sufficiently high any more. The increasing intrusion of saltwater has caused many crops to fail and some farmers are harvesting less than half of what they used to
    Binesh Chand in his tractor in the Korovatu area of Fiji

  • Alaska

    Gerda Kosbruck, the village administrator, photographed in one of the houses that was relocated from the original settlement of Meshik to Port Heiden. In Alaska, thawing permafrost and major coastal erosion has forced whole communities to relocate their homes further inland, severely affecting the community’s traditional subsistence lifestyle
    Alaska Gerda Kosbruck, the village administrator, photographed in a house that was relocated to Port Heiden in Alaska

  • Three generations: (from left) Lillionna Kosbruck with her grandmother Annie Christensen, and her mother, Gerda Kosbruck. They are standing in front of one of the houses that was relocated to Port Heiden
    Three generations: (from left) Lillionna Kosbruck, Annie Christensen and Gerda Kosbruck in Port Heiden, Alaska

  • Candace Shangin takes care of the chickens and turkeys at Port Heiden farm, a new project in the town to reduce dependence on imported food
    Candace Shangin takes care of the chickens and turkeys at Port Heiden farm

  • Wales

    Divers and volunteers from Project Seagrass gather seeds around the shore of Porthdinllaen, Wales. The first stage of the project aims to collect about 1m seeds. Sky Ocean Rescue, WWF and Swansea University have launched the biggest seagrass restoration project ever undertaken in the UK. Seagrass captures a huge amount of carbon and is an example of how nature-based solutions can help fight climate change
    Divers and volunteers from Project Seagrass gather seeds around the shore of Porthdinllaen, Wales

  • Snorkellers and volunteers of all ages and abilities can also get involved with the resoration project. Much of the seagrass lies in shallow water, allowing the seeds to be easily harvested
    Snorkellers and volunteers of all ages and abilities can also get involved

  • Seagrass is a vital marine habitat for a variety of species and an incredible carbon sink that helps to reverse climate change. However, it is greatly threatened, with 92% of the UK’s seagrass lost in the last century
    Seagrass is a vital marine habitat for a variety of species and an incredible carbon sink that helps to reverse climate change
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