Icebergs and an Adelie penguin, Adelie Land, Antarctica.
Antarctica, the sixth continent, is a unique observation point for
atmospheric and climatic phenomena; its ancient ice, which trapped air
when it was formed, contains evidence of the Earth's climate as it has
changed and developed over the past millions of years.




American
cemetery north of Verdun, Meuse, France. Covering some 40 hectares (100
acres) at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from
Verdun, the American cemetery was dedicated in 1935 by the American Battle
Monuments Commission.
The commission was created in 1923 at the request of General Pershing,
who had taken part in the American offensive of 1918. Its aim was to
undertake architectural and landscape studies in order to restructure
American cemeteries and commemorative monuments in Europe.
Whereas the French army chose to build permanent cemeteries where
temporary cemeteries had been made during the hostilities, the American
army opted to create a single cemetery. Some 25,000 American tombs
scattered around Verdun were then brought together at Romagne where,
after almost half the bodies were repatriated to American soil, 14,246
soldiers have lain ever since.


Road interrupted by a sand dune, Nile Valley, Egypt.
Dunes cover nearly one-third of the Sahara, and the highest, in linear
form, can attain a height of almost 1,000 feet (300 m). Barchans are
mobile, crescent-shaped dunes that move in the direction of the
prevailing wind at rates as high as 33 feet (10 m) per year, sometimes
even covering infrastructures such as this road in the Nile Valley




Tea cultivation in Corrientes province, Argentina. The fertility of the red soil
and the regular rains of the Corrientes region create the ideal
conditions for the cultivation of tea. In an effort to protect the soil
against erosion, tea is planted along curved terraces and protected
from the wind by hedges. Unlike Asian and African countries, where the
young sprouts are handpicked, in Argentina mechanical harvesting is the
rule, done mainly with high-clearance tractors that are driven along
the straight rows of tea bushes.

Iraqi tank graveyard in the desert near Al Jahrah, Kuwait.
This graveyard of tanks will bear witness for many years to the damage
that war causes both to the environment and to human health. In 1991,
during the first Gulf War, a million depleted uranium shells were fired
at Iraqi forces, spreading toxic, radioactive dust for miles around.
Such dust is known to have lasting effects on the environment and to
cause various forms of cancer and other serious illnesses among humans.




The
Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada. These oil deposits make up the
largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world, and as recently as
2006, produced over 1 million barrels of crude oil per day.

Elephants in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The Okavango Delta
is the world's largest inland delta, flooding seasonally, and is
populated by five ethnic groups of people, sharing it with hundreds of
species of animals.



Tree of life", Tsavo national park, Kenya.
This acacia is a symbol of life in the vast expanses of thorny savanna,
where wild animals come to take advantage of its leaves or its shade.
Tsavo National Park
in southeastern Kenya, crossed by the Nairobi-Mombasa road and railway
axis, is the country's largest protected area (8,200 square miles, or
21,000 square kilometers) and was declared a national park in 1948

Flock
of sheep, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. After the missionary period,
between gold fever and the first drillings for oil, sheep-raising
became the chief activity in the north of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra
del Fuego. The local cabanas (sheep pastures) are huge sheep farms with 3.5
acres of land per head of livestock.
Sand dune in the heart of vegetation on Fraser island, Queensland, Australia.
Fraser Island, named after Eliza Fraser,
who was shipwrecked on the island in 1836, is the world's largest sand
island. On top of this rather infertile substratum, a humid tropical
forest has developed in the midst of which wide dunes intrude, moving
with the wind. Fraser Island has important water resources, including
nearly 200 freshwater dune lakes, and has varied fauna such as
marsupials, birds, and reptiles. Welcoming 200,000 visitors a year
without damaging the local fauna and flora is a real challenge to
sustainable development on the island, which was declared a World Heritage site
by Unesco in 1992.
Worker resting on bales of cotton, Thonakaha, Korhogo, Ivory Coast. Cotton crops
occupy approximately 335,000 square klilometers worldwide, and use nearly one
quarter of all pesticides sold





Icebreaker Louis Saint Laurent in Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territory, Canada.









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