Powerful images capture the fragility and resilience of our planet

These images from the Earth Photo 2025 competition shortlist tell revealing, inspiring and unexpected stories about the climate and life on our planet.

Pictured top, photographer Ami Vitale’s image Pandamonium shows a giant panda keeper checking the health of a panda cub in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province, China. The keeper’s outfit is part of an effort to reduce the impact of human contact on the bears. Next, below, is Sue Flood’s Crabeater Seals, shot on an ice floe in the Southern Ocean, off the Antarctic Peninsula. For Flood, such photos can bring the region’s wonder to those who may never visit.

Paradise to Ashes, La Palma by Jonathan Browning pictured below, shows the aftermath of the 2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption on this island in the Canaries, Spain. A woman has remade her garden, removing lava that destroyed mature palms and replacing them with new trees.

The final image below is Vincenzo Montefinese’s Lost Oases, shot in Tinzouline, Draa valley, Morocco. Here, a man adjusts a solar panel that powers a water pump that irrigates nearby palm groves. Climate change and water use have shrunk the valley’s oases by two-thirds over the past century. Today, farmers must dig more wells, often illegally, to access groundwater.

The photos and videos on the shortlist were chosen by a panel including New Scientist picture editor Tim Boddy and head of editorial video, David Stock. The winners will be revealed on 16 June. The Earth Photo 2025 exhibition is at London’s Royal Geographical Society from 17 June to 20 August before it tours the UK.