Climate change images are getting scarier – could fear help drive action

LUND (SWEDEN): (Sep 7) Over the summer, Europe provided a stark new set of images of climate change. Wildfires raced across forests and grasslands, rivers and reservoirs dried up in droughts and extreme heat disrupted everyday life.

Instead of the familiar photographs of people enjoying days at the beach, coverage of heatwaves increasingly comes with images of their consequences.

Moreover, issues such as drought and the knock-on challenges for water conservation and food security are not reserved for distant countries, but now the impacts are unmistakably at home on our own doorstep. Tragically, this has also resulted in the loss of life and property.