Cities swallowed by dust.

Human history drowned by the sea.

Economies devastated, lives ruined.

These 193 stories show the
reality of climate change. In every
country in the world.

Opinion

Postcards
From a World
on Fire

Scroll down to see how the
planet is changing. Tap the green
buttons to hear sounds,
watch videos, and learn more.

A Way Forward By The Editorial Board

intro

Afghanistan

Albania

Algeria

Andorra

Angola

Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina

Armenia

Australia

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belarus

Belgium

Belize

Benin

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Botswana

Brazil

Britain

Brunei

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cape Verde

Cambodia

Cameroon

Canada

Central African Republic

Chad

Chile

China

Colombia

Comoros

Costa Rica

Croatia

Cuba

Cyprus

Czech Republic

D.R. Congo

Denmark

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

East Timor

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Estonia

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Finland

France

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Germany

Ghana

Greece

Grenada

Guatemala

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Hungary

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Ivory Coast

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Kiribati

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia

Maldives

Mali

Malta

Marshall Islands

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mexico

Micronesia

Moldova

Monaco

Mongolia

Montenegro

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niger

Nigeria

North Korea

North Macedonia

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Palau

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Qatar

Republic of Congo

Romania

Russia

Rwanda

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Lucia

St. Vincent

Samoa

San Marino

São Tomé and Príncipe

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Singapore

Slovakia

Slovenia

Solomon Islands

Somalia

South Africa

South Korea

South Sudan

Spain

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Suriname

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Tajikistan

Tanzania

Thailand

Togo

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Tunisia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Tuvalu

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United States

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Credits:
Globe animation by Scott Gelber
Animations by Daniel Barreto
Illustrations by Dominic Kesterton

Albania: Gent Shkullaku/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images (photo); Angola: UnbelievableEv1, via Twitter (video); Argentina: Newsflare (video); Austria: Maigrit Susi Bowlen, via Storyful (video); Bahamas: Daan Verhoeven (photo), Claire Paris (audio); Bahrain: Mohammed Al-Shaikh/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images (photo); Belarus: Li Chao, via Storyful (video); Belize: Fragments of Hope Belize (video); Bhutan: Wasanajai/Adobe Stock (photo), Samten Dolkar (reporting); Botswana: Will Burrard-Lucas, via Storyful (video); Britain: Robert Harding Video, via Getty Images (video); Burkina Faso: Maximuslk, via Twitter (video); Burundi: Triffin Ntore/International Organization for Migration (photo); Cambodia: U.N.D.P. Cambodia (video); Cameroon: Patrick Meinhardt (photo), Suley Yusufu (audio); Canada: Damon Winter/The New York Times (photo); Cape Verde: Maria Medina (video); Central African Republic: Marco Longari/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images (photo); China: Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, Aly Song/Reuters (photos); Colombia: Joaquin Sarmiento/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photos); Comoros: Tommy Trenchard/The New York Times (photo); Costa Rica: Juan Carlos Vindas/Getty Images (photos), Voshadhi, via Getty Images (video); Cyprus: Iliana Magra (reporting); Czech Republic: Lucie Rossy Polaskova, via Storyful, Police of the Czech Republic, via Storyful (videos); D.R. Congo: Sky News/Film Image Partner, via Getty Images (video), Sven Loeffler, via iStockphoto (video); Denmark: Mario Tama/Getty Images (photo), Jacob Kirkegaard (audio); Djibouti: IdylMoussaIye, via Twitter (video); Dominica: Office of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, via Storyful (Video); East Timor: Spectee, via Reuters (video); Ecuador: BBC Creative/Getty Images (video); Egypt: Alistair Taylor-Young (photo); El Salvador: Anadolu Agency, via Reuters (video); Equatorial Guinea: Bioko Marine Turtle Program (video); Estonia: Gints Ivuskans/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo); Ethiopia: Mekonnen Teshome (reporting), Maheder Haileselassie/Reuters, Petterik Wiggers/Panos Pictures (photos); Fiji: Victor Bonito/Agence France-Presse, via Reef Explorer Fiji/Getty Images (photo), Susanna Piovano and Maurizio Cirrincione (audio); Gabon: Malcolm Starkey (photo), Elephant Listening Project (audio); Gambia: Daniel Rodrigues/The New York Times (photo); Germany: Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock (photo), Sandra Mueller (audio); Ghana: StringersHub, via The Associated Press (video); Greece: Iliana Magra (reporting); Haiti: Benjamin Hebblethwaite (translation); Honduras: Fire Department of Honduras, via Storyful (video); Hungary: Janos Illesi/Getty Images (photo); Indonesia: Maxime Aubert/Agence France-Presse, via Griffith University/Getty Images (photo); Iran: MahdiMotagh, via Twitter (video); Iraq: Moises Saman/Magnum Photos (photo); Ireland: RDFilms, via Getty Images (video); Israel: Said Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo); Italy: Lucia Magi (reporting); Ivory Coast: DrNoumory, via Twitter (video); Japan: NHK, via Getty Images, Kyodo News Video, via Getty Images (videos); Kenya: Aldo Pavan, via Getty Images (video); Kiribati: Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images (photo); Kyrgyzstan: Igor Kovalenko/EPA, via Shutterstock (photo); Laos: Newsflare, via Reuters (video); Lebanon: Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times (photo), Ali Shehadeh (audio); Lesotho: Sumaya Hisham/Reuters (photo); Liberia: Andreas Herzau/Laif/Redux (photo), Tecee Boley (reporting); Libya: Rafik Karkab, via Storyful (video); Luxembourg: Mike McQuaide (video); Madagascar: Martin Harvey, via Getty Images (photo); Malawi: Raphael Mweninguwe (reporting); Mali: Michele Cattani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, Annie Risemberg/Redux (photos); Malta: Jürgen Scicluna, via Facebook (video); Monaco: Jaguar Racing, via Getty Images (photo); Mongolia: Eugenia Maximova/Anzenberger (photo), Jennifer C. Post (audio); Montenegro: DoregamaViral, via Twitter (video); Mozambique: Reuters (video); Myanmar: Viral Press, via AP (video); Namibia: Martin Harvey/Getty Images (video); Nauru: John Freidah, MIT MechE, Bettmann/Getty Images, Craig Smith, Diva Amon (photos); Nepal: Imv, via Getty Images, AFPTV (video); Netherlands: Geertje Odink, via Storyful (video); Nicaragua: Patrick Tombola/laif/Redux (photo); Niger: Michele Cattani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo); Nigeria: Olumide Idowu (reporting); North Macedonia: Anadolu Agency, via Reuters (video); Norway: Ricardo Foto, via Voll Arkitekter (photo); Oman: Shehab Alshandoudi, via Storyful (video); Pakistan: Matthieu Paley (photo); Palau: Kinziro Kloulubak, Office of the Governor, Koror State (photo); Panama: Gianfranco Vivi, via Getty Images (video); Philippines: jennnierosity, via Storyful (video); Portugal: Ceri Breeze/Getty Images, Pedro Nunes/Reuters (photos); Qatar: Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan and Salman Saeed (audio), Nandini Lal (translation); Romania: Marc Roscoe Loustau (audio), Mark Leaver (photo); Russia: Reuters (photo); Rwanda: Art Wolfe/Mint Images, via Getty Images (photo), Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (audio); St. Lucia: Tak Wind/TripHash (photo); Samoa: Timon Peskin/Shutterstock (video); Saudi Arabia: Shabib Abdulrahman Alherbish, via Storyful (video); Senegal: Reuters (video); Sierra Leone: Tommy Trenchard/Panos Pictures (photo); Singapore: Wallace Woon/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (photo); Somalia: Associated Press (video); South Korea: Heidi Shin (audio); South Sudan: W.F.P., via Storyful (video); Spain: Salvideo, via Getty Images (video); Sudan: Associated Press (video); Suriname: Marcel Bakker/Shutterstock (photo); Switzerland: Filip Makowski/Getty Images (photo); Tajikistan: Michal Knitl/Shutterstock (photo); Tanzania: Blick_Oyinbo, via Twitter (video); Thailand: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP (photo); Togo: Luc Gnago/Reuters (photo); Trinidad and Tobago: Spectee, via Reuters (video); Turkey: Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency — Getty Images (photo); Tuvalu: Mario Tama/Getty Images (photo); Uganda: Protus Onyango (reporting); United Arab Emirates: National Center of Meteorology, United Arab Emirates (video); United States: Colleen Keene, via Storyful, St. Bernard Parish, via Storyful, Jason Tomlinson, via Storyful, Justin Sullivan, via Getty Images, Chad Ducote, via Storyful, Reuters, I_Said_Dat, via Storyful, Facebook/Louis Dee Velazquez, via Storyful, Eugene Water & Electric Board, via Storyful, HellenKeller Fale, via Storyful, shayna_apopofcolour, via Storyful, Instagram/Jeremy Pulido, via Storyful, Ryan John, via Storyful, Zachary Lane, via Storyful, Rafael Fire Information, via Storyful, Carrie Kulak, via Storyful, Fellsmere Police Department, via Storyful, Ari Soffer, via Storyful (videos); Uruguay: FPS Medias Inc., via Getty Images (videos); Uzbekistan: Hassan Kurbanbaev (photo); Venezuela: Jose Manuel Romero/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo); Vietnam: Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo); Yemen: Essa Ahmed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo); Zambia: Miyoba Buumba (audio); Zimbabwe: Locadia Mavhudzi (reporting), Aaron Ufumeli/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (photo). Specials thanks to Internews’s Earth Journalism Network.

intro1

Cities swallowed
by dust.

Human history
drowned by the sea.

Economies devastated,
lives ruined.

intro2

These 193 stories
show climate
change today.
From every nation
in the world.

Opinion

Postcards
From a World
on Fire

Scroll down to see how the
planet is changing. Tap the green
buttons to hear sounds,
watch videos, and learn more.

introtext

Politicians have argued. The summits have come and gone. But the truth is that climate change is already upon us. This is Times Opinion’s tour of how climate change has begun reshaping reality in the 193 member states of the United Nations, in ways big and small.

In this project, you will see extreme weather and disappearing species.

You’ll read about how climate change is affecting what we eat and how we spend our free time. You’ll hear the voices of people whose lives are being upended and from some who have found ways to adapt.

In many instances, climate change isn’t the only factor at work in, say, a megaflood or the destruction of a reef.

But researchers say climate change acts as a threat amplifier — taking what already would be and making it more extreme.

Some of these stories will horrify you. Some may inspire you. Some may even delight you. But what they should all make clear is that climate change is real and it’s now. The only question left is how we plan to limit the damage.

Swipe up to move to the next country Scroll to move to the next country

Turkey

Sea snot (more formally known as marine mucilage) is a slimy mess of organic matter that loves warming waters. Turkey collected 94,784 cubic feet of it from the Sea of Marmara in one week in June.

Pakistan

In June the temperature in Jacobabad was over 126 degrees Fahrenheit, with humidity. Being outdoors in that kind of heat can cause organ failure or even death within a few hours.

Italy

Mango
Bruschetta? Photographs by Leandro Colantoni/The New York Times

Maruzza Cupane and her siblings took over her family’s lemon grove in eastern Sicily in 2005; in 2015 they planted 700 mango trees.

“We realized that a lot had changed since our great-grandfather planted his beloved trees. The climate was becoming tropical, with higher temperatures and sudden, abundant showers.”

She says a kilo (2.2 pounds) of lemons sells for about $1.75 but a kilo of mangoes sells for about $9.

Other enterprising farmers are planting avocados, lychees and bananas.

“A lot of high-ranked restaurants in Sicily already offer fish with mango jam or pieces,” she said. “I don’t know if someone is already making mango bruschetta, but I feel like we are getting there.”

Zambia

Patricia Cihela Kalipa, 56,on the tradition of Kuomboka

Netherlands

	
                           Skating on the Netherlands’ many canals has long been a favorite winter activity. But in the past decade, Amsterdam’s canals have frozen only three times. When canals do freeze, as they did in February, skaters can find themselves on dangerously thin ice.

The Editorial Board

Press play for the editorial
board video.

You’ve just seen
how climate change
is transforming
life in five countries.
It’s not too late
to limit the damage.

Morocco

Two-thirds of Morocco’s oases have disappeared in the past century. Source: Sentinel-2.

Andorra

The average yearly temperature in Andorra increased by 5.2°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Senegal

Three months’ worth of rain fell on a single day in September 2020, filling parts of Dakar with algae-covered water.

France

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In January, France’s wine regulator approved six new grape varieties, which can adapt to warming temperatures, to be grown in ultratraditional Bordeaux.

Botswana

Southern Africa’s oldest baobab trees — some of them 2,500 years old — are suddenly dying. Researchers blame climate change. The years 2005 to 2017 saw the demise of nine of the continent’s 13 oldest.

India

Dia Mirza actress

United States

Each place in the United States faces its own unique climate threats. Find out more below.

Enter any county

Heat waves are the top climate change risk in New York County, according to an analysis of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Store shelves were cleared as people in the Pacific Northwest faced a deadly heat dome.

More people die from heat waves than from any other severe weather events in the United States. Some New Yorkers tried to keep cool during a brutal heat wave in the summer of 2019 by wading into the fountain at Washington Square Park.

Heat waves are the greatest threat

Climate change is causing heat waves to become more frequent, longer lasting and more intense than in the past. Source: FEMA.

Top risks in this county

Heat waves

River flooding

Coastal flooding

Note: Scores out of 100, where 100 is the highest risk seen nationwide.

Here is how FEMA evaluated climate change risks in New York County. Source: FEMA.

Bhutan

This Fungus
Is Disappearing

Traditional Chinese medicine prizes the fungus cordyceps, and since it has fetched up to $63,000 a pound, it has become a cash crop for people in northern Bhutan. But a warming climate means scarcer cordyceps, and the Bhutanese who once harvested it are returning to subsistence agriculture.

Tanzania

Several wildfires broke out on Mount Kilimanjaro in October 2020.

Vanuatu

In April 2020, Vanuatu was hit by Cyclone Harold. It was the South Pacific islands’ second Category 5 storm in five years. Source: Himawari 8.

Denmark

Ice loss in Greenland, a Danish territory, has accelerated by a factor of five over the past 30 years. Which means sounds like these — the whistling and creaking of melting ice and the deep booms of calving glaciers — are becoming far more common.

Kiribati

Thanks to this man, Ioane Teitiota, the U.N. ruled in 2020 that “climate refugees” exist: people who warrant asylum because climate change puts their lives in danger. Mr. Teitiota just doesn’t count as one. Kiribati, the U.N. said, is not dangerous enough — yet.

Kuwait

127.7°F

That was the temperature in Nuwaiseeb in July — one of the highest recorded on Earth in 2021.

Japan

The winter floes in the Sea of Okhotsk are crucial to the survival of one of Japan’s favorite sushi ingredients: salmon.

When the ice melts each summer, it pumps oxygen, salt, minerals and cooler water into the ocean, all vital to salmon populations. Source: "Estimation of Sea-Ice Thickness and Volume in the Sea of Okhotsk Based on ICESat Data" by Nihashi et al.

By 2015, ice concentration in the sea fell by more than half compared to the average between 1979 and 2010. Source: "Attributing Causes of 2015 Record Minimum Sea-Ice Extent in the Sea of Okhotsk."

Japan’s fish catch has fallen 70 percent since the 1980s, affecting the availability of fish, the price of sushi and the future of Japan’s fish markets.

Honduras

Back-to-back hurricanes — Eta and Iota, two of the most destructive on record — left at least 94 people dead in November 2020.

Mexico

Mexico City
Is Sinking Photographs by Bryan Denton/The New York Times

Across Mexico’s capital, buildings tilt and dip and bend.

The reason? Researchers estimate that parts of the city are sinking by as much as 20 inches per year.

The increasingly unstable ground is a result of the ancient aquifer below the city drying up through a combination of overpumping and climate change.

São Tomé and Príncipe

The average yearly temperature in São Tomé and Príncipe increased by 1.7°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Norway

Some architects are choosing wood to avoid concrete’s huge carbon footprint. At 18 stories, the Mjostarnet building in Brumunddal is one of the world’s tallest wooden skyscrapers.

Greece

Christos Zerefos, 77, on the threats to ancient Olympia

Barbados

Maria Marshall climate activist

Sweden

flygskam

Swedes have added two words to their vocabulary: “Flygskam,” or “flight shame,” reflects the feeling that can accompany flying and its carbon emissions. “Tagskryt,” or “train brag,” refers to the act of bragging, often on social media, about making the more climate-friendly travel choice.

Fiji

First, listen to a healthy coral reef sizzling and popping with life. Then hear a dying one. Corals that are bleached and battered by warmer and more acidic seas fall quiet.

Namibia

Namibia tried to auction off 170 elephants

Last winter, in a controversial move, Namibia attempted to sell 170 elephants. The government said the animals had to go because drought, combined with an increase in elephants, was resulting in more dangerous contact with humans. Conservationists dispute the government’s claims. Still, the country managed to sell only 57.

Guatemala

The Climate
Migrants Photographs by Meridith Kohut/The New York Times

A warming planet is expected to cause hundreds of millions of people to flee their homes over the coming decades. In Guatemala, the exodus has already begun.

A combination of long droughts, severe heat waves and strong hurricanes are devastating the country. Farms are failing. People are going hungry.

Migration can rarely be attributed to just one factor. But Guatemalan migrants and humanitarian experts alike say climate change is making areas of the country uninhabitable.

In the past five years, tens of thousands of Guatemalans made their way to the U.S. border annually, seeking a better life than they can find in their ever-hotter country.

D.R. Congo

These men are exiting a mine shaft with a 200-pound bag of ore containing cobalt, an elusive element that’s central to our clean energy future. Photo by Ashley Gilbertson/The New York Times

Cobalt is a key ingredient in electric car batteries. About 60 percent of global production comes from the D.R.C.

It’s mined in dangerous conditions, and about 40,000 miners are children.

Tesla plans to use cobalt-free batteries, but this could take years. Until then, there is a big price to pay for our green energy future. Photo by Ashley Gilbertson/The New York Times

Germany

This is the sound of spruce needles raining down on the forest floor. After droughts in 2018 and 2019, spruce trees died off across the country.

Mali

The people of Djenné have been crafting buildings out of the same mud since 250 B.C. The result is a spectacular old city rising out of the Niger Delta.

But warming temperatures mean the mud — and the fish bones that strengthen Djenné’s bricks — are becoming scarcer. The people of the city are now using cement to fill new cracks.

Samoa

	
                           A country’s maritime territory is usually determined in relation to coastlines. But in August, 18 Pacific countries, including Samoa, declared their intention to keep their maritime borders as they are, even if rising sea levels mean smaller islands.

Uganda

A Movable Feast
(of Insects) Photographs by Michele Sibiloni/"Nsenene"
(Edition Patrick Frey)

Bush crickets — “nsenene” in Luganda, a local language — are both a delicacy and a source of income in Uganda.

Swarms of bush crickets arrive twice a year, right after the rainy season, seeking food and mates. They stay for just a few nights.

Ugandans lure nsenene with lightbulbs and traps; people stay up all night capturing them in burlap sacks, plastic bottles or whatever is at hand.

In recent years, deforestation has reduced the number of the insects, and climate change has made the rainy season unpredictable.

This Ugandan tradition — and with it, a source of food and money — could be lost.

Argentina

What will become
of the hooded grebe?

Hooded grebes have one of nature’s most memorable courtship displays. If the Patagonian lakes where the birds breed continue to shrink, the 800 to 1,000 grebes that remain may soon be dancing their last tango.

Grenada

The average yearly temperature in Grenada increased by 1.7°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Saudi Arabia

An icy flash flood swept through an area of Ha’il Province on April 16.

Britain

	
                           Can cricket — a summer sport that is played outdoors — survive an era of increasingly stormy weather? A 2018 report found that rain has already reduced playing time: One club based in Cardiff, Wales, has lost the equivalent of 217 days of cricket since 2000.

Panama

Panama’s famous canal is a crucial route for global trade. It ran so low on water in 2019 that many ships could no longer traverse it fully loaded.

Haiti

BélO, 42, on writing climate change into his music

Sudan

Sandstorms have become more severe as a result of deforestation and drought. Residents of some villages in the country’s desert can wake up to so much sand that they have to dig their way out of their homes’ front doors.

Moldova

$1.2 billion

That’s at least how much flooding and drought have cost Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, over the past decade.

Australia

Inferno
Down Under Photographs by Matthew Abbott/The New York Times

In the 2019-20 fire season, some 72,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Syria, burned in wildfires.

The fires destroyed more than 3,000 homes, including Geoff Gardener’s. More than 30 people died.

Cuba

A house can’t flood if it never gets built. Cuba has banned construction of new homes in coastal areas threatened by flooding as part of its national climate change plan.

Brazil

Anitta singer

Nauru

The World’s Smallest Island Nation Wants to Mine the Ocean Floor Source: Maxar Technologies.

Nauru may be small, but it looms large in the conversation around deep-sea mining, which could provide metals needed for electric cars and solar panels. Sources: 3-D vehicle model from Glenn Amonitti, MIT MechE.

In June, Nauru asked the International Seabed Authority to finish regulations on the mining of polymetallic nodules, trillions of which lie on the ocean floor and contain the rare metals. Note: Values are approximations.

Hundreds of scientists have signed a petition to pause exploration of deep-sea mining until its effects on marine life are better understood.

Nauru is a testament to the perils of unregulated mining. Decades of phosphate extraction have left most of the island pitted and uninhabitable.

Liechtenstein

The average yearly temperature in Liechtenstein increased by 5.7°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Sierra Leone

In October, Freetown became the first city in Africa — and the third in the world — to appoint a chief heat officer. Eugenia Kargbo’s job is to prepare her city of one million people for a hotter future.

The Editorial Board

Press play for the editorial
board video.

Now you know how a
warming planet is changing
50 countries. So what
should we do about it?

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is suffering its second severe drought in four years, at a time when the economy is collapsing and millions of people are displaced. The U.N. warns that more than 22 million people are in danger of food insecurity. Source: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s cloud forests are a natural wonder and a habitat for threatened and endangered species.

But the constant cloud presence requires a careful balance of heat and moisture. Warming temperatures are driving down relative humidity.

Many highland birds — including the resplendent quetzal — are now at risk.

Trinidad and Tobago

An unusually large waterspout appeared off the coast of Port of Spain in December 2020.

United Arab Emirates

What’s the quickest way to get a good rainstorm in the deserts of the U.A.E.? Cloud seeding. The National Center of Meteorology and Seismology in Dubai says it conducts about two operations a week, with plans for more.

Ukraine

During a record year of wildfires in Ukraine’s Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, thousands of acres burned, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere. Source: Sentinel-2.

Montenegro

Firefighters battled a forest fire that blazed for 16 days in August.

Mauritania

The average yearly temperature in Mauritania increased by 2.2°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Ecuador

The population of the beloved Galápagos sea lion fell by 23.8 percent after 2015’s El Niño. Stronger and more frequent El Niños mean more danger for the sea lions.

Tajikistan

More than 1,000 glaciers have disappeared over the past 40 years.

Ireland

Ireland is famous for its damp days and green grass. Now it’s getting even wetter: Rainfall from 1989 to 2018 increased 6 percent from the previous three decades.

Malawi

Ned Kapira, 63, father of four

“I was born in Lupembe village 63 years ago. When I was growing up, fish was our main source of food and income. I could sell some of it at Karonga main market. The river is now completely dry. I have hung up my fishing gear. I now get solace in the making of wooden handles for hoes and axes, but I don’t make as much money as I used to when I was fishing.”

Jamaica

The average yearly temperature in Jamaica increased by 2.7°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Nigeria

A Glimpse of a
Flooded Future Photographs by Stephen Tayo/The New York Times

Lagos, Africa’s most populous city, is at extreme risk from flooding on a warming planet. One of its poorest areas already knows what life is like on the water.

Makoko is a settlement built partly on stilts on the Lagos Lagoon. Residents navigate their watery streets in canoes.

When the waters swell, the residents of Makoko feel the pressure: Flooding ruins homes, and children are kept out of school. Will more of Lagos look like Makoko as the seas rise?

Spain

As Spain faced severe desertification, the country’s almond farms were drying up. Some farmers turned to preindustrial methods, such as allowing grassy plants to grow and die between their trees and cutting back on tilling. The soil rejuvenated, and the almonds began thriving again.

Qatar

Abdus Sattar, 35, on leaving Bangladesh to work in the extreme heat in Qatar, conditions that have raised concerns about human rights for workers

China

The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project, is one of humanity’s great engineering feats. It was designed to tame the Yangtze River and generate power for a booming Chinese economy. But is it secure?

In August 2020, water in the megadam’s reservoir reached a depth of about 540 feet — approximately 30 feet short of the maximum it was designed to hold — as a result of huge rainstorms. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported “displacement, seepage and deformation” in the dam, though authorities said it was safe.

Some 400 million people live downstream of the Three Gorges Dam. Shanghai and other cities are in its potential floodplain. A disaster there would be enormous.

Increasingly erratic weather has created challenges for many of China’s more than 98,000 dams and raised worries about whether they will continue to be safe and effective in an era of climate change. Two dams in Inner Mongolia collapsed in July after heavy rains, creating floods that affected 16,660 people.

Croatia

The average yearly temperature in Croatia increased by 4.7°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Micronesia

Islands like Pohnpei, the country’s largest, rely on mangrove forests for protection against the dangers of storm surges, even more as oceans rise. But some three-quarters of mangrove forests on the leeward side of the island are at risk if seas rise by at least 2.2 feet by 2100. Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, Sentinel-2.

Indonesia

This pig is believed to be the world’s oldest painting of an animal. But after more than 45,000 years, the image, on a cave wall in Sulawesi, may finally disappear, as the effects of hotter temperatures and extreme weather cause it to flake off.

Venezuela

Who will notice when Venezuela’s last glacier disappears? The Humboldt Glacier could melt within 10 years — but scientists have struggled to keep tabs on it because of Venezuela’s political and economic chaos.

Singapore

Solving the
Air-Conditioning
Paradox

A hotter planet will need more air-conditioning. Unfortunately, generating the electricity to power it is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Singapore has more air-conditioning units per capita than anywhere else in Southeast Asia. But the tropical country has developed a way to cool buildings with chilled water, a process that uses 40 percent less energy.

Rwanda

This is the sound of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountains. As sub-Saharan Africa gets hotter, heat stress and changes in food availability could add to the many threats facing this endangered population.

Chad

161,000

That’s how many people were left homeless by flooding as of early October in the province of Tandjilé.

Antigua and Barbuda

Genesis Whitlock climate activist

Lesotho

Skiing is rare in southern Africa, but the slopes at Afriski Mountain Resort are still open... for now. The resort is promoting activities like rappelling and fly-fishing — activities that could keep the tourists coming even if the snow stops.

Belgium

The Meuse River overflowed its banks this summer, causing severe flooding. Scientists say extreme rainfall is up to nine times as likely now as a century ago. Source: Landsat-8.

New Zealand

Even the Dead Can’t Escape Climate Change

A 2019 landslide at a bay southeast of Auckland scattered human remains from a Maori burial site across a beach and into the ocean. Hundreds of Maori urupa, or burial sites, along rivers and coastlines are at risk from rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storms.

Bolivia

Lake Poopó used to be about the size of Luxembourg and an important spot for Bolivian fishermen. Today it hardly exists. Source: Sentinel-2.

Estonia

The gray seals of the Baltic Sea breed on ice. So what happened during the ice-free winter of 2019-20? Pups were born on overcrowded islands, and researchers estimated that as many as 50 percent may have died.

Mongolia

In this song, a herder named Oktyabr recalls the landscape of his youth and laments, “Yet it doesn’t turn green, and our resources are gone.” The verse ends with, “Oh, what will happen over time?”

Guinea-Bissau

The average yearly temperature in Guinea-Bissau increased by 2.1°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Bahamas

The sounds of snapping shrimp and growling fish usually echo through Dean’s Blue Hole, a marine cavern. But stronger winds and currents brought on by fiercer hurricanes create more noise, sand and sediment, drowning out the symphony of ocean life.

Mozambique

Tropical Cyclone Eloise flooded the port city of Beira in late January.

Russia

The Arctic is warming faster than any other part of the planet. Permanently frozen ground, or permafrost, which covers 65 percent of Russia, is thawing. Source: ESA Permafrost Climate Change Initiative.

As the permafrost melts, it releases greenhouse gases — previously trapped in the soil — into the atmosphere. Source: ESA Permafrost Climate Change Initiative.

The total CO2 and methane emissions from permafrost could reach almost 40 billion tons by the end of this century. Note: Based on R.C.P. 4.5 scenario. Source: “Climate Policy Implications of Nonlinear Decline of Arctic Land Permafrost and Other Cryosphere Elements” by D. Yumashev et al.

There are more immediate consequences, too. Thawing ground is unstable, and if the rate of warming continues, Russia could face $97 billion in infrastructure damage by midcentury.

Bahrain

There are still a few hundred Bahraini farmers making an unlikely living in this arid country better known for its oil wealth. But rising sea levels and disappearing groundwater may put an end to Bahraini farming for good.

Tuvalu

Food has always been scarce on the islands of Tuvalu, but rising sea levels are making subsistence farming more difficult than ever. Meanwhile, an acidifying ocean is killing off the corals that feed the fish that feed Tuvaluans. The staples of the local diet are now imports like sugar, rice, biscuits and flour.

Austria

After heavy rains, rivers in northern Austria broke their banks on July 17.

Dominican Republic

The average yearly temperature in the Dominican Republic increased by 2°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Canada

Warming Arctic temperatures endanger many of Canada’s animals and will lead to rising sea levels. But for one mostly Indigenous community, it also offers the chance of a better future.

The port in Churchill, Manitoba, is inaccessible much of the year because of frozen waters, as the blue patches on this map show. Source: Adapted from “Climate Change and Sea Ice” (2018) by Jonathan Andrews, David Babb and David G. Barber.

Over time, as this animation shows, warming waters and shrinking ice create more open-water days, offering new opportunities. Source: Adapted from “Climate Change and Sea Ice” (2018) by Jonathan Andrews, David Babb and David G. Barber.

That is the climate trade-off facing many countries: Harmful consequences for some give way to economic opportunities for others.

Serbia

$6 billion

That’s how much extreme weather has cost Serbia’s economy since 2000. That number could tick up to $11 billion by 2030.

Armenia

Amid record high temperatures and a drought this summer, Armenian lawmakers proposed lifting a cap on the amount of Lake Sevan’s water that can be used for irrigation. Source: Climate Engine.

Belize

By planting fragments of living coral among reefs ravaged by warming waters and ocean acidification, Belize has engaged in one of the world’s most successful coral restoration projects.

Algeria

In August, at least 90 people died in wildfires outside Algiers. Villagers used buckets and branches to try to put out the flames. Sources: NASA, NOAA.

Colombia

Turning
Down the Heat

Medellín was getting hotter. Green corridors are cooling it. In 2019 and 2020, nearly 900,000 trees and more than 60 acres of gardens were planted, creating green corridors that helped bring down average summer air temperatures in those areas as much as eight degrees Fahrenheit.

Switzerland

The Swiss Alps are crumbling. Warming temperatures are melting the ice that holds the mountains together. The frequency of rockfalls and landslides has increased — and it looks set to continue.

Mauritius

The average yearly temperature in Mauritius increased by 1.6°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

South Korea

Kyoung Ja-hong, 71, on how free diving as a haenyeo has changed

Kyrgyzstan

Growing stress over water is leading to deadly clashes between Kyrgyzstan and one of its neighbors.

Source: TerraMetrics.

	
                                 Dozens of people were killed this year in conflicts along the disputed border with Tajikistan, after fears of water theft prompted a dispute over installing security cameras.
                               
                                     Source: TerraMetrics.

While the Aral Sea Basin historically offered Kyrgyzstan ample water for its needs, the glaciers that feed two rivers, Syr Darya and Amu Darya, are shrinking at an unprecedented rate.

Sources: CA Water Info, TerraMetrics.

Most of these glaciers may disappear by the end of the century, according to some estimates, driving water shortages — and political tension — across the region.

Somalia

Tropical Cyclone Gati, the strongest storm on record to hit the nation, caused widespread flooding in northern Somalia in November 2020.

Cambodia

	
                           In an age of increasingly erratic weather, good data can mean the difference between life and death. That’s why Cambodia is installing dozens of automatic weather stations in disaster-prone areas.

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Iran

Flooding came in through a canyon in Kaleybar, taking down trees, on Aug. 8.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is world famous for its coffee, and Ethiopians have been brewing the stuff for centuries.

But warming temperatures may move coffee farming higher and higher into the mountains. So some farmers are switching to another stimulant: khat.

Monaco

Formula
Green

If the future of the auto industry is electric cars, the future of electric cars may have raced on the streets of Monaco this year in the fourth E-Prix. As the tech powering the electric cars that compete in Formula E races improves, innovations in software, braking technology and energy management are making their way to road cars.

Cyprus

Charalampos Christoforou, 38, an organic olive oil farmer outside Larnaca

“The last major rainfalls in our region were in January. This gets worse every year. Production has decreased significantly. It didn’t rain much last year, so this year our trees were weak. They couldn’t hold their fruits.”

Charalampos Christoforou, 38, an organic olive oil farmer outside Larnaca

“These trees have been here since the 1980s. When my father had them, he would produce about double the olive oil I do now in a good year. An olive tree needs water, humidity in order to turn the flower to fruit.”

Kenya

One camel-ccino,
please

As their country endures years of droughts, some Kenyans are turning to a more climate-friendly option for their lattes: camel milk. Camels require less water than cows and do better in extreme heat. As a bonus, they cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions, too.

Suriname

Most countries are struggling to become carbon neutral. Suriname, 93 percent of which is covered by forest, is one of three carbon negative countries in the world.

Solomon Islands

Sogomou, a small reef island, has lost more than half of its land since 1947 as seas rise and eat away at its shoreline. Sources: Simon Albert, University of Queensland.

Slovenia

Maja Morgan, 30, on hiking Mount Triglav

Uruguay

Can the world learn from Uruguay? Over the past 15 years or so, the country has made a drastic shift toward clean energy. More than 97 percent of its electricity now comes from renewable sources.

Latvia

The average yearly temperature in Latvia increased by 4.7°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Paraguay

The Paraguay River fell
to its lowest level in at least 117 years in 2021. Source: Sentinel-2.

Libya

A waterspout appeared off the coast of Zuwara in November 2020.

Thailand

Bangkok, a city of more than 10 million people, might lose most of its metro area to sea level rise by the end of the century. Note: S.L.R. based on I.P.C.C. projection for R.C.P. 4.5 scenario. Source: Ronald Vernimmen of Data for Sustainability and Aljosja Hooijer of Deltares (elevation data).

This means critical infrastructure — and cultural sites like the Grand Palace and many Buddhist temples — might be swallowed by the sea.

The Bangkok area is already under pressure from rising seas and more intense storms. In the fall, nearly 300,000 households across Thailand were damaged by heavy rains.

Poland

Five Polish citizens are suing their government — the only one in the E.U. that refused to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 after the Paris Climate Conference — for its inaction on climate change, arguing that Warsaw’s policies threaten their rights.

Tunisia

Rima Rahmani climate activist

Portugal

Portugal has the third-highest seafood consumption per capita in the world, and the country especially loves its sardines.

As the seas off the Iberian Peninsula warm, schools are heading north, and Portuguese fishers are being forced to limit their catch to let the stocks replenish.

Egypt

For millenniums, Egypt’s low humidity and dry weather have kept its pharaonic temples and tombs in good condition. But experts fear erratic weather and rising seas are chipping away at the ancient granite and mud bricks.

Marshall Islands

Much of Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, is vulnerable to sea-level rise and floods. Source: Atlas of the Invisible (James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti).

Luxembourg

Luxembourg City flooded after heavy rains in mid-July.

Papua New Guinea

Kim Allen, 27, on the seas washing away his memories

Cape Verde

Cape Verde is home to one of the largest nesting populations of loggerhead turtles in the world — and almost all the recent hatchlings are female. A 2019 study found that because of warmer sand during the incubation period, females made up an estimated 84 percent of hatchlings.

St. Vincent

The average yearly temperature in St. Vincent increased by 1.6°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Bangladesh

Thirteen million Bangladeshis could be displaced by 2050 primarily because of rising seas and erosion. The annual flood level could reach far beyond Dhaka by 2150. Source: Climate Central.

Cameroon

This is the cry of hungry, thirsty cows. In the northwestern region of Cameroon, a longer dry season is taking a toll on the local cattle — and on the communities that depend on them.

Liberia

African American History, Lost to Sea

The city of Buchanan was founded in 1835 by African Americans recently freed from slavery. (It’s named after President James Buchanan’s cousin.) Atlantic Street, running along the coast, is one of its main thoroughfares. But since the 2000s, the street has been increasingly impassable because of flooding, and the adjoining beaches are being washed away.

Kazakhstan

Stopping fossil fuels may be a key to stopping climate change, but in Kazakhstan, climate change may be stopping fossil fuels. As the Caspian Sea dries up, it could threaten offshore drilling. The company that manages the Kashagan oil field has said that low sea levels pose “a threat to the safe operation of offshore production facilities.”

Philippines

The three strongest tropical cyclones to make landfall in world history hit the Philippines, all within the past decade.

Chile

Chile has been in a drought for the past 10 years. Fields are parched and thousands of livestock animals have died. Note: Using the Enhanced Vegetation Index for July through September. Sources: NASA, U.S. Geological Survey.

Lebanon

In the Bekaa Valley, a gene bank houses tens of thousands of seeds. You can hear these legumes and cereals — painstakingly collected and conserved for their resistance to harsher and drier conditions — being counted, processed and preserved.

Burundi

More than 10,000 homes in the village of Gatumba were swept away overnight in the spring of 2020 after heavy rains caused their clay structures to fall apart.

Zimbabwe

Cattle are still a status symbol in Zimbabwe — but not a very hardy one. More than 4,500 died in Matabeleland South Province in 2019 because of drought. Farmers have switched to raising less prestigious — but more drought-resistant — goats.

Finland

Finns love cross-country skiing. But there wasn’t a single day during the winter of 2019-20 that the area around Helsinki saw enough natural snow for skiing.

Nepal

In July 2019, Nepal was pummeled by torrential monsoon rains, triggering floods and landslides that killed at least 117 people. Then came another deadly threat.

Rising temperatures gave mosquitoes a foothold in areas that were, until recently, too cool for the insects.

With the mosquitoes came dengue fever. First detected in Nepal only in 2004, there were limited outbreaks of dengue fever from 2016 to 2018. Source: “Epidemiology of Dengue Virus Infections in Nepal, 2006-2019” by K.R. Rijal et al.

Mosquitoes thrived under the particularly warm, wet conditions after the monsoon in 2019. Cases exploded that year, even at higher altitudes. Source: “Epidemiology of Dengue Virus Infections in Nepal, 2006-2019” by K.R. Rijal et al.

Azerbaijan

The average yearly temperature in Azerbaijan increased by 1.2°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Malta

Smoke from a grass fire billowed over the beach on Ramla Bay in June.

South Sudan

More than 600,000 people were affected by flooding along the White Nile River from July to September 2020.

Albania

While the blue crab is native to the Atlantic coast of the Americas, warming waters have helped it spread far beyond. It is now an invasive species in the Balkans, where fishermen say the crabs clog up nets and disrupt the ecosystem.

Gabon

That deep, throaty rumble is the sound of elephants bellowing. But droughts are depleting their food supply in Lopé National Park, leaving the animals weakened.

Bulgaria

In the summer of 2017, fires swept through the Kresna Gorge in southwestern Bulgaria, destroying nearly 4,000 acres of forest. It’s expected to take 50 years to recover.

Sources: Sentinel-2, Geopolymorphic Cloud.

Dominica

A Hurricane-Proof Country

Hurricane Maria destroyed more than 90 percent of Dominica’s structures in 2017. Next time, the island will be better prepared. The government is working to make Dominica the world’s first “hurricane-proof” country. That doesn’t just mean buildings that can withstand intense winds; the country is diversifying its economy so that it can weather storms, too.

Seychelles

The Seychelles’ economy has been suffering under crushing foreign debt — but climate change may actually help. A few years ago, a group of conservationist investors (including a foundation set up by Leonardo DiCaprio) paid off about $21 million of the country’s debt in exchange for guarantees to protect 81,000 square miles of its endangered ocean.

North Macedonia

North Macedonia was hit by a severe heat wave that caused several wildfires across the country in August.

Niger

Stopping the
Sahara’s Spread

The Sahel, a semiarid region that stretches across Africa south of the Sahara, is threatened by desertification. The Great Green Wall is working to stop it. This multinational project is helping farmers in Niger to plant trees, manage water and make their agricultural practices more sustainable. Some 900,000 acres have been restored.

Republic of Congo

The Congo River, which runs along the country's eastern border, is a vital resource for the region. But more extreme rainfall means the river is also a hazard, with larger and more persistent floods.

Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

San Marino

San Marino depends on Italy for more than 90 percent of its water. For now, that’s not much of a problem for the third-smallest country in Europe. But when Italy faces a drought, will San Marino’s taps run dry? Sources: Microsoft, Earthstar Geographics.

Maldives

Can This Country
Keep Out the Sea? Photographs by Thomas Prior

With most of the Maldives less than 3.5 feet above sea level, the country is fighting to keep from being swallowed by the ocean.

A man and a woman try to navigate the streets of Kulhudhuffushi, which flood regularly, forcing road closures.

At a luxury resort on a private island, sandbags are placed below the tree line to slow further erosion.

Men wait out the rain inside the fish market in Malé, the capital. The streets near the market often become waterlogged during downpours.

To prepare for our warmer future, the government is building Hulhumalé, dubbed the City of Hope. This artificial island is about twice the height of Malé.

Jordan

Maher Mouasher, 54,on his family fig farm

Tonga

The average yearly temperature in Tonga increased by 1.6°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

El Salvador

Tropical Storm Amanda damaged thousands of homes and killed at least 27 people in May 2020.

Yemen

Is This Goodbye to Yemen’s Famous Honey?

Unseasonable rains are wreaking havoc on the sidr trees that bees need to produce Yemen’s famous honey and that sustain 100,000 beekeeping households. Trees are blooming too early, and downpours are pushing sidr flowers off the branches before bees can get to their nectar.

Guyana

Much of Guyana’s farmland is concentrated in low-lying coastal plains at or below sea level. This makes harvests of sugar cane and rice highly susceptible to sea-level rise and flooding. Sources: Climate Central, Sentinel-2.

Eritrea

In February 2020, swarms of locusts descended on eastern Africa. The infestation was so severe that Eritrea mobilized its military to fight the insects. Scientists say climate change has created exceptionally good breeding conditions for locusts.

Slovakia

Slovakia faced months of extreme drought across the country in 2020, including its mountainous regions to the north, threatening the country’s agricultural sector. Note: Soil saturation deviation of average from 1961 to 2010. Source: InterSucho.

St. Lucia

St. Lucia has been at war with the toxic sargassum seaweed for a decade. When it washes up on beaches, it stinks like rotten eggs. Unfortunately, it thrives in warming waters, and blooms have been steadily growing larger.

Oman

Thunderstorms brought rare hail and rain to Oman’s north on July 6.

South Africa

In 2018, after a three-year drought, Cape Town narrowly managed to avert Day Zero, when it was projected to run out of water, through strict rationing and timely rainfall. A dodged bullet — or a preview of the future?

Israel

The eastern Mediterranean is warming faster than most places on the planet. Scientists believe the hotter sea has killed off around 90 percent of the mollusks on Israel’s coast.

Czech Republic

A tornado swept through the South Moravia region in June.

Benin

Nearly three in four people in Benin depend on employment in the agricultural sector, making the country particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures and water stress. Note: For May-Sept. Source: Climate Engine.

Myanmar

A bridge collapsed during flash flooding after Tropical Storm Sinlaku in August 2020.

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Kitts and Nevis is staring down a thirsty future. Already, rainfall isn’t replenishing the island’s aquifers. The country is building water cisterns and installing water storage tanks across the islands. Will that be enough when droughts get worse?

Central African Republic

When Less Water
Means More Violence

Since 2010, there have been over 15,000 deaths from fighting between farmers and herders in West and Central Africa, linked to conflict over precious fertile land. Half of those deaths have occurred since 2018, including 14 deaths in northeastern C.A.R. in June.

Georgia

The average yearly temperature in Georgia increased by 1.8°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Ivory Coast

Abidjan flooded in June 2020 after several feet of rain fell within a few hours.

Gambia

Rivers usually pour fresh water into the ocean. But the river that gives Gambia its name is so inundated by rising sea levels that salt water is being pushed upstream.

Romania

The sounds of farmers harvesting potatoes with horse-drawn plows have been heard across Transylvania for generations. But heavy, intense rainfall has caused rivers to overflow, destroying thousands of acres of potato fields.

North Korea

North Korea suffered a punishing famine in the 1990s. There are fears that the next one is on the horizon. While the country’s economy is shrouded in secrecy, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, warned in June of a “tense” food situation and laid part of the blame on recent flooding.

Belarus

An intense storm passed near the city of Polatsk on Aug. 2.

Nicaragua

Rising temperatures are making lower-altitude areas in Nicaragua less suitable for growing coffee. What thrives in warm, wet weather? Cocoa, which is now a growth industry for the country.

Lithuania

Marius Karlonas, 32, on all the mixed-up birds

Iraq

In Anbar and Nineveh Provinces, years of droughts became an ally for the Islamic State. The terrorist group lured desperate farmers into its ranks with promises of food and water at a time when people were struggling to feed their families.

Sri Lanka

$92 million

That’s how much Sri Lanka’s government — with support from the World Bank — plans to spend to improve early warning systems for extreme weather. The country has been hit by floods and landslides that have killed at least 17 people this year alone.

Djibouti

Two years’ worth of rain fell in a single day in November 2019.

Ghana

After temperatures rise past about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, most workers lose half their productive capacity. In a warming world, West Africa will see labor productivity decline. Source: “Effects of Climate Change on Combined Labor Productivity and Supply: An Empirical, Multimodel Study” by S. Dasgupta et al.

Productivity in Ghana could drop 41 percent if the planet warms 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Source: “Effects of Climate Change on Combined Labor Productivity and Supply: An Empirical, Multimodel Study” by S. Dasgupta et al.

The International Labor Organization estimates that an increase in heat exposure will cost Ghana up to a 6 percent loss in G.D.P. by the end of this decade.

Togo

Rising seas are creating ghost towns. After the ocean began to eat away at the village of Doevikope, three-quarters of its population has left.

Hungary

After a heat wave in June, the temperature of Lake Velence increased 18 degrees Fahrenheit, and the water dropped to dangerously low levels. An activist said that volunteers removed more than four tons of dead fish from the water.

Angola

Severe flooding after heavy rains in Luanda left at least 24 people dead and more than 2,000 homes flooded in April.

Peru

Can potatoes be climate-change-proofed? The Lima-based International Potato Center is working to create potato varieties that can thrive on a hotter planet. Promising new spuds include the heat-tolerant Kufri Lima and the drought-resistant Unica.

Brunei

The average yearly temperature in Brunei increased by 1.3°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Uzbekistan

The dust storm that engulfed Tashkent in early November was the worst to hit the country in 150 years of recordkeeping. Scientists say desertification is making Uzbekistan’s storms increasingly severe.

Vietnam

In October and November last year, seven tropical storms ravaged central Vietnam, killing at least 192 people and displacing some 325,000 others.

Burkina Faso

A massive dust storm blew through Ouagadougou in June 2020.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia’s civil war left tens of thousands of land mines strewn across the country. Climate change is making them even more dangerous: During huge floods in 2014, many were washed to new, unknown locations. The worst part? More flooding is expected in the country’s future.

Palau

Palau is officially outside the Pacific typhoon belt. That may not mean much anymore: Three typhoons have hit the country since 2012. In April, Typhoon Surigae damaged 20 percent of the country’s homes and destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of crops.

Eswatini

Eswatini has the highest prevalence of H.I.V./AIDS in the world. Public health experts say that climate change will only make the problem worse: Food insecurity weakens immune systems, and drought-induced migration causes the virus to spread. The country has made progress in fighting the disease in recent years, but warmer temperatures could be a setback.

Madagascar

Scientists estimate that climate change could reduce the suitable habitat for Madagascar’s critically endangered ruffed lemurs by 38 to 83 percent by 2070.

Syria

After a decade of war, Syria is facing its worst drought in 70 years. Millions of people — many of them already displaced — could run out of drinking water and lose access to electricity as rivers and dams dry up.

East Timor

Cyclone Seroja caused flooding and landslides in early April, displacing thousands of people and killing at least 40.

Guinea

The forests of Guinea may contain good news for coffee lovers who rightly worry that climate change will doom their favorite drink. Researchers recently found a narrow-leaf coffee that grows in the wild in Guinea and two other West African countries and hadn’t been spotted since the 1950s: Coffea stenophylla thrives at warmer temperatures than more popular beans — and tastes similar to arabica.

Laos

Flash flooding destroyed farmland in the province of Luang Namtha on July 21.

Iceland

Okjokull has thinned so much that scientists no longer consider it a glacier. Sources: NASA, U.S. Geological Survey.

Turkmenistan

The average yearly temperature in Turkmenistan increased by 0.9°F between 1901 and 2020. Note: Mean yearly temperatures, five-year average. Source: World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Malaysia

The moths on Mount Kinabalu on the island of Borneo are shrinking. Scientists have found that as the moths move up the mountain to escape rising temperatures, their bodies are getting smaller.

Comoros

At least half of Comoros’s once-permanent rivers now disappear during the dry season because of climate change and deforestation.

Equatorial Guinea

A nesting habitat for leatherback and green sea turtles is under threat from rising seas on Bioko Island, off the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Some 62 percent could be lost by 2065. Source: Baiko Marine Turtle Program

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