Touching WWF posters

People are changing the world. Very often these changes have negative impacts on nature and animals.
The biggest problem of our modern life is global warming and pollution that can completely change our planet.
WWF posters show the scale of the problem.

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Looking back and ahead, America remembers 9/11

NEW YORK (AP) -- Determined never to forget but perhaps ready to move on, the nation gently handed Sept. 11 over to history Sunday and etched its memory on a new generation. A stark memorial took its place where twin towers once stood, and the names of the lost resounded from children too young to remember terror from a decade ago.
In New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, across the United States and the world, people carried out rituals now as familiar as they are heartbreaking: American flags unfurled at the new World Trade Center tower and the Eiffel Tower, and tears shed at the base of the Pentagon and a base in Iraq.
President Barack Obama quoted the Bible and spoke of finding strength in fear. George W. Bush, still new to the presidency that day, invoked the national sacrifice of the Civil War. Vice President Joe Biden said hope must grow from tragedy. (50 images)

People pause by the waterfall pool at the National September 11 Memorial before a planned ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks at the World Trade Center site, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, in New York. Matt Rourke / AP

Japan marks 6 months since earthquake, tsunami

TOKYO (AP) -- Last Sunday was the six-month anniversary of the day the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's northeast coast.
Some 20,000 people are dead or missing. More than 800,000 homes were completely or partially destroyed. The disaster crippled businesses, roads and infrastructure. The Japanese Red Cross Society estimates that 400,000 people were displaced.
Half a year later, there are physical signs of progress.
Much of the debris has been cleared away or at least organized into big piles. In the port city of Kesennuma, many of the boats carried inland by the tsunami have been removed. Most evacuees have moved out of high school gyms and into temporary shelters or apartments.
Last week the Kyodo News agency distributed an amazing group of combination photographs showing three scenes. The first scene is right after the earthquake and tsunami hit, then three months later and finally, how the scene looks now. (44 images)

This combination of three photos taken over a six-month period shows aftermath of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and its cleanup progress in Wakabayashi-ward in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, in northeastern Japan. The left photo, taken March 16, 2011, shows debris of houses and vehicles cover the area after the tsunami. The middle photo, taken June 2, 2011, shows some debris and cars were removed, while the right photo taken Sept. 3, 2011 shows student volunteers getting rid of smaller rubble in a cleared field. AP / Kyodo News

9/11: The Day of the Attacks

Ten years ago, 19 men trained by al-Qaeda carried out a coordinated terrorist attack on the United States that had been planned for years. The attackers simultaneously hijacked four large passenger aircraft with the intention of crashing them into major landmarks in the United States, inflicting as much death and destruction as possible. Three of the planes struck their targets; the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. In a single day, these deliberate acts of mass murder killed nearly 3,000 human beings from 57 countries. More than 400 of the dead were first responders, including New York City firefighters, police officers, and EMTs. It was one of the most-covered media events of all time, and after a decade, the images are still difficult to view. These attacks and the global reaction to them have profoundly shaped the world we live in, so it remains important to see the images and remember just what happened on that dark day. This entry is part two of a three-part series on the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks -- (see also Part 1: The Week Before and Part 3: The Decade Since). [50 photos]

The Statue of Liberty, seen from a vantage point in Jersey City, New Jersey, as the lower Manhattan skyline is shrouded in smoke following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Photo taken on September 15, 2001. (AP Photo/Dan Loh)  

Hurricane Irene

Over the past week, Hurricane Irene grew from a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean to a category 3 hurricane as it blew north along the East Coast of the United States. High winds and tremendous rainfall downed trees and battered shorelines, leaving millions without power and causing some 26 deaths across nine states. Though Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made landfall in New York, the heavy downpours have caused flooding problems across many states that are still unfolding. Collected below are some images from the brief, eventful life of Hurricane Irene. [40 photos]

Betty Walsh, a local resident, crosses a flooded street in Red Hook, on August 28, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, after Tropical Storm Irene had passed by. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)  

Photographer INTOtheRFD

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Is weather becoming more extreme?

Extreme weather events have always been with us, and always will be. One can't point to a single severe storm, or even an entire harsh winter, as evidence of climate change. But a trend of weather intensity, and oddity, grows. Droughts linger longer. Hurricanes hit harder. Snowstorms strike long after winter should have ended. World record hailstones fall. China endures a crippling drought, and then punishing floods. Millions are displaced in a flood of historic proportion in Pakistan. The U.S. sees the Mississippi River reach historic flood crests, and then sees the largest wildfire in Arizona history. None of these events on their own mean anything. Collectively, do they mean we're seeing the earth's climate change before our eyes? -- Lane Turner (47 photos total)

A huge swath of the United States is affected by a winter storm that brought layers of dangerous ice and blowing snow, closing roads and airports from Texas to Rhode Island in this February 1 satellite image. The storm's more than 2,000-mile reach threatened to leave about a third of the nation covered in harsh weather. Ice fell first and was expected to be followed by up to two feet of snow in some places. (NOAA/AP) 

Floods Follow Drought in China

Huge parts of China have been affected by some of the worst drought conditions in decades. Fishermen, farmers, and wildlife have been enduring hardships for months now. In an effort to alleviate the crisis, China's Three Gorges Dam has been discharging water to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. However, since early June, a series of torrential rainstorms has been pounding southern China, overwhelming parched farmlands and triggering some of the worst flooding since 1955. So far, 175 have been reported dead and 86 missing. Chinese officials say they plan to double investments in water conservation projects, as the country deals with a shortage of 40 billion cubic meters of water each year. Gathered below are recent images from China, a nation that has been coping first with too little water, then with far too much. [38 photos]

Farmer Lu Keshuang holds his rake as he takes a break from turning the soil in his drought-affected field near the village of Zhuanghuyu, located 80 kilometers north of Beijing, on February 23, 2011. China's long drought in northern wheat areas has been alleviated by recent heavy rains. (Reuters/David Gray) 

The Big Cloud... Photographer Camille Seaman

Voices of Haiti - A Photo Essay by Jeremy Cowart

After the 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti on January 12th of this year, I was deeply moved as most of you were. For days I watched as the television flashed images of gloom and doom... dead bodies, crumbled buildings... It just felt like a heartless display of numbers and statistics. "How were the people feeling?" I wondered. I was tired of hearing endless reports from strangers that just arrived to this devastated nation. So I decided to go to Port-Au-Prince myself and ask them directly. My question was simply "What do you have to say about all this?" This photo essay reveals the many answers to that question.

“The earth can shake but Haiti remains in my heart.”

  Mathieu lost 2 siblings, but he still works the streets in hope of a better Haiti

Arizona wildfire rages on

A vast wildfire, measuring half the size of the state of Rhode Island and described as the second worst fire in Arizona history, continues to surge across eastern Arizona. The fire has jumped past firefighter's containment lines to reach the edges of residential areas, prompting more evacuation orders. Winds carrying burning embers continue to ignite smaller fires, causing new concerns about the prospect of extinguishing the 13-day-old fire. The Wallow Fire has destroyed approximately 337,000 acres and threatens main electrical lines that supply power as far away as west Texas. Thousands have evacuated. Paula Nelson (35 photos total)

Smoke from the Wallow Fire covers highway 60 in Springerville, Arizona. Several mountain communities have emptied in advance of the fire, and a utility that supplies power to customers in southern New Mexico and west Texas issued warnings of possible power interruptions due to the fire's spread, June 9, 2011. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press) 

Nigeria: The Cost of Oil

For over 50 years now, the extraction of crude oil and natural gas from Nigeria's Niger Delta has meant wealth for a privileged few but has exacted heavy costs on residents and the environment. Nigeria is the world's 8th largest producer of crude oil, yet remains one of its poorest nations -- an estimated 70 percent of its 150 million residents live below the poverty line. The environment is paying a steep price as well. An estimated 500 million gallons of oil have spilled into the delta -- the equivalent of roughly one Exxon Valdez disaster per year. A number of factors have contributed to these disasters: poor construction and maintenance, lax regulation, militant attacks, and petroleum thieves, not to mention government instability and abuse of power. According to cables released by WikiLeaks, Shell Oil claimed to have planted staff in all of Nigeria's main ministries, gaining access to key government decisions. Gathered here are some scenes from Nigeria's long, disastrous relationship with the crude oil industry. [31 photos]

Oil flows past a sunken boat in a creek near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's Delta region, on March 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) 

Chile's Puyehue Volcano Erupts

On Saturday, a volcano in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle chain of south-central Chile erupted after lying dormant for more than 50 years. The government evacuated several thousand residents as Puyehue threw ash more than 6 miles (10 km) into the sky, pushing the plume toward neighboring Argentina. Authorities had already put the area around the volcano on alert after a flurry of earthquakes earlier on Saturday -- at one point, the tremors reached an average of 230 per hour. Collected here are a handful of spectacular photographs of the eruption this weekend and its effects in Chile and Argentina. [21 photos]

Tornado-Damaged Joplin, From Above

The death toll in Joplin, Missouri, has now topped 118, making Sunday's catastrophe the single deadliest tornado recorded in the United States since modern record keeping began 60 years ago. Rescuers continue their work despite hazardous conditions on the ground and the threat of major storms later this afternoon. Earlier today, AP Photographer Charlie Riedel took a trip in a helicopter to capture images of Joplin's devastated landscape from above. In these photos, the scale of the impact becomes clear, as the nearly mile-wide path of the tornado can be clearly seen curving through several neighborhoods, as can the destroyed hospital and high school. The American Red Cross has set up a number of shelters in the area and is taking donations. Those interested in contributing can either text REDCROSS to 90999 (for a $10 donation) or visit the Red Cross website. [10 photos]

This aerial photograph shows a neighborhood destroyed by a powerful tornado in Joplin, Missouri, on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) 

Missouri city walloped by deadly tornado

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- Rescue crews worked through the rain-soaked chill of night, ignoring lightning and strong winds

to dig through splintered homes, crumpled businesses and crushed cars in this Missouri city walloped by the deadliest

single tornado in nearly six decades. Even more ominous: More storms, possibly strong ones, were on the horizon.
The death toll in Joplin reached 116 on Monday and was expected to climb. But there were glimmers of hope: Rescuers

pulled 17 survivors from the rubble, and Gov. Jay Nixon vowed that crews would keep searching until everyone is 

accounted for.(43 images)

A torn American flag stands in the wreckage of a church in Joplin, Mo., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Rescue crews worked through the rain-soaked chill of night, ignoring lightning and strong winds to dig through splintered homes, crumpled businesses and crushed cars in Joplin. Robert Ray / AP