Earth Day 2012
April 22 will mark Earth Day worldwide, an event now in its 42nd year and observed in 175 countries. The original grass-roots environmental action helped spur the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act in the United States. Gathered here are images of our planet's environment, efforts to utilize renewable alternative sources of energy, and the effects of different forms of pollution.
A Japanese snow monkey relaxes in a hot spring in the Jigokudani valley in northern Nagano Prefecture, Japan on Feb 10, 2012. The macaques descend from the forests to the warm waters of the hot springs in the mornings, and return to the security of the forests in the evenings.
Elephants forage on March 20, 2012 in the Tsavo-east National Park in the wake of a dramatic increase in elephant killings for their prized tusks. Kenya's estimated 30,000 elephants are under growing risk as incidences of poaching continue to mount despite efforts by the government and international wildlife agencies.
An Ibex stands on a cliff-edge above the Ramon Crater in southern Israel's Negev Desert on March 5, 2012.
A view of the southern lights between Antarctica and Australia captured by Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers on board the International Space Station on March 3, 2012.
The moon appears over Mount Vrenelisgaertli (2904 metres/9527 feet) near the eastern Swiss town of Glarus on March 14, 2012.
A guide climbs inside the Niah Great Cave at Niah National Park in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo Island on March 29, 2012. Niah Caves contain the oldest remains of Homo sapiens found in Borneo, and feature the world’s largest limestone cave entrance as well as ancient rock paintings. Studies published recently have shown evidence of the first human activity at the Niah caves from ca. 46,000 to ca. 34,000 years ago.
Mount Etna spews volcanic ash during an eruption on the southern Italian island of Sicily on April 1, 2012.
A woman walks at the new Gemasolar solar power plant the day of its inauguration in Fuentes de Andalucia, Spain on October 4, 2011.
The experimental aircraft "Solar Impulse" with pilot Andre Borschberg onboard flies at sunrise above Payerne's Swiss airbase during the first attempt to fly around the clock fueled by nothing but the energy of the sun.
An Argentine vehicle takes part in the Atacama Solar Challenge, a solar car race in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, in Calama, Chile on October 2, 2011.
The PlanetSolar, the first solar-powered boat to travel around the world, arrives in Singapore on October 12, 2011. The boat is topped by 500 square meters of black solar panels.
Octavia Ccahuata combs her daughter's hair in the kitchen of their house, which is part of the "Hot Clean House" ecology project in the Andean town of Langui in Cuzco, Peru on March 9, 2012. The project uses solar power to warm houses and energy-saving technologies for cooking in the highlands of Cuzco.
Dr. Karen Gleason holds paper substrate with vapor printed electrodes, which will hold solar cells. Gleason is the leader of a research team at MIT that invented a way to print solar power cells on paper so durable that it can be folded up.
A worker walks through solar panels at the Ohgishima solar power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) in Kawasaki City, Japan on December 22, 2011.
A solar panel stands on the roof of a house in Halliberu, India on January 11, 2012. Across India and Africa, startups and mobile phone companies are developing so-called microgrids, in which stand-alone generators power clusters of homes and businesses in places where electric utilities have never operated.
Kashif shows solar geysers on the roof of his seminary in Murree, Pakistan on March 6, 2012. Pakistanis are increasingly realizing that year-round sun is a cheap answer to an enormous energy crisis. Pakistan needs to produce 16,000 megawatts of electricity for daily demand, but falls short by providing only 13,000 megawatts.
Employees and visitors stand beside the mounting block holding a 48-meter blade being tested at the newly opened Wind Blade Testing Center in Charlestown, Mass. on June 3, 2011.
Workers assemble a wind turbine which will be set in place high on the Major League Beasball aseball stadium in Cleveland on March 23, 2012. The innovative design developed by Majid Rashidi, chairman of Cleveland State University's department of engineering technology, is a wind-deflecting structure with small-scale turbines that can generate power at low wind speeds.
The first of the four world's largest underwater turbines floats on October 19, 2011 in Brehec bay in Plouezec, France. The four immersed tide-powered turbines will produce power for around 3000 homes in 2012.
Senior Engineer Clifford Goudey talks about the wave energy converter prototype seen in the foreground at Resolute Marine Energy workshop/lab in Newburyport, Mass. on February 10, 2012.
A geothermal energy plant taps deep underground heat from the southern San Andreas Fault rift zone near the Salton Sea on July 5, 2011 near Calipatria, California.
Acacia tree saplings are inter-planted with Cassava with the aim of trapping the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a practice that has led to the creation of the first carbon-well in Africa to have been registered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Ibi, Democratic Republic of Congo on October 11, 2011.
Palm trees reflect at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits on November 23, 2011 in Los Angeles. The popular tourist spot and scientific treasure overflows during heavy rains. Polluted runoff then flows through storm drains to Ballona Creek and the ocean.
Oil floats on the surface near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria's Delta region on March 24, 2011.
A surfer walks past cargo containers washed ashore from the stricken container ship Rena at Waihi Beach, New Zealand on January 10, 2012. Half of the ship Rena, stranded on a New Zealand reef for more than three months, sank after breaking up in rough seas and littering beaches with cargo and debris.
A child searches for coins thrown in the polluted Yamuna river by Hindu devotees for ritual offerings in New Delhi on January 22, 2012. River Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers of the country despite numerous efforts made to keep it clean. Delhi alone dumps around 3,296 million liters per day of sewage in the river.
Workers collect pesticide at a burial site near the village of Savichi, Belarus on November 14, 2011. About 950 tons of pesticides were extracted from the ground and loaded into plastic barrels to be recycled in Germany.
Heavy pollution surrounds the China Central Television headquarters building (right) in Beijing on January 18, 2012. The US embassy, which has its own pollution measuring system and which rates anything over 150 as unhealthy, was showing an index of 403, or 'hazardous'.
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