2012 Brings Public Focus on Climate Change

Heavy rains in southeastern Brazil caused a dam in the town of Campo de Goytacazes to burst and flood the area, January, 2012. (Melissa Martins Casa Grande)

Days of heavy rainfall in what is typically one of the driest months of the year in Australia forced 13,000 people to evacuate their homes, March 2012.

Cattle decompose under the Saharan sun outside the town of Ayoun el Atrous in Mauritania. The food and nutrition crisis facing countries in West Africa’s drought-prone Sahel region continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate, May 2012.

Two weeks worth of rain fell in one day in Manlia, submerging half of the Philippines capital, July 2012.

Extreme drought conditions in the United States sparked more and extensive wild fires, like this one in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest, July 2012. (U.S. Forest Service)

Corn plants weakened by the drought lie on the ground after being knocked over by rain in Bennington, Nebraska. The U.S. Drought Monitor said the rainfall came too late to help already damaged corn crops, September 2012.

Super Typhoon Jelawat made landfall over Japan and affected the Korean peninsula with heavy rains and floods, September 2012.

For the third consecutive year, monsoon floods hit Pakistan's Sindh and Balochistan provinces, damaging more than 450,000 hectares of agricultural land. Almost 400,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed, September 2012. (Jean-Luc Siblot)

Vast stretches of Nigeria were hit by floods. Flood waters submerge a vehicle in the Patani community in Nigeria's Delta State, October 2012.

Wreckage on the coast of New Jersey from Hurricane Sandy, October 2012. (Credit: spleeness)

Hurricane Sandy flooded New York City streets, October 2012. (David Shanbone)

The United Nations requested $65 million to provide lifesaving aid to survivors of Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines, December 2012. (OCHA)

The United Nations Convention on Climate Change met in Qatar in December for annual talks to address the impact of climate change. (UNFCCC)

In 2012 polar ice sheets melted at an accelerating rate. In this photo surface melt water rushes along the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet through a supra-glacial stream channel. (Ian Joughin)