Chicken, fish and eggs lie next to coca paste worth $14,000 Colombian pesos at a local store in Guyabero Region, Guaviare, Colombia, May 24, 2016. As the government nears a historic peace deal with the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation's authorities are struggling to tame an increase in farming of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine. In the Guyabero Region, where many people work on coca plantations, locals barter coca paste to buy groceries at the local shop. (Photo by John Vizcaino/Reuters)

From Tibetan monks playing basket ball with ice thawing high up in the Himalayas, to the pollution that hides behind the Taj Mahal, here’s pick from 60 exceptional environmental photographs, by photographers and filmmakers from 70 countries, that will go on show at the Royal Geographical Society in London from 29 June to 21 August. The winners will be announced on 28 June. Here: Gravel Workmen of Chittagong, Bangladesh, by Faisal Azim. Gravel workmen look through a glass window at a gravel-crushing yard in Chittagong. Full of dust and sand, it is an extremely unhealthy environment for working, but still hundreds of people work here for their livelihoods. (Photo by Faisal Azim/2016 Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year)

An attendee at the “Eating Insects Detroit: Exploring the Culture of Insects as Food and Feed” conference at Wayne State University shows an edible freeze-dried locust insect in Detroit, Michigan May 26, 2016. (Photo by Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

In this Friday, January 6, 2017, photo, a North Korean woman working at the Kim Jong Suk Silk Mill looks up from her workstation in Pyongyang, North Korea. The silk mill, named after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's grandmother, is where 1,600 workers – mostly women – sort and process silkworms to produce silk thread that officials at the Pyongyang factory say is made into roughly 200 tons of silk a year. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

People visit the autonomous urban concept car Renault EZ-GO during the first press day of the Geneva International Motor Show on March 6, 2018 in Geneva. The show opens to the public on March 8 and runs through March 18. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

Models showcase designs aboard fishing boats off Ngor Island during the 23rd Dakar Fashion Week, organized by Senegalese-French designer Adama N'Diaye, founder of the brand “Adama Paris”, on December 6, 2025, in Dakar, Senegal. (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Participants wearing superhero costumes attend the World DC Comics Super Heroes event in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, near Madrid, April 18, 2015. To celebrate the anniversary of the publication of the very first Superman story, DC Comics are asking fans to help set a new world record for the largest global gathering of people dressed as DC Comics Super Heroes. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)

Sustainable development goal target 12.5 is to reduce waste. But with a planet increasingly dependent on technology, is that even possible? As of today, over 30m tonnes of electronic waste has been thrown out so far this year, according to the World Counts. Most e-waste is sent to landfills in Asia and Africa where it is recycled by hand, exposing the people who do it to environmental hazards. Kai Loeffelbein’s photographs of e-waste recycling in Guiyu, southern China show what happens to discarded computers. (Photo by Kai Loeffelbein/laif Agentur)