Nepalese women and young girls struggle to drink homemade alcohol poured through a pipe sticking out of the mouth of Swet Bhairab, a god of Power, during the Indra Jatra festival at Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal, 17 September 2016. Hundreds of women and young girls gathered to drink alcohol as a blessing from idol of Swet Bhairab which they believes will keep them free from all diseases. The Indra Jatra festival is celebrated to honor Indra, the king of gods and god of rains. The festival also marks the end of the monsoon. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

A person watches the sunrise from the Edge observation deck at Hudson Yards on the first day of spring on March 20, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Andrey Karr from Western Riders Slacklines at sunset above big waves in Nazare, Portugal on December 27, 2017. (Photo by Aidan Williams/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

Hamish the polar bear tries out his new enclosure at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park at Branton, Doncaster on November 6, 2020, after moving from the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland. Hamish was the first polar bear to be born in the UK. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Wire Press Association)

A U.S. President Donald Trump mask is seen for sale in a market in Hong Kong, China on December 23, 2019. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Split-view of a killer whale at sunrise off the coast of Northern Norway. At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to pollution of the oceans, a new study says. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Science)

Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide by Sean Gallagher, Tuvalu. Changing environments prize: Fallen trees lie on a beach as the waves from the Funafuti lagoon in Tuvalu lap around them. Land erosion has always been a problem for the South Pacific country but problems are intensifying as sea levels rise. Rising seas are on the verge of completely submerging the tiny archipelago’s islands. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2019)