Toby Smith

Latest Tweets

#backclimateaction

SKIPSEA, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 8, 2015

The UK Department of Energy & Climate Change is promoting the use of photography to tell your climate change story in their #BackClimateAction photo competition. Rather than photos of melting glaciers and polar bears, the DECC wants to see photos showing the ways in which climate change could affect the things you value most in your day-to-day life.

Beginning at 9am GMT on 2oth February , launched the competition by inviting you to post your images to Instagram or Twitter with a short caption and the hashtag #BackClimateAction. The contest ends on Friday, March 6, and the winners will be announced later that month. First prize is a photo masterclass with Getty Images in London.

Read more about the contest on the DECC’s website.

To inspire the public to take part in the photo contest, and to initiate discussion around a wide range of climate change issues, the DECC has commissioned me to illustrate ways in which climate change could affect the UK. In the above photo, I show how rapid coastal erosion has undercut and washed away roadways and private property at the Yorkshire Village of Skipsea. The image shows the full moon rising over the North Sea in a 15 minute exposure.  I also photographed less visible ways in which climate change could affect life in the UK, such as its fish markets, where invasive species will appear in greater numbers due to changes in water temperature.

This is really great initiative and I look forwards to seeing the different ways in which both professional and amateur photographers, SLRs and Smart Phones can capture Climate Change in the UK.