Nina Berman: “This image is part of a project I’ve been doing on shale-gas drilling and fracking. The picture shows contaminated water from a kitchen faucet in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. The water is discolored and is bubbling methane. It’s undrinkable. Many people in shale-gas country have experienced contaminated drinking water following drilling and fracking operations. This so-called clean energy, billed by energy companies as an environmentally sound solution to heat trapping fossil fuels, is actually very dirty to obtain and transport. I like the purple nail polish and that the cup is plastic. In my mind, these elements speak to the connection between polluting energy and our own lifestyles, which are enabled through petroleum based products.”

Click-through for a slideshow looking at photographers and other visual artists who are challenging viewers to consider the dangers of inaction by capturing the effects of extreme weather and a warming world: http://nyr.kr/UCR7Jh

Another year, another set of climate records. Here, Elizabeth Kolbert looks at the top ten signs you are living in a warming world, 2012 edition: http://nyr.kr/ZdDsOw

Photograph by Peter van Agtmael/Magnum.