These photos show how a warmer climate is damaging Earth’s waters

In her new book, Entropy, photographer Diane Tuft explores the damage that a warmer climate will have on bodies of water.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah (pictured above) is a stark example. Here, climate change has ramped up temperatures, while demands for fresh water from industry and agriculture have reduced the flowing of mountain streams to a trickle, shrinking the lake to two-thirds the volume of what it was in 2000. The colour split, captured by Tuft from a helicopter, is a result of differently pigmented algae that either live in high salinity (pink) or lower salinity (blue) water, bisected by a railroad causeway.

The second image, shown above, shows what was once a rice field in Kutubdia Island, Bangladesh, transformed into a field of salt. This is a country at peril from changing waters – projections suggest 17 per cent of it may be submerged by sea by 2050, with the saltwater making much of the land unsuitable for crops.

With one having too little water and the other too much, “both locations perfectly illustrate problems at the opposite ends of the spectrum”, says Tuft.

Photographer Diane Tuft
Publisher Monacelli/Phaidon