See the otherworldly beauty of Earth’s polar regions

Beautiful and rugged, the Arctic and Antarctic regions have an alien charm. But as the climate warms, these polar ecosystems have become some of the most vulnerable on Earth. 

The Arctic is potentially warming as much as four times faster than the rest of the globe, partly because the region lacks a solid landmass. Instead, it’s made of perennially frozen solid ice floating above the Arctic Ocean. But as this ice increasingly shrinks, the ocean absorbs more warm sunlight, accelerating global climate change. 

Unlike its northern counterpart, Antarctica is solid land covered in snow and massive sheets of frozen freshwater. If just the West Antarctic ice sheet melts, it has enough water to raise seas by more than 17 feet before the end of this century. 

What’s at stake in these polar regions are wildlife and cultures that cannot be found anywhere else. More than four million people and many indigenous communities live within the Arctic Circle. The far north is also home to wildlife such as polar bears, Arctic wolves, and migratory whales. In the south, large penguin colonies roam the cold terrain, and the waters surrounding Antarctica are thriving with phytoplankton and algae, tiny sea creatures that attract hordes of hungry whales.  

These images show the natural beauty of life at the poles—and the few who dare to live there.