Aru Co, China

In this image captured at the end of 2017, the surface of Aru Co - a lake on the Tibetan plateau - is frozen in ripples that seem to extend onshore, in waves of sand.

One year prior to this capture, two alpine glaciers on the West side of the lake collapsed, ejecting huge masses of debris and ice into the body of water below and creating waves that propagated across the surface of the 17-mile-long lake, reaching as high as 30ft above the previous waterline. The lake level rose significantly and the water temperature dropped in the weeks and months after the avalanches, and there were significant downstream impacts as well.

Memar Co, into which Aru Co drains, had already been steadily increasing its volume due to climate-change-driven increases in rain and snowfall. After the avalanches, the lakes were only 8 meters apart in elevation, two miles over low ground. Aru Co is a freshwater lake, drained by streamflow. Memar Co is a salt lake, drained by evaporation. When the two connect it will be an ecological catastrophe for both.

Neuf-Brisach, France

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban was a French military engineer in the time of Louis the 14th, best known for designing hundreds of fortifications and supervising dozens of sieges in the swirl of cross-border warfare that characterized the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His plans for concentric fortifications with elevated strong points and interlocking fields of fire made many of his works impregnable well into the 20th century. Octagonal Neuf-Brisach, across the Rhine from what was at the time the Holy Roman Empire, was his last design. He died before it was completed, but it showcases the geometric precision that he and his successors used.

In the course of a life building castles, Vauban took note of the strong interdependence between military defences and the civilian population. This essentialy turned him into an urban planner, focused on ensuring the sustainability and growth potential of life within his walls and in the surrounding landscapes. It also radicalized him into a proto-revolutionary; in 1707 he published La Dîme royale, a proposal for a progressive income tax under the king’s authority for the alleviation of widespread poverty. For this heresy he was banned from court, and he died that same year. His idea would have to await a more-forceful revolution.

Toronto, Canada

The Rogers Centre - home of the Toronto Blue Jays - had its retractable top down in fine weather when this aerial image was captured in 2022.

The pandemic-era social distancing apparent in the crowd here will not be on display tonight when the Blue Jays host the Los Angeles Dodgers for game 7 of the 2025 World Series. The roof might be closed up too; it’s getting cold out there, folks.

Cover image: Grand theatre de la guerre, frontieres de France, d’Allemagne, by Guillaume de l’Isle, 1742. From the David Rumsey Map Collection