Well before today's debates on global warming and climate change, photographic images have played an important role in educating the general public about the wonders of nature and the destruction of the global environment. Most now-iconic images have historical precursors. Gisela Parak illuminates how the interrelationship of photography and science gave rise to a genre of photographs of environmental phenomena. She emphasizes the power of these images to support and instruct the scientific pursuit of knowledge, as well as their potency as a means of persuading and shaping public opinion.