This particular shot shows the fragile and vulnerable side of the rhino. He was lying down and gently resting, totally at peace with the world and completely unaware as to how valuable he was to humanity as a whole! He is one part of Earth Day that needs to be highlighted and saved for generations to come. ―CS photography

April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, we have populated today’s Explore page with a selection of photos highlighting the beauty and fragility of our planet seen through the lens of the Flickr community.

In this Explore takeover, we’re featuring some of the best photos and stories our members have shared of treasured landscapes, endangered species, and other natural beauty they’ve captured by land, sea, or air. Images that help carry forth this mission of spreading awareness about the environment and the need to conserve our planet.

Two weeks ago, we put a call out for our members to share any inspiring photos of the Earth they had taken, either landscapes, underwater scenes, nature and wildlife photography, or others. We received a lot of submissions and comments giving us context on some of the stories behind these shots: life making its way through the ashes of the recent fires in Australia, rhinos facing the grave threat of poaching in South Africa, or light pollution making it hard to capture the night sky, among many others.

Forest elephants are a distinct species classified since this year as critically endangered. This picture of an exceptional specimen encountered in the Loango National Park of Gabon reminds us of the key role played by protected areas in preserving the last of the wild. Such large tusks are, unfortunately, today, equivalent to a death sentence. ―Gregoire Dubois

We hope that these photos encourage viewers to reflect on what the Earth provides to us and how we can protect and preserve our planet. Don’t forget to give the photographers featured in this takeover a fave, a follow, or a comment of appreciation for their work, and if you have other photos of the Earth you’d like to share, we invite you to participate in our ongoing discussion here.

Earth Day is a day of hope for a cleaner, more natural, sustainable Earth. Nothing could symbolize this hope much better than a rainbow! Brandon Beach is so clean and natural, it provided and amazing backdrop. ―Rodney Lappe

Are you planning something for Earth Day 2021? Let us know in Flickr Social.

About Explore Takeovers

Explore takeovers are manually curated by the Flickr team to celebrate specific communities and themes on Flickr. In the past, we’ve done Explore takeovers to highlight photography of the Black Lives Matter movement, Polaroid Week, Inktober, Black photographers and history and women photographers. Moving forward, we aim to curate an Explore takeover on the fourth Thursday of each month. If there’s a specific theme that you’d like to see highlighted in an Explore takeover, leave us a FlickrMail here. And if you’d like to learn more about how Explore normally works, check out our recently published Explore report.

During the pandemic, it was so therapeutic to be able to take daily walks in nature and appreciate it even more. I particularly felt that here land and sky create perfect harmony and the running horse epitomises the freedom that we all yearn for. ― V