Earth Day 2021: A look back at The Independent’s three decades of climate crisis coverage

The Indy has championed the environment since the newspaper’s earliest days

The Independent was founded as a broadsheet newspaper in 1986, its arrival on newsstands coinciding with the moment world governments were beginning to wake up to the threat posed by global warming and climate change and start listening to the scientists.

With the advancing of the years, the dire consequences of carbon emissions, industrial pollution and deforestation for the natural world have become increasingly clear and The Independent has never shied away from looking at the big picture and sounding the alarm on behalf of the environment, not least through the pioneering reporting of science correspondent Steve Connor.

Above you can see a selection of our front pages from 1992 onwards seeking to raise awareness about the climate crisis and the need for renewable sources of energy as an alternative to fossil fuels in the interest of averting global catastrophe.