Editor's Note: Winter 2026
We stand on science, from reliable climate assessments to real photos by our talented photo contest winners
- By Jennifer Wehunt
- NWF News
- Dec 17, 2025
Photo contest entrant Paige Rudolph’s shot of a tree frog on her California farm won first place in the 2025 Mobile category.
AS I WRITE THIS, the five existing National Climate Assessments are no longer available on most federal websites. They were removed last summer, just before the release of a Department of Energy report claiming, “climate change is a challenge—not a catastrophe.” Denying the threat of climate change doesn’t make it science. What it makes is misinformation.
Thankfully, solid sources on consensus-backed climate science remain. As reporters and editors, and as humans who care about our planet, we depend on those. For the latest information we can trust, the National Wildlife Federation’s chief scientist, Diane Pataki, advises us to turn to the Fifth National Climate Assessment and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report.
I asked her how important it is for folks to have access to reliable climate science. “All actions you take, all conversations you have, they have to flow from good information. It dictates everything,” she says. “For me, too.”
In these pages, we’ll continue to present accurate, science-driven stories you can trust and, we hope, that also inspire. When evaluating submissions for our 54th annual photo contest, we scoured images not just for unethical practices that could endanger wildlife but also for signs of AI and excessive manipulation. This year’s winners are both glorious and real. We live in a beautiful, complicated world. Let’s look it in the face.
Jennifer Wehunt is the editorial director of National Wildlife magazine. Share your thoughts on the magazine by emailing nwfeditor@nwf.org.
