The Presidential Palace. The Presidential Palace in Guinea Bissau lies derelict and burnt out. You can walk amongst the shards of broken crockery, blackened banisters, and singed carpets. Its empty rooms are a fitting metaphor for this failing state. Teachers in the public sector have not been paid in years. Portuguese, the official language, is hardly spoken by young people and the nation is reverting to a creole contributing to its international isolation. In a country which ranks 10th from the bottom on the U.N.'s Human Development Index and where life expectancy is 47, there are perhaps more pressing concerns …

A mangrove seedling planted in the Saloum Delta in Senegal.Atlantic Rising "Become a superhero, plant your mangrove today," declared the poster. Eager to enter the pantheon of mangrove superheroes, we headed to the Saloum Delta in Senegal where the world's largest mangrove planting project is underway. Organized by local NGO, Oceanium, almost 30 million mangroves have been planted since June. The mangrove is a hero among flora. It provides firewood for cooking and smoking fish, branches for building rooftops, and breeding grounds for countless species of fish, including oysters that cling stubbornly to the mangroves' spider-like roots. Mangroves are an …

Rising sea levels are threatening the island homes of Mauritania's Imraguen fishermen. Above, child plays alongside flooded landscape on Nair Island.Tim Bromfield / Atlantic Rising The Banc d'Arguin, where the Sahara meets the Atlantic in Mauritania, is a staging post for over two million exhausted migratory birds from Europe and Siberia. Terns dive for fish, dolphins raise curious heads to the terrestrial world and crabs promenade through an octopus's garden. This abundance is fed by the coastal upwelling, a wind-driven fountain of life bringing cooler, nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface. However, this unique ecosystem is threatened by sea level …

Emile Azran stands in the sun in front of his sardine processing factory in Safi, Morocco, smoking a cigarette. Business is slow because it is the Eid holidays but soon he says the chimneys will be pumping at full steam again. The smell is putrid. Sardines, once cheap foodstuff for the poor, have become a popular dish in Morocco. Mr. Azran’s factory, Almev, takes discarded sardine heads, tails and entrails from the canneries along the row at Safi and turns them into protein-rich animal feed. The flour-like substance is mixed with other feed and served up to contented chickens, turkeys, …

Restoring the natural topography around Mont St Michel will result in a sandy stretch at low tide, prompting locals to suggest sand and eventual climate change will replace the region's famous "pre-salted" lamb with pre-salted camel.Tim BromfieldThe lambs gambling in the meadows around Mont St Michel have a hard life. Grazed on the bay's low-lying salt marshes, periodically drenched by seawater and then blown dry by the salty winds that whip off the English Channel, they are considered pre-salted long before they reach the chef's pot. The lambs' high consumption of salt results in a tender and juicy meat, served …

From right to left: Tim Bromfield, Lynn Morris, and Will Lorimer. The three are tracing the 1-meter countour around the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of educating British students about communities threatened by rising sea levels.Courtesy Atlantic RisingAtlantic Rising is a new charity backed by Britain's Royal Geographical Society. We are a three-person team creating a network between schools around the Atlantic coastline to raise awareness about the effects of sea level rise on coastal communities. The network is being launched with an expedition around the Atlantic rim tracing the 1-meter contour line -- the Atlantic coastline as it will look …