A hard-hitting exhibition about climate change which has wowed audiences all over the world returns to Edinburgh today to mark World Environment Day.

Hard Rain: Our Headlong Collision with Nature, by photo-journalist Mark Edwards, will open in East Princes Street Gardens this morning, fresh from its showing at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The show has been a labour of love for Edwards who has travelled to over 150 countries in the last 30 years in an effort to document the issues of climate change, habitat loss, pollution and poverty in a startlingly original way. Every image is a visual depiction to each line of the prophetic Bob Dylan classic "A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall".

Hard Rain was first unveiled at the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2006, since which time it has travelled the globe visiting principal cities with the goal of being seen by 10 million people worldwide. It will run in Edinburgh until September.

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Cllr Jenny Dawe, Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, said: "It is an honour that we are able to display Mark Edwards’ striking work on World Environment Day. Climate change and the damage that humankind causes to the planet is the greatest challenge confronting us all.

"This exhibition starkly highlights the extent of the predicament. As a progressive, world-class capital city it is incumbent on us to draw attention to the scale of the problem and to lead by example in reduce our carbon footprint. We are determined that Edinburgh should become a Zero Carbon economy by 2050. This exhibition will encourage others to adopt good environmental practice."

Stephen Blackmore, FRSE, Regius Keeper at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said: "Like many people I found Hard Rain overwhelming. It stopped me in my tracks. A sense of purposeful commitment to change and to facing up to the challenges of the future was restored by Mark Edwards' beautifully poignant work. Don't miss it!"

Tim Smit, Chief Executive and co-founder of the Eden Project, said: "This disturbing, powerfully moving work is a masterpiece that summons up the ghosts of our past and a vision of the future that is ours to change. Regret and optimism make strange bedfellows, but great artists have always known this."

Every year the United Nations chooses a different host country to mark World Environment Day on 5th June. This year the focus is on fostering low-carbon economies and is hosted by New Zealand as one of the first countries in the world to pledge a carbon-neutral future.

(GK/JM)