A little more than two decades into this century, National Geographic photographers have already captured the essence of our era with vivid and thought-provoking pictures. With contributions by such figures as Joel Sartore, Jodi Cobb, and Evgenia Arbugaeva, this collection contains one highlight after another, including images in which a solitary Pope Francis looks up at the Sistine Ceiling, a storm sweeps through the New Mexico desert, damselflies hatch in a pond, Mexican students in Oaxaca pose with the largest tree in the world, and a polluted Manchurian cityscape takes on a technicolor glamor when seen through a gauzy curtain.