Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

Johnny Aralaji, the leader of a Badjao community in Puerto Princesa, Philippines, scans the sea for almost nonexistent schools of fish. Because the Badjao, a waterborne, mostly Muslim people known as “Bedouins of the sea,” do not celebrate birthdays, Aralaji guesses his age to be around 70. He sees the culture and traditions of his people sinking but remains unsentimental and resolute because he knows that they must seek land-based alternatives in order to simply survive. Palawan, Philippines, July 15, 2009.

© Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

A woman scavenges for recyclable cans and plastic from an island of waste deposited in Manila Bay by the flow of several rivers. Thousands of impoverished Filipinos eke out a living in the low-lying delta areas of Manila Bay in one of the world's most congested and polluted urban areas. Malabon, Philippines, July 12, 2009.

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

Prostitutes and strip clubs line Fields Avenue in Angeles, Philippines, a town with a history steeped in prostitution. Local prostitutes once served U.S. military personnel stationed at Clark Air Base. Since the base's closure, however, the town has reincarnated into a sex tourist destination for elderly men from Australia, Korea, China, Germany and the United States. Around here, anything goes, said one craggy-faced bar patron from Australia. July 22, 2009.

© Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

A deckhand coils the mooring lines of a riverboat on the Kampar River in Teluk Meranti, Indonesia. The village is located in Riau province, often called ground zero of the war on global warming. Greenpeace studies show that Riau's peatlands contain the highest concentration of carbon per acre than anywhere else in the world. When companies burn the forest to sew new wood pulp and palm oil plantations, that carbon is released into the atmosphere. Studies show that the carbon released by logging in Brazil and Indonesia amounts to more than the sum of all the buses, planes and cars on the planet. Oct. 22, 2009.

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

The elegant Grand Mosque is the center of Muslim life in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, which has a devout population that lives under strict Sharia laws governing morality. Oct. 22, 2009.