![]() Madagascar’s once-green landscape is now mainly brown. Research found that tree density in the western Sahel declined by 18 per cent between 19.Īnd the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that between 19, Africa lost 3-4 million hectares of forest per year, a large proportion in the Sahel. This is consistent with evidence of desertification in north Africa’s Sahel region. The dark shadow of Lake Chad in the northern Sahara has shrunk and forest vegetation now begins hundreds of miles further south. Most striking is the reduction in dark green vegetation in the African tropics, particularly at their northern extent. However, this is again within the range of seasonal variation and research has failed to identify any significant long-term trend in seasonal snow cover in Iran between 19. This snow has vanished entirely in the new image. While it can be hard to differentiate between snow and cloud in satellite images, in the original photo, some snow appears to be visible on the Zagros and Central mountain ranges in Iran (north of the Arabian Gulf). The Larsen A ice shelf, the losses to which are not visible in the new image. Photo: Armin Rose/Shutterstock When the new photo was taken, sea ice was still in retreat from the previous winter. Differentiating between the permanent ice sheet and seasonal sea ice is also difficult. The Antarctic ice sheet has visibly reduced in size, even though the main losses to the Larsen ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula are not visible in this particular image. Since 1972, the planet has visibly changed. In December 2022, NASA’s new Blue Marble photograph was compared with the original image at the University of Portsmouth’s “The whole Earth: Blue Marble at 50” conference. “Earth systems science”, as it is now known, unites scientific understanding of the planet, its biosphere and its changing climate. This was also the decade in which climate scientist James Lovelock put forward the Gaia theory of the Earth as a self-regulating set of combined living and non-living systems. “We live inside a blue chamber, a bubble of air blown by ourselves,” wrote cell biologist Lewis Thomas in 1973. Dominated by blue light, water and clouds, it appeared a unique environment that displayed no signs of human activity. The Earth also provided the only visible colour in space. The image centred on Africa rather than Europe or America and became a photographic manifesto for global justice. Lit by the Sun and taken at a distance of 33,000 km, the photo included the first view of Antarctica from space. In 1972, NASA - aware of the public value of Earth images - resolved to capture an image of the whole Earth as Apollo 17 moved away from Earth orbit. Held on April 22 each year, Earth Day now involves over a billion people worldwide in activities that support environmental protection. This photo energised the environmental movement and helped to launch the first Earth Day in 1970. They took various photos through the capsule’s windows, including the famous photo known as “Earthrise”. Then in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to see and photograph Earth from space. The following year, a satellite called ATS-3 took the first colour image of Earth. In 1966, the robotic Lunar Orbiter 1 (the US’s first spacecraft to orbit the Moon) sent back some early pictures including a black-and-white image of a partly shadowed Earth. The first photos taken of Earth from space were momentous historical events. ![]() The photo reveals clear changes to the face of the Earth, some of which are indicative of 50 years of climate change. Fifty years later, on December 8 2022, NASA took a new image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory approximately 1.5 million kilometres away. Instead, it made Earth appear more unique and has since become an icon of the global environmental movement.īut that portrait is now a historical artefact. Clarke, had expected that the sight of Earth from afar would instil the belief that mankind’s future lay in space. Many, including science fiction writer Arthur C. In December 1972, NASA’s final Apollo mission (Apollo 17) took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo of the whole Earth.
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