In December 1972, Nasa’s Apollo 17 took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo of the whole Earth.
That portrait is now a historical artefact. 50 years later on December 8, 2022 Nasa took a new image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory.
Nasa’s new Blue Marble image was compared with the original image at the “The whole Earth: Blue Marble at 50” conference.
The Antarctic ice sheet has visibly reduced in size. The main losses to the Larsen ice shelves are not visible in this particular image.
Some snow appears to be visible on the Zagros and Central mountain ranges in Iran.This snow has vanished entirely in the new image.
The dark shadow of Lake Chad in the northern Sahara has shrunk, and forest vegetation now begins hundreds of miles further south.
In December 1972, Nasa’s Apollo 17 took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo of the whole Earth.
The research found that tree density in the western Sahel declined by 18% between 1954 and 2002.
Madagascar’s once-green landscape is now mainly brown.
The evidence of 50 years of environmental degradation is before our eyes.