These 20 images of Earth over the past 70 years show why countries signed the Paris Agreement by Erin Brodwin on Jun 1, 2017, 9:51 AM Advertisement
 President Trump is expected to announce a US withdrawal from the landmark Paris Agreement on Thursday afternoon. The international accord, which was signed by every country except Nicaragua and Syria, lays out a framework for countries to reduce their fossil fuel emissions in order to keep the planet's overall temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. Since the industrial revolution, humans have had an unmistakable impact on Earth — one that has accelerated over time. This impact pops out in sharp relief when you look at this collection of images comparing what specific areas look like now to how they appeared roughly 70 years ago. In some cases, the images (mostly from NASA, unless otherwise noted) were taken as far as 50 years apart; in other cases, they were snapped with just 10-15 years in between. SEE ALSO: Here's how leaving the Paris Climate Agreement would affect the US DON'T MISS: Earth entered a new epoch on July 16, 1945 — and that's just the beginning of how humans have changed the planet Photographs from the 1940s to the 2000s show the drastic impact of climate change on our planet's glaciers. Here is a photo of Alaska's Muir Glacier, pictured in August 1941 (left) and August 2004 (right). 
Here's the snow that remained on Matterhorn Mountain in Switzerland in August 1960 (left), compared with August 2005 (right). 
Starting in the 1970s, NASA began using satellite images to document deforestation in several national parks around the world. Here's Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda in 1973 (left), compared with the park in 2005 (right). 
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
| 
0 comments:
Post a Comment