{"id":89005,"date":"2023-02-11T02:27:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T01:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=89005"},"modified":"2023-02-10T09:28:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T08:28:21","slug":"blue-marble-how-half-a-century-of-climate-change-has-altered-the-face-of-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/environment\/blue-marble-how-half-a-century-of-climate-change-has-altered-the-face-of-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blue marble\u2019: how half a century of climate change has altered the face of the\u00a0Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In December 1972, Nasa\u2019s final Apollo mission (Apollo 17)<\/a> took the iconic \u201cBlue Marble\u201d<\/a> photo of the whole Earth. Many, including science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke<\/a>, had expected that the sight of Earth from afar would instil the belief that mankind\u2019s future lay in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, it made Earth appear more unique, and has since become an icon of the global environmental movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that portrait is now a historical artefact. Fifty years later, on December 8 2022, Nasa took a new image<\/a> of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory<\/a> approximately 1.5 million kilometres away. The photo reveals clear changes to the face of the Earth, some of which are indicative of 50 years of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sparked environmentalism<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The first photos taken of Earth from space were momentous historical events. In 1966, the robotic Lunar Orbiter 1<\/a> (the US\u2019s first spacecraft to orbit the Moon) sent back some early pictures including a black-and-white image of a partly shadowed Earth. The following year, a satellite called ATS-3<\/a> took the first colour image of Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8<\/a> became the first humans to see and photograph Earth from space. They took various photos through the capsule\u2019s windows, including the famous photo known as \u201cEarthrise\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Nasa_BlueMarble1972-2022\"<\/a>
Left: The Blue Marble photo of Earth, taken from Apollo 17 in 1972. Nasa, Author provided (no reuse) | Right: The new Blue Marble, showing visible signs of environmental degradation. DSCOVR\/Nasa, Author provided (no reuse)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This photo energised the environmental movement and helped to launch the first Earth Day<\/a> in 1970. Held on April 22 each year, Earth Day now involves over a billion people worldwide in activities that support environmental protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1972, Nasa \u2013 aware of the public value of Earth images \u2013 resolved to capture an image of the whole Earth as Apollo 17 moved away from Earth orbit. Lit by the Sun and taken at a distance of 33,000 km, the photo included the first view of Antarctica from space. The image centred on Africa rather than Europe or America, and became a photographic manifesto for global justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Earth also provided the only visible colour in space. Dominated by blue light, water and clouds, it appeared a unique environment that displayed no signs of human activity. \u201cWe live inside a blue chamber, a bubble of air blown by ourselves,\u201d wrote cell biologist Lewis Thomas<\/a> in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was also the decade in which climate scientist James Lovelock put forward the Gaia theory<\/a> of the Earth as a self-regulating set of combined living and non-living systems. \u201cEarth systems science\u201d, as it is now known, unites scientific understanding of the planet, its biosphere and its changing climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

Source<\/h5>\r\n\n\n\n

The Conversation 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

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