DEFORESTATION IN AMERICA
tsuh:
NASA recently released imagery showing the deforestation of America …in just 34 years.
this actually makes my stomach hurt.
:( I’d be interested to see what the rest of the world’s forests look like too.
I’d just like to point out that I can’t find the same exact image above anywhere on NASA’s site, which means it’s a possibility that this was photoshopped to put the two Earth photos together for a comparison. Though there’s some problems I’d like to point out as I find it important:
The 2012 Earth was photographed in January, so let’s just keep in mind that we are in the season where the environment is in a bit of a dormant stage. The images were collected by VIIRS on the recently launched Suomi NPP satellite. From NASA’s site: “It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.”
Maybe I’m forgetting something, but the only photos of Earth taken in the 1970’s were during the Apollo missions, photographing Africa and Antarctica; not the Earth photo on the left showing North America. The next photo - I believe - to be complied of Earth was in 1997, 25 years after Apollo’s iconic “Blue Marble”.
The photo of North America/Earth on the left was taken back in 2001, and this photo looks to be more saturated compared to the same photo on NASA’s official website. That photo was collected between June and September; months with more vegetation. The 2001 version (or left one marked “1978” above) here was collected mostly by MODIS. We also must remember that we’ve advanced in taking these types of photos as well.
I felt this was of importance to point out the correct dates of when these were taken so that there is no confusion.