NASA’s got some pretty cool and informative images in their locker (having loads of satellites and technology helps). Their prespective on climate change is one from above. Like the things that can be seen from space, such as aquatic dead zones and forest canopy heights.
Aside from knowing where the tallest trees are in the world, NASA explains,
‘Scientific interest in the new map goes far beyond curiosities about tree height. The map has implications for an ongoing effort to estimate the amount of carbon tied up in Earth’s forests and for explaining what sops up 2 billion tons of “missing” carbon each year’.
Another interesting NASA image is of aquatic dead zones. Without pointing out the obvious, one can see the dead zones happen to exist where the highest density of people live.
While all can maps have distortions, NASA’s use of satelitte imaging and laser technology produce widely accepted and very real data- most of which is collected over several years.
NASA’s Eye’s on the Earth contains images of change which demonstrate how areas have evolved over time.
The same way you’d compare baby photos of a person to their present self, images of change show an ever changing and evolving planet.
You can see more images and things from NASA’s observatory here.
Katherine Hui is currently the Social site editor at Green Thing, a web-based public service in London that inspires people to lead greener lives through creative content.
Before this, she worked as the Development Manager at Social Innovation Camp, an organization that encourages people to use web and mobile-based technology to mobilise social change. She oversaw 300 ideas submission and helped build 20 prototypes – five of which have gone on to get further funding or investment.
Katherine’s came over to the UK form Canada in 2007 for an MSc program at the London School of Economics. Before arriving in London, she managed a small environmental start-up in Vancouver called the Canadian Climate Change Alliance.
Katherine is football mad. She is a loyal supporter of Arsenal FC, plays for Islington Borough Ladies FC and coaches for Gunners in Islington in her spare time. Her second favourite hobby is kite surfing and she can sometimes be found chasing the wind.
