Pakistan's Indus River Valley before (left) and after (right) monsoon rains caused devastating floods in August 2022, damaging more than 2,000 miles of roads and 2 million acres of crops, and killing more than 700,000 livestock. Scientists say that climate change made the rainfall up to 50 percent more intense. NASA
Humans are reshaping the Earth in unprecedented ways, both by turning vast tracts of wilderness into farms and cities and by altering the global climate, fueling more intense fires, floods, heat, and drought. Scientists at NASA have captured the astounding breadth of humanity’s impact in satellite images.
The photos below, all published in the past year by NASA’s Earth Observatory, reveal the profound changes now underway. Click photos to enlarge.
Rice fields near Butte City, California, in September 2021 (left) and September 2022 (right). Amid a persistent drought linked to climate change, growers planted only half as much rice as usual in 2022. This year’s crop was the smallest since 1977. NASA
A swath of Bolivia's Chiquitano dry forest in 1986 (left) and 2022 (right), after waves of in-migration turned woodland to farmland. Between the early 2000s and the early 2020s, the rate of primary forest loss in Bolivia roughly doubled. NASA
Mexico's Cerro Prieto reservoir in July 2015 (left) and July 2022 (right), after dropping to less than 1 percent of its capacity amid a brutal drought exacerbated by climate change. In mid-summer, two-thirds of Mexico was experiencing drought, with more than 21 million people affected. NASA
Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf, in 1987 (left) and 2022 (right). Over the last four decades, Bahrain's population has quadrupled, spurring major urban development, much of it on reclaimed land. NASA
Glaciers and ice caps in northwest Greenland in 1973 (left) and 2022 (right). In the 50 years separating these photos, several glaciers have retreated. A dearth of snow in the second photo reveals darker, dirtier ice beneath. NASA
