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Views from Space Show a Fragile Earth

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Two provocative ways to see long-term changes on earth are currently being promoted in honor of Earth Week. A Web site by NASA, and an app from HarperCollins, both show striking side-by-side satellite images of locations that have changed dramatically over time spans of up to 30 years or more. The primary intent is to show how we humans are altering the planet’s surface.

NASA has posted more than 160 comparative views on a Web site it calls State of Flux. The sharp images are grouped into categories, such as “human impact” (see below).

Other categories include cities, extreme events such as fires, floods and tsunamis, and land cover (below). The images can be downloaded and used for free.


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The second option for viewing earth from above is a nice app called Fragile Earth. It focuses more on how climate change, natural disasters and human actions have altered the environment. The app is also organized into categories, including man’s impact, the warming world, and deserts and drought (left and below).

The goal of Fragile Earth is to impress upon people how drastically we can transform our surroundings. The app, for iPad and iPhone, is compelling because a user can see the comparison images by swiping a finger back and forth across the display. Text explaining the images, dates they were taken and causes for the changes depicted scrolls up from the bottom of the screen when summoned. HarperCollins has dropped the regular $2.99 price to $0.99 through Sunday, April 29, the last day of Earth Week.

Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at Scientific American for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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