How much our planet exists, so much it changes. Of the solid ocean, the continents appeared, the mountains grew, formed and the sea disappeared. All this occupied millions of years. But in recent years, changes in the planet accelerated sharply.
Without a doubt, the behavior of the human action and scientific and technical progress. In the photos made by NASA scientists, it is clearly visible how quickly we kill our planet.
Glacier Petersen, Alaska
The left shot was made in August 1917. In the photo on the right is the same place, but in 88 years, in August 2005. The glacier is practically no.
Glacker McCarthy, Alaska
There is almost the same picture. Both snapshot are made in summer. Left - July 1909, the photo on the right was made relatively recently, in August 2004. The glacier retreated more than 15 kilometers. Scientists constantly observe the glaciers, starting in the fifties of the last century. The ice retreats at an average rate of 1.8 meters per year, but in the last ten years the melting speed increased. Researchers of the Argentine University believe that these are the fastest rates of glacier reduction over the past 12 thousand years.
Mount Matterhorn, Italy / Switzerland
Mount Matterhorn is located on the border of Italy and Switzerland. Over the past 45-50 years, it has changed a lot. Previously, her covered an impressive snow hat. Now only small islets remained from the snow cover. The Italian meteorologist Luka Merkali actively observes behind the mountain. He believes that the melting of snow on top has accelerated significantly in the summer of 2003, when an abnormal heat was standing here. Snow Pokrov connected rocks, and now, when it was not, the stonepads were frequent at Mattehorn and new cracks appear.
Reservoir Elephant-Butte, USA
This reservoir is located along the Rio Grande River in New Mexico. The situation here can be called catastrophic. The pictures you can see how it decreased from 1993 to 2014. At the moment, the Melioration Specialists in the United States are developing a plan for the preservation of the reservoir. Elephant-Butte supplies water the city of El Paso and 35 thousand hectares of agricultural land. I must say that every year it turns out worse.
Bastrop, Texas
From the satellite, it can be seen how the Bastrop district has changed in Texas. Zava Zasuha 2011 and fires that have engulfed local forests. In total, about 13,111 hectares of forests and almost 20,000 residential buildings were destroyed. It was the largest fire in the history of the state.
Lake Orovill, California
What can happen in three years? The child learned to speak, the puppy became a strong dog, and Oroville Lake in California lost 70% of its volume during this time. It seems unreal, but pictures speak for themselves.A photograph from another angle shows the scale of the tragedy. If so go further, after a couple of years, the lake will not be at all. In the Federal Bureau of the US Melioration, they say that 2014 in California was the most arid for the last century.
Lake Shasta, California
The once most largest lake of Califoria, Shasta, is practically empty now. Where there was water, now the desert scorched by the sun. White subject in the photo is a fragment of a buoy.
Lake Mar-Chikita, Argentina
The Argentine lake of Mar-Chikita is called "Little Sea", because Water in it salted. Over the past 13 years, it twice as a result of irrigation and drought. You can already observe the consequences from the decrease in the lake. It becomes more and more salty every year that it does not affect its inhabitants. In addition, dust storms became frequent in the vicinity of the lake.
Aral Sea, Kazakhstan / Uzbekistan
The Aral Sea is familiar to us since childhood. Back in Soviet times, in the journal "Crocodile" published a caricature on which the cartographer asks colleagues: "Aral Draw?" In fact, the Aral Sea is a salt lake, like Mar-Chikita. It began to decrease in the second half of the last century. In 1960, his square was 70 thousand square kilometers, in 1989 it was divided into two parts, and by the beginning of our century the area of the two seasons was 14 and 20 thousand square kilometers. Aral dries due to climate change, the construction of channels and irrigation of agricultural land. At the given moment in the Aral Sea disappeared almost all the fish.
Forests in Rondonia, Brazil
Pondonia is one of the youngest and fast-growing in Brazil. It was built on the place of the impassable jungle Amazon. The faster the state, the more active the rainforest. In the picture you can see the land of Rondonia in 1975 and 2009. Scientists are confident that over the years the extremality of natural changes will only increase. Every year, people cut out a forest equal to the area of Ceylon Island. Naturally, it strongly affects the climate of the planet. According to scientists from the intergovernmental group of climate change experts (IPCC), in the period from 1901 to 2010, the World Ocean level increased by 19 centimeters, and the surface temperature of the Earth increased by an average of 0.85 degrees Celsius.
