These 19 Before-And-After Photos Show The Toll Climate Change Has Taken On Earth
Climate change is the most pressing issue facing the world today, and will continue to intensify unless global action is taken.
National Geographic / giphy.com
In 2015, it was agreed at the Paris Accords that a limit would be placed on the rise of global temperature. The Earth could warm no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) without irreversible consequences.
In April of this year, UN chief António Guterres stated that we are on our way to not only breaking that limit but doubling it. Global warming has been backed by plenty of scientific evidence, but nothing quite drives home the damage we're doing to our planet like images of nature's destruction.
To remind ourselves to take care of our environment and vote for leaders who prioritize sustainable practices, these are 19 before-and-after pictures that prove things cannot continue the way they are.
All images courtesy of NASA's 'Images of Change' project.
1.Cerro Prieto Reservoir, Mexico in 2015:
And in 2022:
The Cerro Prieto reservoir in Nuevo León, Mexico has dried up significantly un recent years due to drought conditions.
2.Lake Manchar, Pakistan in June, 2022:
And in September, 2022:
Monsoons in Pakistan have caused flooding, leading to the Indus River's Lake Manchar overflowing. More than 100,000 people were affected by the floodwaters.
3.Peyto Glacier, Canada in 1999:
And in 2021:
Peyto Glacier is one of 47 glaciers worldwide that scientists use to monitor the state of the world's glaciers. In the past half-century, it has lost 70% of its mass.
4.Great Salt Lake, Utah in 1985:
And in 2022:
Drought and high water usage caused the Great Salt Lake to reach a new low (4,190 feet) in 2021, and it has been continuously dropping since. The most recent report is 4,188 feet.
Earlier this month, on October 7, 2022, the level became so low that the marina's measuring system no longer works.
5.Great Salt Lake, Utah in 2017:
And in 2021:
More images of the Great Salt Lake's decline (these focus on the northern end).
6.Lake Powell, Arizona & Utah in 2017:
And in 2022:
Drought has caused Lake Powell to drop to 26% capacity. Lake Powell is the second-largest reservoir in the United States (supplying water and power to 40 million people), but the water levels are the lowest they've been since 1967.
7.Bangladesh in May, 2022:
And in June 2022:
As of 2022, 70 million people in Bangladesh live in flood-prone areas. This year, floodwaters (caused by unprecedented rainfall) were so devastating to the people and agriculture of Bangladesh that the UN declared the situation a humanitarian crisis.
8.Northern Michigan in 2021:
And in 2022:
A supercell created an intense tornado in Gaylord, Michigan, that devastated the surrounding area. In the image on the right, the arrows point to the tornado's path.
9.Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona Border in 2000:
And in 2022:
The last time Lake Mead was near full capacity was in the summer of 1999. Today, due to a drought that's been ongoing for decades, it is at 27% capacity. This is the lake's lowest level since 1937, when it was first filled.
10.Red River Valley, North America in 2020:
And in 2022:
Snow, rain, and ice melt have resulted in the worst flooding in the Red River Valley in a decade.
11.Eastern Antarctica in 1989:
And in 2022:
A collapsed ice shelf exposed so much water that it may have even revealed a new island. Though, whether the formation truly qualifies as an island, has yet to be confirmed.
12.Iberian Peninsula in 2021:
And 2022:
A drought that started last year has only gotten worse, causing lakes on the Iberian Peninsula (the Paradela Dam reservoir on the left, the Alto Rabagão reservoir on the right) to dry up significantly.
13.Land Glacier, Antarctica in February 2022:
And in March 2022:
In just one month's time, the Land Glacier went through a big change when part of its tongue crumbled apart.
14.Andes Mountains, Chile in 2018:
And in 2022:
In the southern Andes Mountains of Chile, a volcano called Villarrica has had extremely reduced snowfall on its cap. The area has been going through a severe drought for the past decade.
15.East Antarctica in January 2022:
And March 2022:
An ice shelf in East Antarctica virtually disintegrated in less than a month earlier this year. Traditionally, West Antarctica sees far more shelf collapses than the east, which is more stable.
This massive collapse in March has led to scientists, like oceanographer Catherine Walker, being concerned:
"This is something like a dress rehearsal for what we could expect from other, more massive ice shelves if they continue to melt and destabilize. Then we’ll really be past the turnaround point in terms of slowing sea level rise."
16.Tibetan Plateau in 1987:
And in 2021:
There are many, many glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (about 46,000, or 14.5% of the Earth's total). But as the planet warms and ice melts, they have led to bigger and bigger lakes.
If these lakes go the way of places like Lake Mead, that water may eventually evaporate and be gone altogether.
17.Pakistan on August 4, 2022:
And on August 28, 2022:
After severe heat and drought, an extreme monsoon season caused flooding that killed 1,100 people and 700,000 livestock animals in Pakistan.
18.Shasta Lake in 2019:
And in 2021:
California's largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, dropped 107 feet in the three years between these two photos.
19.Peru in 2020:
And in 2021:
All these satellite photos do a great job of proving climate change's effects, but they can also actively put a stop to behavior that's harming the planet. These pictures, for example, helped the Peruvian government find an illegal gold mining operation in the Amazon. The spreading tan color depicts deforestation.
Unregulated, small-scale mining operations like these can often use substances and/or practices that are as bad as (or worse than) large-scale, industrial mines.
