Feeling paranoid? You should. NASA and The U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat satellite program have been watching us from space for over forty years. The satellite orbits the Earth 14 times a day and takes photos of the entire surface of our planet every eighteen days.
In the video, photos taken over the last four decades have been strung together to show humanity’s footprint on five different locations. From the shocking deforestation of Rondônia, Brazil (where the area’s global beef exports have mowed down enough trees to fill the state of West Virginia), to the rampant water use in the Aral Sea causing a loss of 60,000 fishery jobs due to rising salt levels.
You’ll also see how the the dirty energy industry has literally stripped away Wyoming’s natural resources, and how much the Larson B Ice Shelf has collapsed due to climate change. And in the GIF above from Vox, notice how the increasing number of golf courses and artificial lakes in rapidly growing Las Vegas are an ironic harbinger of the area’s relentless drought.
Watch it and weep or get busy and do something about it.