A Changing Neighborhood
June 11, 2008 2:14 PM   Subscribe

Before and after sattellite photos (along with much more information) of the effects of climate change over the past 30 years are available through UNEP's (the United Nations Environment Programme) Atlas of Our Changing Environment (Via)
posted by Kronos_to_Earth (27 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm confused. The link goes to a before/after of the Aral Sea. That wasn't climate change. The lake was drained for irrigation. What am I missing?
posted by Ragma at 2:22 PM on June 11, 2008


Wow. The effects of a crappy navigation format on my brain.


Still, pretty interesting stuff... a "prev/next" button woulda been nice....
posted by Debaser626 at 2:28 PM on June 11, 2008


Ragma: looks like you're right -- that page says the them for the Aral Sea changes is "agriculture and aquaculture." There are other areas on the second link that are climate change related.

Neat stuff, but I agree with Debaser that the navigation is nearly unusable.
posted by dpx.mfx at 2:30 PM on June 11, 2008


Oops. You missed nothing, Ragma. I hope I'm not going to be blushing through this whole thread.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 2:33 PM on June 11, 2008


Okay. I've clicked through about 8 of the pages and none of them have anything to do with climate change or global warming.

I have no doubt climate change is real, or that we're causing it, but this post seems to do a very poor job of documenting it. The pages I've seen there highlight urbanization and agriculture changes.

And the navigation is like some odd puzzle game.
posted by Ragma at 2:34 PM on June 11, 2008


I was going to say "well, at least they're nice pictures", but I also can't figure out how to get any pictures other than the Ural Sea ones.

So, FAIL.
posted by yhbc at 2:39 PM on June 11, 2008


http://na.unep.net/digital_atlas2/google.php

Go there ^ to see all the before/after satellite shots on a google maps interface, there's some good information/stories there, but you have to get past the shitty and confusing navigation.
posted by sir_rubixalot at 2:47 PM on June 11, 2008


I went by the wording of the entry I found on NOTCOT: "...visual evidence of the environmental effects of climate change...". I assumed that the poster there had it right; I didn't think the description would be so far off.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 2:48 PM on June 11, 2008


The new link is a lot better. Maybe email an admin to get the to edit the link in the post.
posted by GuyZero at 3:27 PM on June 11, 2008


I went by the wording of the entry I found on NOTCOT: "...visual evidence of the environmental effects of climate change..."

If you select "Atmosphere & Climate" in the combobox to the right, you get a list of climate-related changes.
posted by effbot at 3:36 PM on June 11, 2008


'shopped.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:50 PM on June 11, 2008


Mod note: fixed the link, carry on
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:09 PM on June 11, 2008


The googlemaps interface is a treat, but as much as I love before/afters I'm a little unhappy at the bias - the Dutch polders are a feat of engineering, but a Danube dam project seems to sap all colour from the 'today' image. It's not so, the Danube is coping well.
posted by Laotic at 4:25 PM on June 11, 2008


Thank you, jessamyn!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 4:28 PM on June 11, 2008


Or is this evidence of the confusing and contradictory application of the term Climate Change?
posted by A189Nut at 4:40 PM on June 11, 2008


If you can get it to load, that is. That UNEP website (the main page) crashes my Firefox something fierce.
posted by chimaera at 4:41 PM on June 11, 2008


And it also crashed my Internet Explorer. WTF?
posted by chimaera at 4:43 PM on June 11, 2008


Pics or it didn't happen.

oh, er, uh...um...
posted by davejay at 4:51 PM on June 11, 2008


And it also crashed my Internet Explorer. WTF?

Well, you see your little IE icon, that looks kind of like a little earth? Global Warming continues to have effects that we cannot predict nor fully understand.
posted by davejay at 4:52 PM on June 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Chimaera, update the id in the query string of the URL:

http://na.unep.net/digital_atlas2/webatlas.php?id=11 <-- change to 1, or whatever.

I couldn't figure out any other way.
posted by davejay at 4:54 PM on June 11, 2008


Some of those are pretty appalling. Check out Las Vegas. Who actually wants to live in Las Vegas?
posted by Dr. Send at 5:13 PM on June 11, 2008


This is neat. Depressing, but neat. Thanks.
posted by the littlest brussels sprout at 5:31 PM on June 11, 2008


British Columbia. Alberta. Manitoba. NWT.

One of those was perpetrated by ravenous geese.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:07 PM on June 11, 2008


(And, yeah, this isn't about climate change as much as it's just about general environmental change. Also, satellite has only two t's. Also, this is neat and I like it.)
posted by Sys Rq at 6:11 PM on June 11, 2008


Now, about that sattellite...
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:47 PM on June 11, 2008


umm...the climate was "lake"...now it's "not"...that's called "change"...humans are much more effective at destroying the environment when they work directly (irrigation, deforestation, etc) than indirectly (co2 emissions, meltdowns). what you might be "missing" is the much greater impact on the surrounding area caused by "no more lake" syndrome (reduced oxygen production, thirsty animals, etc)

this reminds me of the oceanographic survey in two volumes from "Soylent Green"

dont believe anyone who tells you that theres ~6 billion people on earth. i've heard that number since the early 70's, when population was doubling every 25 years and set to double again in the next 20 and again in 15. (ie...the rate of doubling is increasing) ...the population is a lot closer to 15 billion than it is to 6.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:58 PM on June 11, 2008


Haha, it's like all the other "evidence" for global warming.

No substance.
posted by tadellin at 7:42 AM on June 13, 2008


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