20+ Images that show how our Planet has changed in recent decades

Our Planet is constantly changing, many times as a result of natural events (such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and storms), others because of human beings themselves. Today, we invite you to take a journey through space and time, to see how some corners of our beloved Earth have been transformed in recent decades.

O awesome.club prepared a collection of images, captured by satellite via Google Earth, to show you the most impressive changes suffered by our Planet in the last 40 years.

This city has developed a lot in recent years and has grown from 500,000 inhabitants (1990) to over 3.3 million (2020). The metropolis, known as a business center, has grown considerably, extending over 300 kilometers from the coast and also inland, both land and sea. This expansion led to the creation of a group of artificial islands, the Palm Islands, and the archipelago The World🇧🇷

What we see in the first image and looking quickly seems to be land, but it is, nothing less, than a pink lake. Due to its salinity and temperature of more than 60°C, it is one of the most lethal and dangerous on Earth. Depending on the time of year, there is a proliferation of algae and bacteria that make its tone change and present a relatively intense pink color.

The Amazon was one of the regions most affected by changes in recent years, not only by devastating fires, but also by massive deforestation to convert what was forest into agricultural land. Most of these new farms are dedicated to the cultivation of soybeans.

Renewable energies are energy resources obtained from nature, in a clean and respectful way with the environment. They do not produce polluting agents and help to stop global warming. The number of countries betting on the use of these energies and creating solar parks in their territories only increases: China, United States, Japan and Germany top the list and we hope that, soon, many more will join.

This glacier, located on the south coast of Alaska, is one of the most affected by the changes in temperature that our Planet has been experiencing in recent decades, mainly as a result of global warming.

This is one of the highly harmful changes for our Planet, since extracting oil from these sands requires the use of a lot of energy, a lot of water and also releases a large amount of toxic agents and pollutants into the atmosphere. Oil sands are an unconventional source of oil and their exploitation is starting to gain more and more strength due to the fact that conventional oil is increasingly scarce.

This is another clear example of how destructive human greed can be. In 1960, the authorities carried out a project to divert and channel water from the Aral Sea for the cultivation, in the middle of the desert, of cotton, among other crops, which ended up drying up the lake almost completely.

Hopefully in the next four decades we can see more changes like this. What can be seen in the images above is the restoration of an ecological reserve that had practically disappeared, due to drought, during the last century. This initiative, called “Great Green Wall”, aims to slow down and even reverse the desertification of the land, through the planting of billions of trees throughout the region.

During the past four decades, the population of the city of Las Vegas has quintupled. Lake Mead is its biggest source of fresh water; its condition as a water supplier, added to other factors such as agriculture and the increase in global temperature, caused the lake to decrease in size over time.

This glacial island located on the Antarctic continent has also been extremely affected by global warming. The National Science Foundation of the United States calculates that its melting would raise the sea level in 61 meters.

In 1991, the Pinatubo volcano, after 500 years of inactivity, spewed lava again, producing one of the most violent volcanic eruptions of the last century. Its effects were felt all over the world: a layer of sulfuric acid enveloped the entire globe, temperatures dropped and the ozone layer suffered significant damage. Today, we can see how the area was gradually and naturally rebuilt after the destruction caused by the volcano eruption.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, large agricultural areas were abandoned and left again in the hands of Mother Nature. She, on her own, took charge of restoring and recovering all the green that these spaces originally had, surprising even the scientists, who expected a much slower recovery.

Where are you reading this post from? What wonders of nature are there in your city or region? Share with us in the comments!