I 'spring-cleaned' my computer hard disk and chanced upon a folder of photographs which I downloaded after I went for 'The Earth from Above' exhibition by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand which was held in Singapore a few years back =) The photographs are really really stunning!!
Quote "Earth from the Air is a spectacular presentation of astonishing natural landscapes. Every stunning aerial photograph tells a story about our changing planet. Seen together, they are an outstanding visual testimony to the world we live in today. A world with a growing population, shrinking biodiversity, polluted lands and oceans, a changing climate and a shortage of drinking water. A world, nevertheless, of beauty and of wonder."
Here, I will share some of my favourite photos with you; for more information on 'The Earth from Above' project and more stunning photos, check out the website here.
Elephants in the Meru National Park, Kenya
The Meru National Park, east of Mount Kenya, is one of the country’s largest, covering 870 square kilometers (340 square miles). Thanks to the 19 watercourses that cross it, its vegetation is especially lush. It is also notorious for having suffered heavy poaching, especially that supplying the ivory trade. In the 1960s, the government enacted laws to protect and reintroduce threatened species, such as leopard. However, in spite of these laws, elephant numbers fell sharply and the white rhinoceros disappeared altogether in the two decades that followed.
Heart in Voh, New Caledonia (French Overseas Territory)
A mangrove swamp is a semi-aquatic forest common to muddy tropical coastlines with fluctuating tides. Made up of halophytes (plants that can grow in a saline environment), with a predominance of mangroves, these swamps cover almost one-quarter of tropical coasts and a total of some 56,000 square miles (15 million hectares) worldwide. This represents only half of their original extent, because these fragile swamps are continually shrinking due to the overexploitation of resources, agricultural and urban expansion, the creation of shrimp farms, and pollution. The mangrove nonetheless remains as indispensable to sea fauna and to the equilibrium of the shoreline as it is to the local economy.
View of Venice, Veneto, Italy
Venice is an archipelago of 118 islands that are separated by 160 canals spanned by more than 400 bridges. Today, the eclipse risks becoming total. “La Serenissima” could vanish under the waves, a victim of the floods that have increased as a result of canal widening, the sinking of the ground on which Venice is built, and the rise in sea level (0.24 inches, or 6 mm per year). In 2002, an ambitious and expensive plan called the Moses Project was chosen to build a damming system to protect the city from high tides. Almost 80 moveable steel barriers are to be installed and operational by 2011.
Icebergs and Adélie penguins, Adélie Land, Antarctica (South Pole)
The Antarctic covers an area of 6.37 million square miles (16.5 million km2). The sixth continent is a unique observation point for atmospheric and climatic phenomena; its ancient ice, which trapped air when it was formed, contains evidence of the Earth’s climate as it has changed and developed over the past hundreds of thousand years. On the other hand, in the North Pole there is an ocean covered by an ice floe. Under the influence of global warming, this sea ice tends to melt. The average thickness of Arctic sea ice has decreased, from 10.23 feet (3.12 m) in the 1960s to 5.9 feet (1.8 m) in the 1990s. This phenomenon also affects mountain ecosystems, which fall victim to rises in temperature. The melting of glaciers is a threat to many inhabited regions; Mount Kilimanjaro has lost 55 percent of its glaciers in forty years. In Peru, in 1970, the sudden break of a water’s pocket of the Huascarane’s glacier provoked the death of at least 15 000 people. If present trends continue, a large number of mountain glaciers will vanish before the end of the century.
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone national park, Wyoming, United States
Situated on a volcanic plateau that straddles the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, Yellowstone is the oldest national park in the world. Created in 1872, it covers 3,500 square miles (9,000 km²) and contains the world’s largest concentration of geothermic sites, with more than 10,000 geysers, fumaroles, and hot springs. Grand Prismatic Spring, 370 feet (112 m) in diameter, is the park’s largest hot pool and third-greatest in the world. The color spectrum for which it is named is caused by the presence of cyanobacteria, whose growth in hot water is greater at the periphery where the temperature is lower.
Leona river, Santa Cruz province, Argentina
A subglacial river, the Leona is fed by blocks of ice broken off from glaciers, which are slightly turquoise in color because they are so ancient and dense. As they melt, these blocks give the waterway its characteristic milky-blue tint, which the Argentines call dulce de glaciar, glacier cream. The color contrast is even more striking because the banks, subject to successive floods, are almost bare of all vegetation.
Quote "Earth from the Air is a spectacular presentation of astonishing natural landscapes. Every stunning aerial photograph tells a story about our changing planet. Seen together, they are an outstanding visual testimony to the world we live in today. A world with a growing population, shrinking biodiversity, polluted lands and oceans, a changing climate and a shortage of drinking water. A world, nevertheless, of beauty and of wonder."
Here, I will share some of my favourite photos with you; for more information on 'The Earth from Above' project and more stunning photos, check out the website here.
Elephants in the Meru National Park, KenyaThe Meru National Park, east of Mount Kenya, is one of the country’s largest, covering 870 square kilometers (340 square miles). Thanks to the 19 watercourses that cross it, its vegetation is especially lush. It is also notorious for having suffered heavy poaching, especially that supplying the ivory trade. In the 1960s, the government enacted laws to protect and reintroduce threatened species, such as leopard. However, in spite of these laws, elephant numbers fell sharply and the white rhinoceros disappeared altogether in the two decades that followed.
Heart in Voh, New Caledonia (French Overseas Territory)A mangrove swamp is a semi-aquatic forest common to muddy tropical coastlines with fluctuating tides. Made up of halophytes (plants that can grow in a saline environment), with a predominance of mangroves, these swamps cover almost one-quarter of tropical coasts and a total of some 56,000 square miles (15 million hectares) worldwide. This represents only half of their original extent, because these fragile swamps are continually shrinking due to the overexploitation of resources, agricultural and urban expansion, the creation of shrimp farms, and pollution. The mangrove nonetheless remains as indispensable to sea fauna and to the equilibrium of the shoreline as it is to the local economy.
View of Venice, Veneto, ItalyVenice is an archipelago of 118 islands that are separated by 160 canals spanned by more than 400 bridges. Today, the eclipse risks becoming total. “La Serenissima” could vanish under the waves, a victim of the floods that have increased as a result of canal widening, the sinking of the ground on which Venice is built, and the rise in sea level (0.24 inches, or 6 mm per year). In 2002, an ambitious and expensive plan called the Moses Project was chosen to build a damming system to protect the city from high tides. Almost 80 moveable steel barriers are to be installed and operational by 2011.
Icebergs and Adélie penguins, Adélie Land, Antarctica (South Pole)The Antarctic covers an area of 6.37 million square miles (16.5 million km2). The sixth continent is a unique observation point for atmospheric and climatic phenomena; its ancient ice, which trapped air when it was formed, contains evidence of the Earth’s climate as it has changed and developed over the past hundreds of thousand years. On the other hand, in the North Pole there is an ocean covered by an ice floe. Under the influence of global warming, this sea ice tends to melt. The average thickness of Arctic sea ice has decreased, from 10.23 feet (3.12 m) in the 1960s to 5.9 feet (1.8 m) in the 1990s. This phenomenon also affects mountain ecosystems, which fall victim to rises in temperature. The melting of glaciers is a threat to many inhabited regions; Mount Kilimanjaro has lost 55 percent of its glaciers in forty years. In Peru, in 1970, the sudden break of a water’s pocket of the Huascarane’s glacier provoked the death of at least 15 000 people. If present trends continue, a large number of mountain glaciers will vanish before the end of the century.
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone national park, Wyoming, United StatesSituated on a volcanic plateau that straddles the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, Yellowstone is the oldest national park in the world. Created in 1872, it covers 3,500 square miles (9,000 km²) and contains the world’s largest concentration of geothermic sites, with more than 10,000 geysers, fumaroles, and hot springs. Grand Prismatic Spring, 370 feet (112 m) in diameter, is the park’s largest hot pool and third-greatest in the world. The color spectrum for which it is named is caused by the presence of cyanobacteria, whose growth in hot water is greater at the periphery where the temperature is lower.
Leona river, Santa Cruz province, ArgentinaA subglacial river, the Leona is fed by blocks of ice broken off from glaciers, which are slightly turquoise in color because they are so ancient and dense. As they melt, these blocks give the waterway its characteristic milky-blue tint, which the Argentines call dulce de glaciar, glacier cream. The color contrast is even more striking because the banks, subject to successive floods, are almost bare of all vegetation.
