Climate change has a serious impact on Earth. Signs of Earth's destruction due to the consequences of climate change can be seen from space.
Climate change causes the Earth to face a more severe threat of forest fires. In the image above, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite on July 1, 2018. A plume of smoke is seen from the County Fire wildfires in northern California, which burned for nearly three weeks.
Many major cities in the world have to make similar adaptations in an effort to prevent flooding and inundation. In this photo, 2020 torrential rains cause flooding along the inland delta of the Niger River in Mali. Stagnant water turns black in the eyes of NASA's Terra satellite. In shallow water, grass and other plants begin to grow, turning the normally arid riverbanks green.
In this photo, a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean also shows the effects of climate change. Researchers looking at records from the past few decades have found evidence that climate change is making storms more intense and less predictable.
Record-breaking heat waves, such as the one that hit the Pacific Northwest in July 2021, are predicted to be longer, more severe, and more frequent. The heat was not only hit North America. In 2018, a severe heatwave swept through Europe, which lasted for more than a month, exploring areas such as Germany and Scandinavia. Most of the continent, which is normally lush and green, quickly turned brown, as can be seen in the image above, taken by the polar-orbiting weather satellite Suomi NPP.
As the world warms, glaciers around the world are melting snow which is melting faster. For example, Iceland's Okjökull snow once covered the entire mountain surface. But in this 2019 photo from space, all the Landsat 8 satellite can see are a few chunks of stuck ice.
In the image above, taken by the Landsat 8 satellite in December 2016, a patch of snow shines bright white from the Algerian desert. In 2016, this small area on the edge of the Sahara Desert experienced its first snowfall in nearly four decades. Climate change is causing strange weather patterns, and while it may seem counterintuitive, a warming Earth will also exacerbate winters.
In the image above, as seen by the Landsat 8 satellite in 2018, green stripes and blue spots dotted Greenland's icy white. This splatter painting is a sign of an unseasonably early thaw. When pools of meltwater form on the surface of the ice, they make the ice absorb more heat, and that only encourages more melting.
Climate change can also have undue effects on local ecosystems, thanks to allowing invasive species to run amok. The image above, captured by the Landsat 8 satellite, shows Mexico's Valsequillo Reservoir, near the city of Puebla, red from blooming water hyacinths there.
Climate change weakens the Atlantic Current or Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is very important because it sends warm water from the Caribbean, to the East Coast of North America and across the ocean to Europe, to keep Europe's climate relatively mild for its high latitudes. From studying historical data, scientists now think the Gulf Stream is at its weakest in 1,600 years.
This image shows the release of methane. There is a lot of methane stored in the polar regions of the Earth. Methane is the most common greenhouse gas produced by humans and is far more potent than carbon dioxide in causing warming.