Tag Archives: planet

Powerful Images Demonstrate That by Destroying Nature, We Are Destroying Life Itself

Art is often used as a means to raise awareness of the acute problems humanity faces today. Environmental issues, being one of the most significant of them, inspire illustrators and graphic designers all over the world to address these matters in their artwork. From drawings that show the damage the human race has done to each sphere of Earth to the illustrations that reveal a true face of war, all these stunning pieces of art serve the same purpose – to expose the absurdity of what’s happening in the world today and to encourage people to be the change.

Today, we are featuring a series of thought-provoking images titled “Destroying Nature is Destroying Life.” This awareness campaign was created by designer Surachai Puthikulangkura and agency Grabarz & Partner for German environmental activist group Robin Wood.

The title of the campaign speaks for itself, and the pictures convey a powerful message: if humans continue to destroy Earth’s natural habitats, constantly exhausting their resources, life on the planet, including our own species, will eventually be wiped out.

To demonstrate the detrimental effects of human activity on the natural world, the images depict three different landscapes that have undergone most of the damage. Each of those is represented by an animal that comes from the respective habitat.

Thus, in the pictures below, you can see the icy landscape of the Arctic with melting glaciers, which is caused by the climate change. Factors like greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation make average atmospheric temperatures constantly increase. As a result, polar bears and other Arctic animals are being threatened.

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The effects of deforestation

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The catastrophic consequences of fires, associated with human activity, on tropical rainforests

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There is real scientific evidence behind the striking images of this awareness campaign, as a recent study concluded that our planet is now entering the sixth mass extinction. It is estimated that due to the human impact on the natural environment, the vertebrate species are now disappearing up to 100 times faster than the normal. At the same time, the loss of habitat, caused by human industrial activities, has, in fact, lead to the extinction of 52% of wildlife in the world. It seems that we humans have reached the point where the deadly consequences of our actions are no longer reversible.

These powerful images demonstrate that we are the reason for all the problems that plague our planet today. Yet, they also remind us that we are the only ones who can do something about it and save life on Earth while it’s still possible.

Credits: TheMindUnleashed

New moon discovered around dwarf planet Makemake

Orbiting a tiny planet at the far reaches of our solar system is an even tinier, pitch-black moon, NASA’s Hubble telescope has revealed.

The moon — nicknamed MK2 — orbits Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet, after Pluto, in the Kuiper belt, the huge mass of comets, frozen rocks and other objects orbiting the sun beyond Neptune.
It was discovered by scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Southwest Research Institute, using the Hubble space telescope.
Makemake, named for the creation deity of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island, has a diameter of 870 miles, around a 10th of the size of Earth and two-thirds that of Pluto. MK2 is smaller still, with a diameter of just 100 miles.

Pluto killers

The discovery of Makemake, along with fellow dwarf planets Ceres, Eris and Haumea, was the primary reason for the reclassification of Pluto in 2006 as a dwarf planet.
Finding a moon orbiting Makemake only reinforces the unfortunate fact for Pluto lovers that the one-time ninth planet is not as special as once thought.
“This new discovery opens a new chapter in comparative planetology in the outer solar system,” Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute said in a statement.

Moon over Makemake

As scientists observe the moon and its orbit more closely, they hope to gain insight into its origin.
A tight circular orbit would indicate that it was most likely formed as a result of a collision between Makemake and another Kuiper belt object, whereas a wider, elongated orbit would suggest the moon is in a captured orbit, sucked into orbit around the dwarf planet.
“Either event would have likely occurred several billion years ago, when the solar system was young,” the Hubble team said.

New planet?

The discovery of Makemake’s moon isn’t the only recent expansion of our solar system’s known objects.
In January, scientists said they had found evidence of a theorized ninth planet orbiting the sun at a distance of more than 65 billion miles.
While the planet has yet to be observed, scientists estimate it would have a mass about 10 times that of Earth, and would take up to 20,000 years to complete an orbit around our star.