Planet destruction shown in UN atlas

An atlas of satellite photographs published by the UN environmental agency has exposed the physical damage wrought by the growing human population, including deforestation, retreating icecaps, dried seas, sprawling cities and pollution.
UNEP said the book, One Planet, Many People, gives a clear illustration of major environmental changes that develop gradually over years without being immediately noticed on the ground.
The comparative photographs from space include the emergence of greenhouses for industrial scale farming in Almeria, southern Spain that have turned about 400 square kilometres of fields and valleys dotted with villages into a solid grey and white patchwork between 1974 to 2004.
They also show the shrinkage of the Arctic icecap as well as glaciers in the Himalayas, European Alps and South America's Andes, while a swathe of virgin Amazonian rainforest in Brazil turns from solid green in 1975 to stripes of white 25 years later due to logging.