Fragile Earth App Depicts Impact Of Climate Change On Planet (PHOTOS)

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) - Whether it is melting glaciers, coastal erosion or drying lakes, a new app displays the impact of climate change on the planet by using before and after satellite images.

Called Fragile Earth, the app for iPhone and iPad shows how our planet is impacted by global warming by featuring more than 70 sites such the receding Muir Glacier in Alaska, the impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the draining of the Mesopotamia Marshes in Iraq.

"We don't necessarily put an opinion on it," said Jethro Lennox, head of publishing at Collins Geo, a division of Harper Collins UK which created the app. "We're just trying to visually portray some of the geographical features and changes around the world."

The app also shows the impact of natural disasters including the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan and the tsunami in Japan, and how mining, deforestation and dam building have changed areas of the planet.

Users of the app slide birds-eye photographs depicting before and after states of environmental changes.

"When you're looking at the earth changing, it's almost surprising and it shows how amazing the place is," said Lennox. "For years glaciers have been retreating and advancing, and we don't really know exactly why this is taking place. But the rate of some of these changes is amazing."

Lennox said that some of the most astounding images are of the Aral Sea, which was once the world's fourth-largest lake but has drastically reduced in size over the past 40 years.

"We even have to change our world maps quite regularly because it changes so fast," he said.

The app explains what is happening in the images, which Lennox thinks is part of its appeal because a user doesn't need to be a scientist to understand what is happening.

It is an extension of the book "Fragile Earth," which was published in 2006 and is now out of print. A second edition of the book will be published later this year.

Collins Geo plans to continue to develop the app, adding more image sets and other features.

Lennox said the company views apps as an important channel, especially for visual content.

"Some of the more reference and illustrative books are starting to really come alive in the app environment," he said.

Images within the app come from a variety of sources including NASA and GeoEye, a satellite imagery company. They date from 1914 up to the present day.

The app is available worldwide and costs $2.99.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)

Fragile Earth app pictures courtesy of HarperCollins.

Loading Slideshow

• Muir Glacier Shrinkage, Alaska, USA

  August 1941

• Muir Glacier Shrinkage, Alaska, USA

  September 2004

• Briksdalsbreen Glacier Retreat, Norway

  May 2004

• Briksdalsbreen Glacier Retreat, Norway

  July 2009

• Tidal Problems, Venice, Italy

  May 2008

• Tidal Problems, Venice, Italy

  November 2009

• Amazon Deforestation, Rondônia, Brazil

  January 2000

• Amazon Deforestation, Rondônia, Brazil

  January 2003

• Amazon Deforestation, Rondônia, Brazil

  January 2006

• Amazon Deforestation, Rondônia, Brazil

  January 2009

• Wildfire, Yellowstone National Park, USA

  August 1987

• Wildfire, Yellowstone National Park, USA

  August 1989

• Wildfire, Yellowstone National Park, USA

  July 1997

• Wildfire, Yellowstone National Park, USA

  September 2008

• Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshlands, Iraq

  May 2005

• Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshlands, Iraq

  June 2005

• Urbanization, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  November 2000

• Urbanization, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  November 2004

• Urbanization, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  March 2007

• Urbanization, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  February 2010

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Comments

[Cayce58]

08:50 PM on 05/24/2012

BKlein---The problem is feedbacks. The present CO2 will warm the earth 2 degrees. That will melt the permafrost, clear the arctic of ice and reduce snow cover. Ice and snow reflect 80% of the suns heat. Bare ground and clear water absorb 80%. 9 billion tons of carbon in permafrost will start to rot, producing CO2 and methane, increasing global warming. At 3 degrees, a computer model repeated by 7 groups in 3 countries says the carbon cycle will reverse. Vegetation stressed by desertification and heat will produce less oxygen than the 9 gigatons of carbon in soil will produce CO2. We go to 6 degrees--nothing can stop it. When the oceans release their methyl hydrate you could get the worst case scenario, 1000 ppm CO2 and a 15 degree rise. Life as we know it would be impossible. 6 degrees is an extinction event, 15 might be man's extinction.

[StephenBP]

04:37 PM on 05/24/2012

The current consensus among scientists of any standing is that the climate is warming, and that humans are a major contributor to this warming. It is of course possible to buck this consensus and believe something contrary to this, but the probability of you getting the right answer when going against the people who specialize in finding the right answer to these sorts of things is really not very high.

When an army of good, honest, smart, hard working scientists tells you something, you really have to be somewhat dim to ignore them. And you really have to be gullible or purposefully evil and misleading if you claim to believe a discredited smear campaign against climatologists that originated in the world’s largest fossil fuel exporting nation.

[maxwells]

12:49 PM on 05/25/2012

The following is directed toward Saturn1/platoii below (who are in fact the same person).

Just calling moderators and readers attention to the following:

As I understand it, HP policy does not allow the use of multiple accounts from one person for comments. That's called sock puppetry and is apparently a bannable offense, indicative of professional trolling.

Saturn1 is clearly the same person as netdr, who has been banned as platoii (along with at least a dozen other aliases), and banned at least 14 times this year.

[maxwells]

12:56 PM on 05/25/2012

Hmm...now platoii's profile has been removed.

That makes at least 15 bannings this year.

Has netdr/Saturn1 now garnered enough bannings to earn statistical validity?

[saturn1]

10:43 AM on 05/24/2012

These changes are happening today from warming which stopped 17 years ago ?

Dr Jones of CRU says there has been no statistically significant warming in 17 years.

Professor Jones [of CRU infamy] also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 17 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html

[gallon]

02:42 PM on 05/24/2012

Where have you been netdr? Usually you are good for a couple dozen of your spams per day.

Is the Heartland loss of funding cutting in to your hours?

[saturn1]

04:44 PM on 05/29/2012

I have already exposed your biggest fibs.

[saturn1]

04:44 PM on 05/29/2012

Who is this Netdr you speak of like SUPERMAN ?

[maxwells]

08:13 PM on 05/24/2012

Saturn1 is LYING.

full 2010 BBC quote:

"Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming?" (for a 15 year period)

"Yes, but only just. I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level. The positive trend is quite close (93%) to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8511670.stm

In 2011 BBC, Jones added:

"Basically what's changed is one more year [of data]. That period 1995-2009 was just 15 years - and because of the uncertainty in estimating trends over short periods, an extra year has made that trend significant at the 95% level which is the traditional threshold that statisticians have used for many years."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13719510

a) Saturn1 is lying about the length of the period.
b) Saturn1 is lying about both what Jones said and what he meant.

But Saturn1/netdr seems to know this and will blithely lie about it again, which suggests that

SATURN1 - NETDR MAY BE OUR BEST EVIDENCE THAT

ASTROTURFING EXISTS ON HP.

BTW, HuffPo has banned Saturn1/netdr 14 times this year.

other netdr/saturn1 aliases:

NGC2623
HoosierDaddy25
leesburg-larry
neptune2
Ptolemy101
Texas-Titan
texas-husker
caesar200
zillaii
falconiia
ptolemyii
platoii

[platoii]

09:00 AM on 05/04/2012

Since records were started in a LITTLE ICE AGE and it has warmed .8 ° C the impact of global warming has been on balance positive.

Despite this the chicken littles have made a business of selling pessimism.

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it. ” Voltaire.
CO2 causes
Volcanoes [No joke, just after the Iceland volcano there were peer reviewed studies
linking it to global warming]
Earthquakes [Same thing after the Japan earthquake]
More snow
Less snow
Heat waves
Intense cold
( ICS) Irritable Climate Syndrome
Floods
Droughts
More extreme weather
Less extreme weather
Melting ice

Fewer hurricanes
More cloud
Fewer clouds
Stratospheric warming
Stratospheric cooling
etc. etc. ad nauseum.
The science is settled.

[gallon]

11:22 AM on 05/04/2012

Your clever list was lifted from the internet. Convention when copying an extended passage like this is to give proper credit to the original author. Not to do so is considered plagiarism.

What kind of a twisted mind does it take to ignore ethics and manners like this? Well, the same mind ignores climate science, if the mind even perceived the science in the first place.

[platoii]

11:46 AM on 05/04/2012

I liked the list too !

It is so true that it hurts doesn't it ?

Here are the quotes you asked for . " "

[chrisd3]

11:52 AM on 05/04/2012

"Your clever list was lifted from the internet"

Yes, and it has been pointed out to him dozens of times that it's a pack of lies. Nobody EVER linked the Japan earthquake to climate change, for example.

Nor has he ever provided a link to these 'peer-reveiwed studies" that tied the Iceland volcano to global warming, despite MANY requests.

But he don't care. Truth and accuracy are not the objectives.

[StephenBP]

04:48 PM on 05/24/2012

Hey Plato! You have the same problem as Saturn1. You can't handle the aspect ratio on your avatar picture! You are trying to impress us with an avatar alluding to one of history's smartest people, but then you show less intelligence than a reasonably smart sixth grader in your presentation!

You really are a funny guy! Thank you for the good laugh!

Cheers!

[SharonDoc]

07:31 AM on 05/04/2012

"........ a division of Harper Collins UK which created the app. "We're just trying to visually portray some of the geographical features and changes around the world.""

The app is about making money!

[lbsaltzman]

01:42 PM on 05/23/2012

I am happy for companies that help us understand global warming making money off their efforts. Far better that than the greedy profits the fossil fuel industry makes while destroying the ecology of the planet and the future of the human species.

[Jeremyewilliams]

03:08 PM on 05/24/2012

"The app is about making money!"

Yet I bet you won't make the same correlation for things you vouch for.

Teachers also make money...Climate scientists make money! *GASP*

Money is what stimulates and drives economies. If you can make money without harm as well as actually helping the environment/planet, I do not see the problem.

[marky1]

10:31 AM on 05/03/2012

"We don't necessarily put an opinion on it," said Jethro Lennox, head of publishing at Collins Geo, a division of Harper Collins UK which created the app. "We're just trying to visually portray some of the geographical features and changes around the world."

Because an opinion would be bad even if based in fact. This is also why no publisher will touch a novel that has global warming as an element. Too afraid to scare potential readers with reality. Shhh . . .

[Bklein153]

10:21 AM on 05/03/2012

Could their be any benefits to a warmer world. I for one never believe anything is 100% bad? Could increased CO2 spur reforestation? Could it increase crop seasons? Could it decrease cold related deaths (a major problem for the elderly). Would it decrease seasonal depression? Would increased storms, bring more water to reservoirs to parched areas? Would higher sea levels help threatened wetlands? I believe in climate change, but no one can convince me that every effect of it will be bad. If anyone - and I mean anyone says everything will be bad, they are not using science but fear tactics to sell you something else!

[marky1]

10:33 AM on 05/03/2012

It's a not a belief. And for the most part the change would, and is, not good.

[Bklein153]

10:38 AM on 05/03/2012

In the fact you will not even consider that the net effect could be good means you are not applying science to this, just politics. Sorry, that is religion and YOU do not know what the net effects will be!

[lbsaltzman]

10:21 PM on 05/03/2012

Many things get worse. The weather will destabilize and storms will be more intense. The biological and ecological problems are horrendous. Forests are already suffering from the invasions of insects that lived farther south with devastating results. Some areas may become deserts. Much better we deal with global warming and minimize it as much as possible rather than fantasize it is a good thing.

[Bklein153]

08:30 AM on 05/04/2012

Storm intensity is a relative phenomenon. In fact the Earth has always had intense weather. Hurricane, monsoons, tornadoes are all weather patterns that have existed (and in relative commonality) for eons and the Earth is just fine. trust m, there is not a storm or weather pattern that man has not seen or experienced. As far as destabilizing, man could not destabilize the orbit and rotation of the planet nor the intensity of the sun - the primary drivers of weather.

[SallyMaclennane]

08:27 AM on 05/03/2012

Wow....my very own doom-and-gloom app. I can't wait!

[jimboy71]

12:04 AM on 05/04/2012

When they invent the digital muzzle, let me know.

[Jeremyewilliams]

03:16 PM on 05/24/2012

No doom and gloom, just reality!

[SallyMaclennane]

08:27 AM on 05/03/2012

Yeah....this app should scare people into believing that garbage......not.

[DoctorDirector]

02:39 AM on 05/04/2012

Head firmly in sand?

[Jeremyewilliams]

03:16 PM on 05/24/2012

He's reaching hard ground.

[dewey13]

10:13 PM on 05/02/2012

The fact is that we made a difference in the Antarctic ozone hole by banning CFC's proves that we can have a significant difference by changing our life style.

Now if you want to deny everything and bury your head in the sand, your butt may freeze or burn depending on which hemisphere you are located

[Bklein153]

10:23 AM on 05/03/2012

That hole is still there. As far as us banning CFCs, well India and China now put more CFCs into the air than we ever did? So not only did we not make a 'difference' - the problem is still there - but others have replaced our input

[chrisd3]

11:56 AM on 05/04/2012

CFCs last a long time in the atmsophere, so there is no reason whatsoever to think that the hole would just disappear as the result of Montreal.

It is, however, no longer growing, and there are indications that it may have begun to shrink.

If you don't think this constitutes "making a difference," I'm not sure what your criteria are.

[Bklein153]

10:24 AM on 05/03/2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/geoffrey-lean/8067348/Goodbye-CFCs.-Hello-HCFCs.html

[heartsmindsvision]

09:46 PM on 05/02/2012

But the rich 1% don't see it that way, they are making to much money to care.

[boilinabag]

09:26 PM on 05/02/2012

i am one who is glad that we will all be dead soon. this is fact. maybe less than 5 years before storm cells take us out.... good we deserve it.... now, what time is idol on?>>>>

[FatFeline]

09:22 PM on 05/02/2012

Yes, but, is it man made?

If it is, is there anything that 310 million Americans can do about against the world population of 7 Billion?

[alteredstory]

09:52 PM on 05/02/2012

Considering we're responsible for the vast majority of emissions over the last century, and we're still the second largest GHG emitter, and we're still a driving economic force in the world, yes.

There is a LOT that 310 million Americans can do.

[legaleyeleft]

10:12 PM on 05/02/2012

So ig_norant.......

Compare our pollution to say, that of Africa......

[Bklein153]

10:26 AM on 05/03/2012

I prefer our lifestyle compared the one that is prevalent in Africa! I take some climate change any day of the week and twice on sunday to avoid being an economic basketcase like that continent

[freethinking moderate]

09:10 PM on 05/02/2012

And yet we ask each other what was going through the mind of the Easter Islander who cut down the last tree.

[Captain Hindsight]

09:21 PM on 05/02/2012

I'm stumped but we will get to the root of this problem?

[legaleyeleft]

10:13 PM on 05/02/2012

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's easier to leave alone than try and solve....

[DoctorDirector]

02:41 AM on 05/04/2012

That is so sad. And a great point.

[TarmagonTheDestroyer]

08:42 PM on 05/02/2012

we are the cure or the virus. no other living being on earth has this power.

[Captain Hindsight]

09:32 PM on 05/02/2012

"LET THESE BE GUIDESTONES TO AN AGE OF REASON"

the message of the Georgia Guidestones

1. MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE

2. GUIDE REPRODUCTION WISELY - IMPROVING FITNESS AND DIVERSITY

3. UNITE HUMANITY WITH A LIVING NEW LANGUAGE

4. RULE PASSION - FAITH - TRADITION - AND ALL THINGS WITH TEMPERED REASON

5. PROTECT PEOPLE AND NATIONS WITH FAIR LAWS AND JUST COURTS

6. LET ALL NATIONS RULE INTERNALLY RESOLVING EXTERNAL DISPUTES IN A WORLD COURT

7. AVOID PETTY LAWS AND USELESS OFFICIALS

8. BALANCE PERSONAL RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL DUTIES

9. PRIZE TRUTH - BEAUTY - LOVE- SEEKING HARMONY WITH THE INFINITE

10. BE NOT A CANCER ON THE EARTH - LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE - LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE

[firewired]

09:53 PM on 05/02/2012

Well stated! FanNDNFavD!