Each year, more than 190 countries participate in the celebration of Earth Day (April 22), which marks the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. As Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network has noted, that movement owes its existence, in part, to Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, whose iconic 1968 Earthrise photograph raised "the level of ecoconsciousness that had been stirring for almost a decade." That era also saw the start of systematic study of Earth from space with the birth of Landsat, the joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey program that is the longest continuous space-based record of Earth's land in existence, providing data on natural resources and the environment since 1972. This recent image taken by Landsat 8 (launched in 2013), gives us a satellite's-eye view of an environmental landmark: Pelican Island, the first National Wildlife Refuge established in the United States. The three-acre refuge-located in the Indian River Lagoon on the east coast of Florida-is used by more than 140 species of birds as a site for nesting, roosting, and feeding.
展开▼
