Earth Looked Like Hell From Space This Year

On their own , each of the legion conditions calamities that bechance the universe in 2020 would be a crisis . But hurricane , floods , and wildfires intersected with the pandemic in ways that test pinch response systems in ways they have n’t before . Piling the climate crisis on top of a public health crisis not only put evacuees in danger of contracting covid-19 while simultaneously losing everything they owned , it also strained disaster reply resources and almost certainly contributed toongoing disaster fatiguealready plaguing first responders .

This year will leave unerasable scars on the landscape for year or even X to amount . The impacts will linger even longer in the air , where carbon dioxide liberate from fire will remain for a century or more .

To be sure , the human bell of the conditions disasters that befell us this year is very material , but the good way to truly grasp the monumental scope of what ’s hap to the satellite is from space . As we prepare to bid good riddance to 2020 , these are the moments that stand out for the damage they ’ve done to society and the biosphere .

Pyrocumulus cloud forming over the August Complex Fire on Sept. 9.