Development and Cooperation

Contributions from
the Column
Books and Media

UNEP atlas

Shadow economies

The future of development cooperation

Globalisation, destabilisation and conflicts

07/2005

Terrifying images

UNEP (Ed.):
One planet, many people.
Atlas of our changing environment.
Nairobi, UNEP 2005, 332 pp., $ 150,
ISBN 92 807 2571 8.
Excerpts available free on the internet at http://grid2.cr.usgs.gov/
OnePlanetManyPeople/

The destruction of rain forests, the conversion of mangrove swamps into shrimp farms and hothouses sprawling like cancer across Southern Spain. A new atlas published by the UN Environmental Programme shows how consumerist lifestyles are destroying the environment. The pictures, which originate from the US Geological Survey and the US National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), also illustrate the dramatic changes which have occurred in the surrounding areas of cities such as Delhi, Dhaka, Las Vegas and Beijing: devastated fields, contaminated rivers and dried-out lakes. Following the old maxim “a picture is worth a thousand words”, it compares and contrasts spectacular satellite photos of the past few decades with contemporary ones. (orb)