Page 267 - Microbial methane cycling in a warming world From biosphere to atmosphere Michiel H in t Zandt

EUMETSAT 2020). These programs provide indispensable datasets for identifying hot spots in the global GHG budget.
Figure 3. The left picture was taken by the Apollo 17 crew on December 7th 1972. This image or video was catalogued by Johnson Space Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: AS17-148-22727. Public Domain - Wikimedia Commons, 2019. The right picture was taken by Voyager 1 on February 14th 1990 at approximately 6.4 billion kilometers from Earth. The Earth appears as a tiny dot within deep space: it is the blueish-white speck almost halfway up the brown/orange band on the right, not spanning more than 0.12 pixels in size. Public Domain – Wikimedia Commons, 2019.
The global challenges of a changing climate
Many of us are aware of the potentially severe consequences of a warming world. However, the effects of climate change do not only affect average global sea levels and ecosystem biodiversity, but also have severe and direct impacts on societies. One of the most dramatic causes is the increased severity and frequency of weather-related natural disasters that destroy whole ecosystems, human infrastructures, and buildings, and force people to leave their homes and habitats. Often less visible is the more gradual environmental migration that is caused by mainly coastal flooding, shoreline erosion, and agricultural disruption (Risingtide.nl 2005). Furthermore, the associated increases in local conflicts over resources can further displace
11
265