title: Our Changing Planet: The View from Space
author: Michael D. King
description: It has been just over60 years since the first satellite pictures of earth were recorded, and since that time, the increasing number and sophistication of photographs from space have enabled scientists to see changes in earths atmosphere, land, and water with greater accuracy. This book covers a wide range of topics, from seasonal changes in foliage in North America to sea-surface temperature changes worldwide. Content is organized in sections treatingthe atmosphere, the land, the ocean, the ice caps, and human activities. Fairly short subsectionsfocus onparticular issues or geographic areas. For example, one subsection in Evidence of Our Tenure, which discusses human activities, deals with the drainage of Iraqi marshlands.In addition to satellite photos and photographs of landscapes on earth, most sections include graphs and charts to further explain or interpret the views from space. Captions offer considerable detail that supplements the information found in the text. Appendixes contain an explanation ofsatellite orbits and remote sensing and a glossary. The index provides many access points to the information. A browser interested in global change would find much fascinating material in the exceptional photographs and diagrams and in the explanations found in the captions and text. A researcher could use this as a starting point.Fireflys Earth from Space (2007) contains some of the same images but does not have as much analysis on planetary change as Our Changing Planet. Many libraries will want both. --Elaine Lindstrom
zlib_text: [Back](0671318586__31.htm) | [Next](0671318586__33.htm)  
  [Contents](0671318586_toc.htm)
  
  # **Labyrinth**
  
  Miles contemplated the image of the globe glowing above the vid plate, crossed
  his arms, and stifled queasiness. The planet of Jackson's Whole, glittering,
  wealthy, corrupt . . . Jacksonians claimed their corruption was entirely
  importedif the galaxy were willing to pay for virtue what it paid for vice,
  the place would be a pilgrimage shrine. In Miles's view this seemed rather
  like debating which was superior, maggots or the rotten meat they fed off.
  Still, if Jackson's Whole didn't exist, the galaxy would probably have had to
  invent it. Its neighbors might feign horror, but they wouldn't permit the
  place to exist if they didn't find it a secretly useful interface with the
  sub-economy.
  
  The planet possessed a certain liveliness, anyway. Not as lively as a century
  or two back, to be sure, in its hijacker-base days. But its cutthroat criminal
  gangs had senesced into Syndicate monop