Each week the State of Flux features images of different locations on planet Earth, showing change over time periods ranging from centuries to days. Some of these effects are related to climate change, some are not. Some document the effects of urbanization, or the ravage of natural hazards such as fires and floods. All show our planet in a state of flux.

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LATEST IMAGE: Burgeoning Belize
Belize City, Belize. Left: December 27, 1989. Right: March 25, 2010. In the two decades separating these images, Belize City’s population increased from 43,000 to more than 71,000, expanding westward largely at the expense of wetlands and mangrove swamps, and seaward with the use of landfill. The city’s area in 2010 encompassed 14.1 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) – double its area in 1980.

Credit: Source:

1.  United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). From Latin America and the Caribbean Atlas of our Changing Environment (2010).
2.  NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology