Happy #EarthDay to everyone on our Blue Marble! 🌎 Water covers about 71% of...

NASA Climate Change 2 years ago

Happy #EarthDay to everyone on our Blue Marble! 🌎 Water covers about 71% of our planet, and that precious resource is one of the main reasons why Earth is like no other planet we’ve found in this solar system, or beyond. 💧 @nasa has been studying our seas for decades, trying to learn more about Earth’s ocean and how it helps regulate our planet’s climate. #Earth #NASA #Ocean #Climate #EarthDay2024 #BlueMarble #Water #EarthDay Video description: :00 Clips of Earth from the International Space Station, ocean waves, a building with the NASA logo on it, a rocket ship on the launch pad at night, and Earth’s limb from space. :10 Fast-paced montage of old footage of satellites and satellite views of Earth. Text reads: SEASAT (1978) One of the earliest Earth-observing satellites. :12 Colorful ocean data. “TOPEX/Poseidon (1992) Measuring ocean surface topography.” :15 Engineers in a clean room working on a satellite and more ocean data. “SeaWiFS (1997) Sea-viewing wide field-of-view sensor.” :18 Shots of boats at sea, a person pointing at a diagram, and Earth’s ocean from space,. “NAAMES (2015) North Atlantic aerosols and marine ecosystem study.” :21 A computer with data, looking at ocean and mountains out of a plane, a person holding a tube, Earth from space. “OMG (2016) Oceans melting Greenland.” :23 Engineers working on satellites and views of Earth from space,. “Sentinel-6 (2020) measuring ocean height.” :24 “SWOT (2022) Surface water and ocean topography.” :25 Clips of Earth’s oceans set to the beat of the music. :30 A satellite being built and then launching, followed by data visualizations. “PACE (2024) Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem.” :42 More clips of boats and scientists working on research boats. :44 The montage ends on old footage of a blue and white Earth as seen from the lunar surface. Text says “Astronaut Bill Anders. Apollo 8 (1968). :50 A timelapse of Earth’s limb at night as seen from the International Space Station. Cut to black, then the NASA logo.

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 1 hour ago



The UK’s acceleration toward *sustainable construction* underscores a decisive shift from ambition to delivery. National Grid ESO’s reforms to the grid connection process remove zombie projects and prioritise actionable, low carbon design ready to unlock billions in clean energy infrastructure. This structural change supports *green infrastructure* essential to *decarbonising the built environment*, linking energy planning with *sustainable building practices* that address both whole life carbon and embodied carbon impacts through rigorous whole life carbon assessment.

Offshore wind’s expansion, now generating nearly one-fifth of Britain’s electricity, highlights how *environmental sustainability in construction* relies on scalable, *eco-friendly construction* solutions. The developing offshore supply chain demands *sustainable building design* that integrates *circular economy in construction* strategies and *resource efficiency in construction*, enabling the transition towards *net zero carbon buildings* and *net zero whole life carbon* performance.

While material innovation remains subdued, the rise of energy-efficiency retrofits reflects a shift towards life cycle cost optimisation and *building lifecycle performance* over short-term gain. Firms such as Mapei point to recovery driven by energy-efficient buildings and *low embodied carbon materials*, reinforcing the value of *eco-design for buildings* and *sustainable material specification* guided by *environmental product declarations (EPDs)*. These principles strengthen the circular economy ethos and advance *carbon footprint reduction* across every project stage, from design to *end-of-life reuse in construction*.

Africa’s emerging solar market signals global diversification of *green construction*, with the continent expected to become a testbed for *low carbon building* strategies suited to extreme climates. The transition invites adoption of *circular construction strategies*, *renewable building materials*, and *sustainable urban development* underpinned by *life cycle thinking in construction*.

The alignment of policy reform, financial investment, and technical capability confirms that *sustainable design* has become core to delivering *carbon neutral construction* and reducing the *carbon footprint of construction* worldwide. The era of incremental action is ending—the new metric of success is measurable whole life carbon performance and resilient, *green building materials* innovation delivering true *sustainability* in the built environment.

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