Quick: what’s a vegetation index? 🌱
1. The number of vegetables you plan to eat on Thanksgiving
2. A measure of the health and vigor of plants and crops
Drop your guesses below!
This enhanced vegetation index was made with data from NASA’s Aqua satellite. NASA satellites have a unique view of our favorite fruits and veggies from space, and the data they collect help us understand how climate conditions impact crop health around the globe. We’re thankful for the harvests that bring food to our tables – and also for our Earth-observing satellites that help us monitor those crops from space! Happy #Thanksgiving 🛰
Video Description:
A time-lapse animation over the eastern United States, Central America, and northwestern South America from April through October 2023. The image shows shades of green and tan, with areas of green becoming darker and expanding southward as the growing season progresses. By mid-summer, most of the image is dark green. During the autumn months, northern parts of the U.S. shift from green to brown as leafy growth slows down.
Central America and South America remain green throughout the whole animation, due to their tropical climate. These colors are not what the eye would see, rather the darker green shades indicate a higher level of vegetation vigor and health. These images are a NASA satellite product called the “enhanced vegetation index.”
#Climate #NASA #Aqua #ClimateChange #Earth #vegetationindex #EarthScience #ClimateData #EarthData #crops
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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