Upworthy’s book GOOD PEOPLE is coming this year — pre-order now!

Shop
 Explore 

images

Science

Fact: NASA takes the best before-and-after photos. Here are 10 of them.

Our world is changing every day.

via NASA

Setiment in Louisiana

NASA satellites continually monitor the Earth, snapping photos and sending information to researchers on the ground.

Most of the time, things seem to be more or less the same as they were the day before, but the Earth is actually constantly changing. Sometimes it changes through discrete events, like landslides and floods. Other times, long-term trends, such as climate change, slowly reshape the land in ways that are difficult to see.

By zooming way out, we can get a new perspective of the events that have changed the Earth. These 10 before-and-after photos show the disasters, trends, and changes that have affected our planet, as seen from space.

1. In May 2016, NASA's satellites picked up the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.

Before:

Satellite image from before the wildfire.

All images from NASA.

After:

Satellite image after the devastating fire.

All images from NASA.

In May 2016, a wildfire broke out near Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. It destroyed more than 2,400 homes and businesses and burned through roughly 1,500,000 acres of land before it was under control. (Some of the pictures use false-color imaging to distinguish between land types, by the way).

2. The satellites also captured how landscapes eventually recover from fires, like in Yellowstone.

Before:

Satellite image after fire in Yellowstone.

All images from NASA.

After:

plains, recovery, satellite images, California, state parks

Nature returns to normal with time.

All images from NASA.

In 1988, wildfires burned through over a third of Yellowstone National Park. 28 years later, images show that much of the forest and plains have returned.

3. They saw drought shrink Utah's Great Salt Lake over the last 30 years ...

Before:

Image of the Utah’s Great Salt Lake before the drought.

All images from NASA.

After:

climate change, water supplies, Great Salt Lake

Water supplies have shrunk with a possible link to climate change.

All images from NASA.

Persistent drought has shrunk water supplies throughout much of the West. Scientists now think this may be linked to climate change.

4. And they showed the Mississippi pouring over its banks in March 2016.

Before:

Mississippi Delta, floods, displacement,

Satellite image of the Mississippi Delta and river.

All images from NASA.

After:

record-breaking rain, precipitation, river banks

Rivers overflow their banks with spring run offs.

All images from NASA.

Record-breaking rain inundated much of the Mississippi Delta in the spring of 2016, causing the mighty river to spill over its banks.

5. In West Virginia, surface mining reshaped mountaintops.

Before:

mountains, surface mining, land damage, capitalism

West Virginia before surface mining.

All images from NASA.

After:

West Virginia after surfacing mining for coal.

All images from NASA.

Mountaintop mining is often used to search for coal and can have lasting effects on the land.

6. In Washington state, the Oso mudslide changed the Earth back in 2014.

Before:

Mudslides can create significant change to an environment.

All images from NASA.

After:

landslide, environmental catastrophe, deaths, NASA

A landslide reshapes a community and kills 43 people in Washington state.

All images from NASA.

43 people were killed in the March 2014 landslide in western Washington.

7. In Louisiana, sediment carried by water created new land.

Before:

Water carries sediment which changes the topography.

All images from NASA.

After:

Sediment can create new land.

All images from NASA.

Rivers and streams often carry sediment with them. As they slow down and reach the coast, that sediment falls out of the water. Over time, this can create new land, as you can see above.

8. The images show Hurricane Isaac touching down in Louisiana.

Before:

hurricanes, state of emergency, Hurricane Isaac

Satellite image before the hurricane.

All images from NASA.

After:

Louisiana, devastation, gulf coast, flooding

Image of the flooding of Louisiana after the hurricane.

All images from NASA.

Hurricane Isaac hit the gulf coast in August 2012. 41 people lost their lives and more than $2 billion worth of damage occurred. Above you can see the flooding that still lingered afterward.

9. And warming temperatures shrink Alaska's Columbia Glacier.

Before:

Alaska’s Columbia Glacier as seen from satellite.

All images from NASA.

After:

Columbia Glacier, climate crisis, climate change

Warmer global temperatures have shrunk many glaciers.

All images from NASA.

Over the last 28 years, warmer global temperatures have shrunk many glaciers, including Alaska's Columbia Glacier. From above, the shrinkage is crystal clear.

10. Meanwhile, our cities grew and expanded, like this image of San Antonio, Texas, shows.

Before:

Texas, expansion, San Antonio, population

The growing community of San Antonio, Texas.

All images from NASA.

After:

Alamo, Spurs basketball, environmental impact

The city has started to take up more space than the natural environment.

All images from NASA.

San Antonio — home of the Alamo and the Spurs basketball team — had a population of just over 1 million people in 1991. Today, it's added another 400,000 people.

The above images are only a small set of the many pictures NASA released. Globally, there were a ton of other interesting sites, like entire lakes turning red in Iran, new islands being formed by ocean volcanoes, and dams flooding rainforests in Brazil.

The world — and our country — is constantly changing, and we play a part in that.

Sometimes nature changes us, such as people having to respond to floodwaters, but we also know humans affect the Earth as well. And while it's true that the Earth has gone through natural cycles, we know it's now happening faster than ever before.

As the Earth will continue to change, it's important to remain aware of how we affect the Earth — and how the Earth affects us.

This article originally appeared on 01.23.17

From Your Site Articles

science

Her striking photos of her father capture the struggles and rewards of being a caregiver.

True

In late 2007, Safi Alia Shabaik noticed something strange about her father.

“He didn’t have the expressions he used to have,” Safi says. “His face wasn’t as reactive.”

Safi’s father was an immigrant from Egypt, and over the years, he’d carved out a successful life in America. Working as a professor of mechanical engineering, he was able to be a provider.

“He's been so generous with his family,” Safi says.

Safi and her father. Photo by Safi Alia Shabaik©, used with permission.

More than just a hard worker, though, Safi’s father was vibrant and funny. He often made Safi laugh.

But at some point, he started to change. Safi’s mom noticed this dampening in his personality. She worried that her husband, then 71, had suffered a stroke. They convinced him to see a doctor, and after undergoing a series of tests in early 2009, he received the news: He had Parkinson’s disease.

For several years, the symptoms were manageable. His limbs may have been stiff, his emotions flat, but he was still more or less himself. But then two years ago, things quickly got worse.

Soon it became clear:Safi would have to serve as her father’s caregiver.

The role of parent and child had flipped, and now, Safi had to bathe and feed her father and calm him in moments of delirium.

The experience has taken its toll. “It’s difficult to see the person you knew your whole life change and become somebody you don’t know because of a disease,” she says. “It’s emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausting.”

As she’s taken on a caregiving role, Safi has learned something important — in order to be a good caregiver, you need to take care of yourself too.

But it can be intimidating to know where to start. Here are five lessons she’s taken away from the caregiving process:

1. Caregivers must — absolutely must — take breaks.

Being a caregiver can be exhausting on every level. And as research shows, when we’re tired and stressed, we often make bad decisions.

“The reality of caregiving is so heavy; you have to take time for yourself or you’ll implode,” Safi says.

Photos by Safi Alia Shabaik©.

By taking breaks, caregivers can increase their resilience and patience, important traits when caring for another person. Sometimes the breaks can involve small tasks, like getting a haircut or running to the grocery store.

“Just being out of the house in a room with hustling and bustling people, a vision of life, becomes a luxurious reprieve from a dark state of mind,” Safi says.

A short vacation can also be huge. Longer breaks allow caregivers to return to their loved ones feeling refreshed and ready once again to help.

2. Bridge the divide with an aging parent using something that you — or both of you — love.

Safi is a professional photographer and has a talent for capturing the hidden, unadorned moments in American cities. “Photography,” she says, “is my window into understanding things.”

She began photographing her father partly for the same reason: to understand what the disease was doing to him and how it was affecting their relationship.

Her art, then, helped her to connect with her father in one of the most difficult moments of her life. It was an important step in taking care of herself.

Photo by Safi Alia Shabaik©.

By documenting this moment of profound change, she’s also come to reckon with some of the larger questions in life.

“I’ve come to a lot of realizations, not only about my relationship with my father,” she says, “but also about my relationship to the world — what I want for myself and what to me is a good quality of life.”

3. Remember that the disease and the person are not the same thing.

Caregivers can find themselves frustrated with the person they're caring for. That’s especially true if they're suffering from cognitive decline that often accompanies conditions like dementia. To avoid personal meltdowns, Safi found that an attitude adjustment helps.

“The things happening in front of you are not that person,” she says. “It’s the disease causing those things.”

It’s also important to remember a basic fact: We’re all human, and it’s not only OK but normal to feel frustrated in these kinds of situations.

This acknowledgment can help caregivers gain a sense of peace, which is a helpful state of mind while caring for an aging and temperamental parent.

4. Don’t forget to exercise. Seriously.

Exercise can seem like a special privilege, something to be done in one’s spare time — but spare time may be fleeting for caregivers

Exercise, however, can make a huge difference and is worth setting aside time for. Studies show that physical activity can reduce stress and depression. It can increase one’s energy levels and improve sleep.

All that is huge for caregivers. Caregiving requires a tremendous amount of focus, energy, and positive-mindedness. So while exercise might seem like a privilege, caregivers should consider it an investment in their care.

That’s been true for Safi. She finds time for different forms of exercise, like going to the gym and taking short morning walks.

5. And, most importantly, remember that you’re not alone.

Caregiving can be an isolating experience with so many hours spent at a parent’s bedside. But caregivers are not alone. When Safi talked with her friends, she quickly realized that many were going through similar experiences and had parents suffering from conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

“There is this new bond bringing us together,” she says.

And, in fact, Safi was able to reconnect with old friendswho are also serving as caregivers— old friends she loves but hadn’t talked to for a long time. Sharing their stories, she learned, was profoundly healing.

“The best remedy is to share information and learn from each other,” she says.

Photo by Safi Alia Shabaik©.

Caregiving can be exhausting, but by taking all these steps, Safi has come away with a new understanding of her father, of herself, and of the vision she has for her life.

And she’s seen just how resilient all of us can be.

“When you’re thrown into a situation where you have to be the strong one, you take the role,” she says. “When everything is crumbling around you, somebody has to be strong.”

Andrew H. Walker has photographed a lot of celebrities in his life. But at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, he decided to try something ... different.

"[Actors] have, not only this personal inside voice, but they have a public persona that they put out there, and they also have their private self," said Walker, a staff photographer at Shutterstock, in an interview with Mashable. "There's this whole other layer of themselves as people. I found that really, really intriguing."

Walker placed a piece of tape on a table and told an impressive list of "A-list" celebrities to pose on either side of it as their "public" and their "private" selves. The only rule was that they couldn't cross the tape line, so he could composite the photos later. As for which side of the tape they "performed" their "selves" on? That was entirely up to them.

Celebrities can be (understandably) protective of their image. But Walker was surprised to find that 51 A-listers were willing and eager to go along with his plan.

The 15 photos that follow are just a few of the highlights that show a surprising difference between their public and private personas — although which one is which, we can't say for certain.

1. Sigourney Weaver was literally born into the entertainment industry.

But just because she's good at being in front of the camera, doesn't mean that's where she always wants to be.

[rebelmouse-image 19519426 dam="1" original_size="750x536" caption="All photos by Andrew H. Walker/ShutterStock. Used with permission." expand=1]All photos by Andrew H. Walker/ShutterStock. Used with permission.

2. Then there's John Legend, who's clearly worked hard to write and produce so many signature grooves.

Legend's somber expression is a powerful reminder that funky rhythms aren't all fun and games when you're cooped up in the studio for days on end.

3. As for Jeffrey Tambor — well, he's got a bit of a Clark Kent vibe goin' on.

I'm not sure which one is the public and which one is the private face. Because other than the glasses, there's not that much of a difference. Which might also be the point.

4. Parker Posey is in a similar, albeit quirkier, boat.

Which one is the real Parker Posey?! I can't tell because they're both just so eccentrically cool, and so ... her.

5. Meanwhile, Oscar Isaac needs a coffee.

He's a busy guy, and those 14-hour days on set can sure get exhausting.

6. Sometimes Lupita Nyong'o is beaming. Other times, she's just stunned.

Her brilliant smile certainly has a way of lighting up the red carpet. At the same time, I can totally understand if her expression on the right is how she feels inside during those events.

7. Perhaps Amy Adams isn't always the stunning debutante.

Or maybe she's really happier than her dramatic roles let on? Sometimes the spotlight's appeal starts to fade when you're right at the center of it.

8. Even silver fox Richard Gere shies away from the attention he receives.

(But like, c'mon, he's still having fun with this either way.)

9. Sandra Oh seems like she's either distracted or totally overwhelmed.

If you've ever been thrust in front of countless lights and cameras, you know that both emotions are a valid response. Or maybe her expression on the right is the way she looks in those awkward moments when she gets stopped on the street?

10. And there's Rami Malek, who ... is as wide-eyed and aloof as I'd expect.

No wonder he's so good on "Mr. Robot." Unless ... maybe one of his personas in this picture actually is the real Mr. Robot? Plot twist! Hey, where's Christian Slater?

11. As for Jane Lynch, she's always a bit wacky and performative.

Frankly I'd expect nothing less of her.

12. Whether he's upright or relaxing, Chadwick Boseman can't seem to shake that natural steely gaze.

He has the shy, stoic look of a performer with the proper introspection to transform into someone else entirely whenever he's on-camera. No wonder he's so good!

13. Is Felicity Jones that much more chipper than the roles she plays?

Or is she actually more reserved than she appears while smiling on-screen — like she's done ever since she was just 12 years old? Your guess is as good as mine.

14. Even Mahershala Ali has two sides of himself to show the world.

Here's another star who looks like he revels in performing himself, in whatever way that he is today. One thing's for sure: He's a lot less intimidating here than he was in "Luke Cage."

15. And last, but certainly not least, there's Anne Hathaway.

Hathaway has had to deal with all the ups and downs of being both beloved and reviled by the general public, which is perhaps why her two different personas here show such a wide range of expression — and all the struggles that come along with being a person.

Walker's work here is an eye-opening look at the many faces that people put on.

We all have different ways of presenting ourselves in different situations — to our jobs, to our friends, to our families, and to ourselves. We even act differently when we're in front of a camera, perhaps especially when we're trying to show off who we think we really are.

It only makes sense that these celebrities would be the same way since they're people too. But the question still remains: Which one shows their "true" self?

Maybe there's not just one right answer to that. Maybe we're all multifaceted, with our own unique collection of personas, just like these celebrities. And maybe that's totally OK. Because maybe that's what makes us human.

From Your Site Articles

Missing camera found after 13 years with pictures intact - Upworthy ›

Hey, you know what's awesome?

Cute animals. People doing nice things for each other. Scientific breakthroughs. And hilarious nonsense that has no real value except to make us laugh.

We need stories like these, now more than ever.

So without further ado, here are 13 pretty great things that will totally brighten your day.

1. The announcement that New York City will start honoring their students' chosen pronouns.

Birth certificates will no longer be the be-all and end-all in the Big Apple.

— (@)

2. This video of Bill Nye putting a hurtin' on Tucker Carlson during a "debate" over climate change.

It's incredibly entertaining to watch two opponents spar over an issue when one doesn't realize he's completely overmatched.

TL;DR: Climate change is real, y'all.

3. This person who turned every character in a video game into Bob Ross.

GIF via UpIsNotJump/Imgur.

Excellent use of coding skills, if you ask me.

4. The U-Haul franchises in the Midwest that are coming together to help tornado victims.

Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images.

Earlier this week, tornadoes caused massive damage throughout Arkansas, Iowa, and other nearby areas. Now a handful of U-Haul companies in the region are offering affected families free storage for what's left of their belongings while they try to piece their lives back together.

5. This "Viking funeral" for a pair of goldfish in Scotland.

Image via Papdale Primary/Facebook.

Goldfish may be tiny, but the love these elementary school kids had for their pets was anything but. The Viking-inspired send-off was glorious and heartwarming.

6. This person's new ... pet — whatever it may be.

Whatever it is, it's actually pretty cute.

Image via guacamoles/Imgur.

7. This high school cross-country team that takes cooped-up shelter dogs running with them.

This morning me and the St. Joseph High School Cross Country Team conducted our workout at the County Animal Shelter in Santa Maria. With the help of Stacy Silva we successfully completed the first ever team Dog Run! Each team member was assigned a dog and we went out for a couple miles around the shelter. I am not sure who was more excited and having the most fun...the dogs or the kids. Either way, it was a great time and I am sure we will do it again sometime soon. Thanks Stacy Silva and Geoff Clinton
Posted by Luis Escobar on Thursday, August 4, 2016

Stacy Silva, the volunteer coordinator for the Santa Barbara County Animal Shelter, just so happens to be married to Luis Escobar, the cross-country coach at the local high school, which is how she came up with the idea.

"I am not sure who was more excited and having the most fun ... the dogs or the kids," Escobar wrote on Facebook.

8. These rescued pigs who are overjoyed be outside.

GIF via Redditmayormaynothavebettercontent/Imgur.

9. These soccer players who are using their jerseys to inspire young girls.

Instead of their names, the Sweden women's team's jerseys will say things like, "Believe in your damn self," and "I'm not bossy, I'm the boss."

— (@)

They hope to inspire young women with the messages.

10. This super clever ping-pong shot.

Image via MooseOnTheLoose/Imgur.

11. These people who found their missing cat after three long years.

The cat was found only five miles from the family's home in Scotland. Now if only it could tell us what it was doing all that time and if it knows where the Loch Ness monster is.

12. These shoes that will order a pizza to your exact location with the push of a button.

They're not actually available to the public yet, but we can dream.

Photo by Pizza Hut.

Practical and stylish!

13. And this Texas sportscaster's incredible, impassioned speech in support of the transgender boy who recently won a girls' wrestling championship.

"He’s a child, simply looking for his place in the world and a chance to compete in the world," said Dale Hansen.

"I don't understand his world...but I do understand he is a part of mine."HANSEN UNPLUGGED: https://on.wfaa.com/2lODg8p
Posted by WFAA-TV on Monday, February 27, 2017

Good news is all around us. You might have to look a little harder for it these days, but I promise you, it's worth it!

From Your Site Articles

9 haunting photos of nature reclaiming forgotten structures.

Photographer Rebecca Skinner has made a career by going places most people have forgotten.

She says she grew up on a farm and was always fascinated with inspecting the old cars her dad left sitting out in the yard or creeping around the old falling down barn.

As she got older, she ventured farther and farther into the unknown. She learned to work a camera, and she'd take it with her as she explored old factories, burned buildings, shut-down schools. Pretty much anywhere she knew she'd be alone.

"It's quiet. There's no people around," she says. "It's totally a different world, really, when you go into some of these places."

Some of Skinner's favorite moments are when she finds little bits of nature slowly overcoming these forgotten man-made structures.

A flower pushing through a crack in some stone. A tree in the middle of a closed-up factory.

"It's kind of sad," she says. "Some of these places are so beautiful and to see them getting taken over and falling apart is sad."

But maybe it's a sort of new life for many of these places, destined to be demolished or slowly decay. Instead, they find a new purpose and become beautiful again, though in a different way.

Here are some of Skinner's all-time favorite shots.

1. Small trees reach for sunlight inside an old school.

All photos by Rebecca Skinner, used with permission.

2. Water pools and overcomes the inside of this factory.

3. This truck loses what looks to have been a very long battle with some thick brush.

4. An overturned vehicle shelters a small tree.

5. Plant life bursts from the seams of an old carseat back.

6. Small ferns push through a pile of broken china.

7. Moss creeps its way slowly across this abandoned room.

8. Vines sprout through a broken factory window.

9. A chair sits, soon to be swallowed up by new life.

Skinner says the first time she ever photographed an abandoned house, a man with a shotgun showed up out of nowhere, asking what she was doing there.

(He was nice once she explained why she was there.)

Another time, while exploring an old river mill, she nearly stepped through a hole in the floor that would have dunked her into the river below.

Needless to say, it's dangerous work. But Skinner thinks it's important to photograph these places, these moments, before they're gone for good.

"These places are going so quickly," she says. "Every time I see some place I want to photograph, it might be gone the next time."

If her photos prove anything, it's that the world will always keep spinning and that the resiliency of Mother Nature is absolutely beautiful to behold.

If you forgot that birds can fly and it's awesome, these photos will remind you.

"It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Oh, wait. It actually is a bird!"

All photos by Xavi Bou, used with permission

Photographer Xavi Bou snapped his first photo about 15 years ago. He kicked his career off in the fashion and advertising industries, but before long, his animal-loving roots took over. He itched to turn his lens toward the natural world.

"Like an amateur naturalist, I can recognize the tracks of many animals," Bou said in an email. "One day I asked myself, 'What track would be left by birds in flight?'

With that question, a new project was born — one he calls "Ornitographies."

Bou takes dozens of photos per second of birds in flight, often more than 1,000 in one sitting. Then he digitally stitches them together into a single image.

The results reveal complex, chaotic, and strangely beautiful patterns.

"I'm amazed by how gorgeous even their flight is, the trace or the draw that they make while flying," Bou said.

His work captures nature's hidden beauty, which is anything but random.

Different kinds of birds have unique and distinct ways of navigating the sky. Remarkably, Bou reveals those patterns with his photos.

Some birds shoot up and down, like a roller coaster. Some fly straight. Some flap frantically. Some glide with little effort.

Bou's photos have earned praise from publications and fellow photographers all over the world.

As for why people like his work so much, Bou said, "When you read about it and realize what is in the picture, it's quite surprising."

And he's right: Most of us can peer out the window and spot a robin or a blue jay on occasion. We might even catch a pigeon stealing some crumbs off the sidewalk.

Yet Bou's photos show many of these same birds doing things we've never seen before. His photos force us to look at the natural world around us in a new and profound way.

That's pretty incredible.

From Your Site Articles

Incredible up-close bird photos - Upworthy ›

Carlotta Cardana and Danielle SeeWalker first met in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1998.

At the time, they were both new students at the local high school: Cardana was an exchange student from Italy, and SeeWalker, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, had just moved to the town with her family.

Since then, they've remained friends despite living on different continents.

For many years, Cardana and SeeWalker talked about working on a creative project together.

Carlotta Cardana and Danielle SeeWalker in the winter of 2015 during an exhibit of The Red Road Project in Verona, Italy. Photo by Francesco Biasi.

But it wasn't until a random night in 2013 that they finally decided to commit.

Both women have journeyed to understand each other, and then to understand SeeWalker's Native American heritage together, over the past 20 years. But with this new project, they wanted to take that journey one step further: to the heart of America’s past, present, and future.

They decided to call their project the Red Road Project, a collection of stories that explore the relationship between Native American people and their identity in modern society.

SeeWalker, a writer, and Cardana, a photographer, made plans to travel to different communities all over America and record these amazing stories using images and words.

Dancers take a break in between songs at United Tribes Powwow in Bismarck, North Dakota. Photo by Carlotta Cardana/The Red Road Project.

They were both fascinated with Native American culture and history, so the project was a natural next step. “Danielle had always told me stories about her family and Native American culture in general, and I found that her stories were completely different from what I’d usually see in the media, which tends to focus on the negative issues,” Cardana said in an email.

First, they talked with SeeWalker's family and met others at community meetings. Then their project blossomed.

“From there, it was an organic growth through word of mouth. One person we spoke with would refer one, two or a handful of people and it grew from there,” SeeWalker said. And they have found this to be the most effective way of growing their project.

But they soon realized that their journey couldn’t just be an inward look at themselves; it was also an opportunity to inspire and educate the world with these positive stories. “I think during our second trip (summer 2014) it became clear that we weren’t doing this project just for the two of us, but that all the people we met had put their trust into us to get their story out there,” Cardana said.