Alizul: 8 EPIC VIDEOS OF OUR PLANET

Sunday, 22 April 2012

8 EPIC VIDEOS OF OUR PLANET

The Thin Blue Line: The setting sun highlights Earth's thin atmosphere, as seen from the International

Space Station in 2008.

Earth Day: 8 epic videos of our planet
By Russell McLendon, Mother Nature Network, 18 April 2012.

The Earth may be a pale blue dot in the cosmic sense, but it still seems pretty big to us. It's large enough that much of what happens here escapes our attention, leaving us to appreciate only a sliver of our planet - even on a holiday called Earth Day.

Earth Day was founded 42 years ago as a way to galvanize the environmental movement, which at the time was often fighting relatively local battles. But from international whaling to global warming, environmental issues have grown increasingly big-picture lately, befitting a holiday whose name was big-picture all along.

So in honour of Earth Day's all-inclusive nature, here's a video tribute to all seven continents - plus the oceans and atmosphere - that highlights some of the planet's less obvious wonders. Most of the footage presented here is in time-lapse, since Earth's majesty doesn't always manifest itself very quickly.

VIDEO 1: NORTH AMERICA
Arizona and Utah - United States