Forty years later, that Earth has changed. Twice as many people live on its surface. The pictures from space show more gray and brown in the white clouds—evidence of more widespread pollution. “The brilliant, clear photos were the Gemini photos of the mid-60s,” Richard Underwood observed. “The air pollution was a lot less then, and it shows.”

Some of the evidence of global heating is also obvious from space. Noting that the later and at least equally famous full-face “Blue Marble” photo taken from the Moon’s surface in December 1972 during the last Apollo mission showed the “relatively undeveloped southern hemisphere,” Poole points out that its view of the Antarctic in winter already looks different.

“Humankind now appears to be both the product and the custodian of the only island of intelligent life in the knowable universe,” Poole writes. “Whether that vision has been timely enough, and powerful enough, for homo sapiens, the most successful of all invasive species, to reverse its own devouring impact on the Earth, will probably become apparent before too long.”