The resources of „spaceship Earth“ ware becoming scarce. Industrial countries are living beyond their means. Earth observation documents the overuse of our home plante’s resources. Only from space can we see, for example through repeated images, how deforestation, fire and plantation areas are eating into the remaining „green lungs“. Earth observation offers opportunities to better protect our environmental resources and use them ore sustainably for example by making it possible to determine the value of forests as carbon dioxide equivalents.