Google Earth’s new Timelapse feature, released on Thursday, offers a panoramic view of nearly four decades of environmental transformation, allowing viewers to see how the climate emergency unfolded, a planetary crisis caused by fossil fuel capitalism since 1984.
The new tool “was inspired by the desire to show us exactly what climate change looks like,” he said Vogue.
Rebecca Moore, director of Google Earth, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that “visual evidence can cut to the core of the debate in a way that words can’t communicate complex issues to everyone.”
As Vogue reported:
Using 24 million satellite images representing quadrillions of pixels compiled over 37 years (largely thanks to NASA), TimeLapse is an interactive 4-D experience that illustrates how certain areas of the planet have changed incredibly. quick. Watch as the Greenland sea ice melts as the planet warms, helping to raise the global sea level; how deforestation in the Amazon has intensified over the past 20 years; how the Aral Sea has dried up to a fraction of its size since the early 2000s; how decades of fires have affected Yellabinna, Australia. You can watch scenic lines appearing overnight in Naypyitaw, Myanmar and Dubai, UAE, alluding to the environmental costs of rapid urbanization.
According to Kate Brandt, Google’s sustainability officer, “These types of visual images play a really important role in the environmental movement.”
“I think a lot about the image of the ‘East of the Earth’ that the Apollo 8 team made in 1968, with the Earth rising above the lunar horizon – people often think of this as a catalyst for the modern environmental movement, because suddenly [grasped] the fragility and preciousness of the planet, “Brandt said Vogue.
“Photographs of the Cuyahoga River burning in 1969 because they were so polluted also captured people,” she added. “It has led to water regulation and, ultimately, to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. We think of Timelapse as having a similar power to educate, inspire and visually show people what is happening on our planet.”
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To see “what’s going on” with our fragile and precious planet, explore the Google Earth Timelapse feature, a powerful new tool described in this video:
“There is a place in our universe. The way we decide to treat it today will determine our future,” says the narrator. “What will you believe, what will you do, when you see that our world is changing before your eyes?”
Google has also created videos that focus on the specific consequences of ocean and forest degradation, as well as the rapid expansion of cities.
Watch how the oceans have changed:
Watch how the forests have changed:
Watch how cities have changed:
As Vogue He remarked: “Brandt quickly mentions that Timelapse is not just a lot of bad news. In Rondonia, Brazil, we can see how the people of Surui have protected their homes from deforestation or how China has installed hundreds of solar farms in its landscape. . “
“We’ve had such a big impact on the planet in just 37 years, but that also indicates ways we can have a positive impact,” Brandt told the magazine. “Science tells us we need to do this in the next decade. We want this to be very visceral and real for people and a ray of hope that we can actually do a lot.”