Google Earth’s new Timelapse feature, released on Thursday, offers a bird’s eye view of nearly four decades of environmental transformation, allowing viewers to see how the climate emergency has unfolded, a planetary crisis driven by fossil fuel-fueled capitalism , since 1984.
The new tool “was inspired by the desire to show us exactly what climate change is like,” he said Vogue.
Rebecca Moore, director of Google Earth, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that “visual evidence can reduce the core of the debate so that words can’t communicate complex issues to everyone.”
How Vogue reported:
Using 24 million satellite images representing quadrillions of pixels collected over 37 years (largely thanks to NASA), TimeLapse is an interactive 4D experience that illustrates how certain areas of the planet have changed incredibly. quickly. See how sea ice has melted in Greenland as the planet warms, contributing to rising sea levels; 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 they have affected decades of bushfires in Yellabinna, Australia. You can see cell lines appearing overnight in Naypyitaw, Myanmar and Dubai, UAE, alluding to the environmental costs of rapid urbanization.
According to Kate Brandt, head of sustainability at Google, “these kind of poignant visuals play a really important role in the environmental movement.”
“I think a lot about the ‘Earthrise’ image made by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968, with the Earth rising above the lunar horizon; people often see it as a catalyst for the modern environmental movement, because suddenly [grasped] the fragility and preciousness of the planet, ”Brandt said Vogue.
“Photos of the Cuyahoga River burning in 1969 because it was also contaminated with captured people,” he added. “It led to water regulation and ultimately to the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency. We think Timelapse has a similar power to educate, inspire and visually show people what’s going on. on our planet “.
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To see “what’s going on” on our fragile, precious planet, explore Google Earth’s Timelapse feature, a powerful new tool shown in this video:
“There is a place in our universe. The way we decide to deal with it today will determine our future,” the narrator says. “What will you think, what will you do when you see our world change before your own eyes?”
Google also created videos that focus on the specific consequences associated with ocean and forest degradation, as well as the rapid expansion of cities.
See how the oceans have changed:
See how the forests have changed:
See how cities have changed:
How Vogue “Brandt is quick to point out that Timelapse is not just bad news. In Rondonia, Brazil, we can see how the Surui have protected their homes from deforestation or how China has installed hundreds of solar farms along of its landscape. “
“We’ve impacted so much on the planet in just 37 years, but that also points to ways to make a positive impact,” Brandt told the magazine. “Science tells us we’re going to have to do it in the next decade. We want this to be very visceral and real for people, and a ray of hope that there’s actually a lot we can do.”