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Google Earth Compiles Satellite Images To Show What A Sad Difference People Have Made To The World (16 Pics)
Change is a natural part of life. However, what kind of change we want to see in our lives and to leave for our children and grandchildren—good or bad—is still a question that we need to answer. And if we look at what Google Earth is telling us, we have a long way to go to properly make up for what we’ve been doing to our pale blue dot, our home, Planet Earth.
Google Earth posted a series of videos over on YouTube showing how much our world’s oceans, forests, glaciers, beaches, and cities have changed from 1984 to 2020, as a way to promote climate awareness through its new timelapse feature.
Have a look below at how human activity and natural forces have changed the Earth, dear Pandas. You'll find the links to the original videos underneath each photo in this list. And remember, stopping climate change is up to us. Even if things seem grim from the four decades’ worth of video imagery we’ve seen, there’s always hope.
Natalie M. Mahowald, an American Earth scientist who is the Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, told Bored Panda that a lot of the impact that climate and environmental change have happens so slowly, it's hard for us to see.
"Revisiting different locations and seeing the change from either land use conversion or from climate change in one 30 second film, can really help humans understand the huge spatial scale of all the changes that are occurring," Professor Mahowald said about Google Earth's new timelapse feature.
Image credits: Google Earth
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Mato Grosso, Brazil
Columbia Glacier, Alaska, USA
It's about time we realize we are not killing the planet - we are killing ourselves, the planet would do just fine without us.
Aral Sea, Kazakhstan
Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence showing that climate change is very real, there are plenty of skeptics. Mahowald said that it's come to the point that the facts don't matter anymore. "Unfortunately, climate change has gotten politicized, so that science doesn’t matter," she told Bored Panda.
There have been some positive advances in the fight against climate change, however. "The revolution in renewable solutions like wind and solar have made it possible to convert our energy systems to much less carbon-intensive solutions," Mahowald pointed out that renewable energy tech is progressing in a very positive way. "This makes it likely that we will keep temperatures below 3C, which is much better than I would have said 5 years ago. Hopefully, another few revolutions like that and we can keep temperatures even lower!"
Nuflo De Chavez, Bolivia
Shanghai, China
Newfoundland And Labrador, Canada
It’s not all doom and gloom in other frots, either. Even though Google points out that nearly half of the world's forests have already been cleared or degraded for human use, the rate of deforestation has dropped.
Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was around 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. This doesn’t change the fact that trees are being cut down at an alarming rate, however, the rate has dropped significantly. Whether that trend continues depends on us.
The message that Google’s sending to everyone is pretty clear: human beings are having a huge impact on the climate (and the best way to see the evidence for yourself is with its new timelapse tool).
Atsimo-Andrefana, Madagascar
Dubai, Uae
Mylius-Erichsen Land, Greenland
For the timelapse project, Google partnered up with lots of government agencies including NASA, the US Geological Survey, and the European Space Agency (as well as the European Union itself!). According to Forbes, the timelapse feature uses around 24 million satellite photos gathered by Google Earth from these agencies to show how nature has changed over time.
Meanwhile, the timelapse tech was created with the help of Carnegie Mellon University. Over 2 million processing hours were needed to process the 20 petabytes of imagery to create the 4.4 terapixel zoomable video mosaic of Planet Earth. Which is a fancy and technical way of saying that a huge amount of effort went into the project. Remember that as you’re using the tool.
Climate scientist Mahowald told The Associated Press that the timelapse project is “amazing” and will help people understand climate change and its effect on our environment in a more tangible way.
Las Vegas, USA
Sara, Bolivia
Enright, Oregon, USA
You are looking at clearcut. Nasty and profitable practice. Timber: not sustainable despite the adverts.
“Trying to get people to understand the scope of the climate change and the land use problem is so difficult because of the long time and spatial scales. I would not be surprised if this one bit of software changes many people’s minds about the scale of the impact of humans on the environment,” Mahowald from Cornell Uni said.
This isn’t the end to Google’s ambitions, however. The company has promised that we’ll all able to see timelapse presentations of pretty much any place that we want.
Pearl River Delta, China
Mamore River, Bolivia
Singapore
Have a look at the tool and the videos, explore things a bit, and report back with your thoughts, dear Readers. Do you think it’ll help raise awareness about climate change? Let us know in the comment section.
Chatham, Massachusetts
In comes the sea. This emergency is happening so slowly that humans basically ignore it. We can’t seem to comprehend the time scale.
Depressing....no water, no trees, accelerating at an awesome rate....
I'm curious if these were taken in the same date, or in the same month, in the two years. I absolutely believe we're killing the earth. But SOME of this looked like seasonal differences.
Well of course it's less green - humans are a plague. We don't deserve this planet.
But remember folks, you're the criminal because you're not recycling enough.
Honestly, it probably isn’t going to get worse for longer, because if there are no more places to deforest we’ll have to stop. Then we can take a step back and see what we created....
I think putting pictures of China's city growth next to other environmental disasters is unfair. We as a species need to make sacrifices to save us all but we've proven we are incapable of controlling our growth. Even under their 1 child policy where both the state (food quotas/fines causing starvation for too many kids) and the individual citizens (female infanticide) were willing to kill but the country still grew more than the entire population of the US. More people means you have to build more houses. Historically we build those around rivers because water is important. The pictures of Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas show pure hubris. Lets move more people to places that lack that water as tourist attractions so gold courses can get water instead of farms and people.
EVERYONE needs to make responsible choices and use less of everything... The first step is to become conscious of the damage we are collectively doing. Apparently most human beings are not even aware of their impact on the natural world (some choose to be ignorant as long as they get what they want/need). I have made some small changes along the way the past twenty years and will continue to do so... Only when the majority of the world population works together will we see significant change.
There was NO GOOGLE EARTH in 1984!!! What the HAIL is this? This is fake!
Google Earth didn't become a thing until 2001. What the HAIL is this comparison about if there was no Google Earth in 1984.. This is a fake Photo article.
To not even mention the chemicals being sprayed on all of us nearly daily, is a sin! That's the most dangerous thing happening to us and nobody cares
It's horrid how much we humans have polluted our precious home planet.
Ah, yes. Another multi-billion dollar company spending time and money, to make us average/poor people feel terrible about something that we don't have near as much power to change as they do. Google could do so much more than just trying to "raise awareness", ie, make the rest of us feel guilty. Global warming is mostly the fault of the rich corporations. Let them put their money where their mouths are and fix it themselves.
This is what happens when you keep living longer and higher populations! I mean COVID was probably natures way of thinning out the crowd but instead you all live and pollute the world with even more plastics. Might not choke today but will tomorrow.
All these arm chair environmentalists, condemning other countries, whilst at the same time popping out more children and consuming more and more goods.... This is not 'other' countries destroying the planet this is you every time you eat a fruit that's been shipped across the world, every time you grind your Bolivian coffee beans, every time you buy another white good for the kitchen. Write a comment, isn't it awful all that ice melting, someone should do something, and then get in your big car and drive for that absolutely essential trip to get a new phone. I don't lie to myself, I am the bloody problem and I'm too lazy and I don't care enough to change my life.
I've read a "Dune" lately, and it looks like our goal - to live on a desert, where every drop of water is priceless.
Not to get into a climate change debate here .. it's obv a thing to some degree or another .. but y'all have to notice that the majority of the pics are taken from a different angle and zoomed in right?
Wondering why both photos are marked as Google Earth...??? Google was not launched until 1998....
And yet people insist on making more people. How can you, with a clear conscience, put another living being on this planet? I mean, you a) make it worse for the planet (another human = more pollution) and b) doom that person to a horrible future (we're definitely not going to stop climate change, and then there's pollution, capitalism, deadly viruses, war, poverty, famine, etc). *shakes head in disbelief*
You know how people get when questions are posed, so I urge you to take a deep breath. I'm not your enemy. If you find answers, all of us will be better for it. Are the images meant to show melting taken at the same time of year? Why are the irreligious leading the way on taking care of creation? Why are believers in a divine creator not the ones advocating for the care of creation? That seems backwards... Coming from a believer in a divine creator. To what extent are humans actually responsible? %%% What is the ultimate fear of a changing climate? Whatever your first response is, think harder.
Depressing....no water, no trees, accelerating at an awesome rate....
I'm curious if these were taken in the same date, or in the same month, in the two years. I absolutely believe we're killing the earth. But SOME of this looked like seasonal differences.
Well of course it's less green - humans are a plague. We don't deserve this planet.
But remember folks, you're the criminal because you're not recycling enough.
Honestly, it probably isn’t going to get worse for longer, because if there are no more places to deforest we’ll have to stop. Then we can take a step back and see what we created....
I think putting pictures of China's city growth next to other environmental disasters is unfair. We as a species need to make sacrifices to save us all but we've proven we are incapable of controlling our growth. Even under their 1 child policy where both the state (food quotas/fines causing starvation for too many kids) and the individual citizens (female infanticide) were willing to kill but the country still grew more than the entire population of the US. More people means you have to build more houses. Historically we build those around rivers because water is important. The pictures of Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas show pure hubris. Lets move more people to places that lack that water as tourist attractions so gold courses can get water instead of farms and people.
EVERYONE needs to make responsible choices and use less of everything... The first step is to become conscious of the damage we are collectively doing. Apparently most human beings are not even aware of their impact on the natural world (some choose to be ignorant as long as they get what they want/need). I have made some small changes along the way the past twenty years and will continue to do so... Only when the majority of the world population works together will we see significant change.
There was NO GOOGLE EARTH in 1984!!! What the HAIL is this? This is fake!
Google Earth didn't become a thing until 2001. What the HAIL is this comparison about if there was no Google Earth in 1984.. This is a fake Photo article.
To not even mention the chemicals being sprayed on all of us nearly daily, is a sin! That's the most dangerous thing happening to us and nobody cares
It's horrid how much we humans have polluted our precious home planet.
Ah, yes. Another multi-billion dollar company spending time and money, to make us average/poor people feel terrible about something that we don't have near as much power to change as they do. Google could do so much more than just trying to "raise awareness", ie, make the rest of us feel guilty. Global warming is mostly the fault of the rich corporations. Let them put their money where their mouths are and fix it themselves.
This is what happens when you keep living longer and higher populations! I mean COVID was probably natures way of thinning out the crowd but instead you all live and pollute the world with even more plastics. Might not choke today but will tomorrow.
All these arm chair environmentalists, condemning other countries, whilst at the same time popping out more children and consuming more and more goods.... This is not 'other' countries destroying the planet this is you every time you eat a fruit that's been shipped across the world, every time you grind your Bolivian coffee beans, every time you buy another white good for the kitchen. Write a comment, isn't it awful all that ice melting, someone should do something, and then get in your big car and drive for that absolutely essential trip to get a new phone. I don't lie to myself, I am the bloody problem and I'm too lazy and I don't care enough to change my life.
I've read a "Dune" lately, and it looks like our goal - to live on a desert, where every drop of water is priceless.
Not to get into a climate change debate here .. it's obv a thing to some degree or another .. but y'all have to notice that the majority of the pics are taken from a different angle and zoomed in right?
Wondering why both photos are marked as Google Earth...??? Google was not launched until 1998....
And yet people insist on making more people. How can you, with a clear conscience, put another living being on this planet? I mean, you a) make it worse for the planet (another human = more pollution) and b) doom that person to a horrible future (we're definitely not going to stop climate change, and then there's pollution, capitalism, deadly viruses, war, poverty, famine, etc). *shakes head in disbelief*
You know how people get when questions are posed, so I urge you to take a deep breath. I'm not your enemy. If you find answers, all of us will be better for it. Are the images meant to show melting taken at the same time of year? Why are the irreligious leading the way on taking care of creation? Why are believers in a divine creator not the ones advocating for the care of creation? That seems backwards... Coming from a believer in a divine creator. To what extent are humans actually responsible? %%% What is the ultimate fear of a changing climate? Whatever your first response is, think harder.