Google Earth’s New Timelapse Feature Shows Effects Of Climate Change In 40 Years

• Launched this month, the Google Earth Timelapse feature allows users to see geographical changes in the planet from 1984 to 2020.
• The new feature uses millions of satellite images that demonstrates how climate change has affected the world over the years.
• Rebecca Moore of Google Earth Engine and Google Earth Outreach said she’s hoping the tech will help people realize “what’s actually happening on the planet and inspire action.”

We’ve always used Google Earth to take virtual trips across the world since it was first launched in 2011. Now they have launched an interesting new feature that allows users to see the changes in the planet for the past 40 years.

As anyone can imagine, this tool shows us how the world’s geography has been affected by climate change as time passes.

Google Earth’s Timelapse shows us millions of satellite images taken from 1984 to 2020.

Google Earth Outreach and Google Earth Engine director and founder Rebecca Moore said about the new feature:

“The time-lapse distills that enormous archive of satellite data into an easily understandable picture of our changing planet. It makes the abstract concrete, and we hope that this can ground everyone in an objective, common understanding of what’s actually happening on the planet and inspire action.”

Hopefully, the technology could reach those who do not believe in the effects of climate change.

As Yale Program on Climate Change Communication evnironmental science researcher Jennifer Marlon said:

“There are a substantial number of people who still believe that human activity cannot alter the planet as a whole.

“Those are probably not the people who are going to be surfing around Google Earth. But maybe one of their kids will encounter it in school and bring it home and say, ‘Hey, check this out.’”

Moore likewise pointed out that Google plans to add more images to Timelapse in the upcoming decades.

Watch this video to see how Google Earth Timelapse works: