Google Earth now lets you see for yourself the worrying effects of climate change on the geography of planet Earth with a new 3D Timelapse feature launching today.
See Our Impact on the Earth in Google Earth
Google Earth's Rebecca Moore said on The Keyword that the new feature is about zooming out "to assess the health and well-being of our only home" rather than zooming in.
We invite anyone to take Timelapse into their own hands and share it with others---whether you’re marveling at changing coastlines, following the growth of megacities, or tracking deforestation. Timelapse in Google Earth is about zooming out to assess the health and well-being of our only home, and is a tool that can educate and inspire action.
The biggest update to the app since 2017, the new 3D Timelapse feature in Google Earth uses more than 24 million satellite images of our planet shot from 1984 to 2020. Google compiled 20 petabytes of satellite imagery to create one 4.4 terapixel video mosaic.
"We need to see how our only home is doing," she said.
How to Use Google Earth’s New Timelapse Feature
To find the new feature, open the Google Earth app on your Android or iOS device or visit the web app at earth.google.com, then hit the Voyager icon that resembles a ship wheel. This is where you'll find five new guided tours as three-dimensional Timelapses:
- Changing Forests
- Fragile Beauty
- Sources of Energy
- Urban Expansion
- Warming Planet
Alternatively, pick a point of interest by typing it into the search bar to see any relevant time-lapse videos available for that particular area.
To create these new Timelapse experiences in 3D, Google used data provided by the US Geological Survey, NASA, the European Commission, and the European Space Agency.
The company has promised to update the Google Earth service each year with new 3D Timelapse imagery throughout the next decade. "We hope that this perspective of the planet will ground debates, encourage discovery, and shift perspectives about some of our most pressing global issues," Moore said.
Download Google Earth TimeLapses for Free
Google has been adding two-dimensional Timelapses to the Earth app for years now, showing how planet Earth has changed from 1984 to 2012. And now, the company has made as many as 800 time-lapse videos, both 2D and 3D, available as free downloads in the MP4 video format.
Anyone can download these videos for free through the Google Earth Engine website.
Google is hoping that governments, researchers, publishers, educators, and advocates will use the new 3D Timelapse to "shine a light on the issues facing our planet."
These videos do a great job at visualizing how our actions have contributed to the Earth’s geological changes over the span of nearly 40 years. Now you know why Elon Musk is urging humans to become an interplanetary species---the effects of climate change on our planet are just devastating. No matter how you look at it, our kids will hate us for leaving the world a worse place than we found it unless we do something about it, fast.